Target Fixation

Anyone who has done a basic riding course, or raced, or flown as a pilot will tell you about "target fixation" - the natural risk we face of colliding with what we are focused on.

A major cause of accidents for beginners at cycling is that they focus on what they want to avoid, rather than where they want to go.

We more we look at the apex of an approaching corner, or a pot hole in the road, rather than beyond it to where we want to go, the more we increase our chances of hitting it.

It always seems strange to me then that in organisations, we spend our time looking at what we want to avoid. We spend a lot of time looking at problems and analysing risk, rather than looking at possibilities for growth, or impact, or opportunity. Even just a quick look back at the BREXIT campaign is instructive - by focusing on the downsides, it seems we are going to encounter them. I wonder what might have happened if we'd looked instead at where leaving, or staying, might have offered possibilities?

There…