The film “Blind Side” is based on the true story of Michael Oher, now with the Baltimore Ravens, who earlier in life befriended the mother of a school friend, played by the Academy Award-winning actress. Sandra Bullock. Another plays offensive tackle for his school team and does a truly impressive job protecting his quarterback’s blind side.

There is another type of blind side that deserves our attention: the “blind sides” that are responsible for the demise of leaders and their institutions, families and friends, communities and economies, such as the blind sides that contributed to the last recession, the worst in decades. It’s scary enough to hear people like Alan Greenspan, former and current secretaries of our treasury and heads of banks around the world, no doubt quite intelligent people in many ways, admit that they were blind to the forces at play that triggered the collapse. financial and real estate markets around the world and nearly wiped out our economy. There are other kinds of blind sides that get us into trouble as well: blindness to our own or our organization’s strengths or vulnerabilities, to the contributions or limitations of others, to the impact of our behavior or decisions on others, to “bad news,” or to our inability to hear it, and a myriad of other realities that impact our lives and organizations without any knowledge of them.

We’ve heard a lot about the merits of “real” leaders, organizations, experiences, and people. Authenticity means being real, and an important part of that is that leaders, organizations, experiences, and people really are what they claim or present themselves as being. Yet another important part of being real is the ability to face and articulate reality, something that is seemingly in short supply as CEOs, investment bankers, and government officials have overlooked or ignored warning signs of market collapse. leading up to 2008. The signs were surely there; Michael Lewis’ new book, The Big Short*, recounts the work of Michael Burry, an investor who read billboards correctly. Mr. Burry perused all the real estate investment descriptions laced with legal language and strange acronyms; He noted the increasing ease for homeowners to acquire credit and noted that in 2005 credit standards had bottomed out. Adding it all up, Burry bet that millions of dollars worth of securities would lose money if they were “sold short”; he made billions.

Why did Michael Burry pay attention to what was going on when so many others did not? He jokes about how it could be due to seeing things differently since losing an eye in childhood; whether true or not, certainly “seeing things differently” is a way of protecting our “blind side”. One way to do it on our own is to simply take a different perspective and see things from as many different angles as we can; Examples include “playing devil’s advocate,” waiting one day to see things in a different light, changing locations, or going on a retreat to gain perspective. An even better way is to seek and use the opinions of others, and the more and more different the perspectives, the better; here is a case where there really is strength in numbers.

The road to failure is paved with blind spots, including entire organizations and industries blind to the market or competitive dynamics. After dominating the auto market, Henry Ford lost significant market share to General Motors in the early 20th century because he was blind to changing consumer tastes; the demand for “basic transportation” gave way to a preference for different models with more features and more colors. The entire American auto industry was blindsided by encroachments by Japanese automakers, eventually losing almost half of its collective market share. IBM lost its footing in the 1970s and 1980s, blind to the possibility that small personal computers, and Apple in particular, would be worth a lot. Sometimes rapid growth, success, or size contribute to blind spots, as apparently happened with giant organizations in 2008 that were believed to be “too big to fail.” Richard Tedlow does an excellent job of documenting classic cases of denial, a close cousin of blindsides, in his new book Denial.*

One scary thing about blind sides is that whatever they are obscuring is still there, impacting our lives and organizations, whether we are aware of it or not; that’s why they are called “blind sides!” Unfortunately, sometimes we learn about blind sides when it’s too late: after a crisis, traumatic loss, or digging a hole that’s too big to escape. I know that at times I have been blind to the reality of what was happening or to my situation when a better understanding of what was blocking my view would have paid many dividends. Things that “just don’t go our way” over and over again or we find ourselves constantly falling into the same predicament are often signs of blind spots and our inability or unwillingness to face certain truths. These are moments in which we need to take time for serious reflection, look for comments that we really care about and open up or look for experiences that help us see things from a different perspective; Valid personality surveys, skill inventories, or “360° surveys for individuals,” especially when accompanied by coaching, can help here. Perhaps at times like these we need what Buddhists call the Kalyana mitra, or “noble friend,” who as John O’Donahue tells us in Anam Cara* “he will not accept pretenses but will gently and firmly confront you with your own blindness.” Skilled interpretation by a consultant can significantly reduce dangerous blind spots.

We all likely have personal, professional, organizational, and community challenges serious enough to solve without being hampered by blind spots.

  • Are there any indicators that blind spots may be affecting your life or work? how did you find out? What are some steps you could take to compensate for potential blind spots?
  • Could there be blind spots affecting other people around you, perhaps acquaintances, your organization, industry or community? How could you draw attention to them and reduce their impact?

“Ninety percent of the world’s problems come from people who don’t know themselves, their abilities, their weaknesses, and even their true strengths.” (Sydney Harris)