This is the third post in a series. Click here to start at the beginning.
The fifth perception is, See self as mostly blind.
This is the root of habit five, Seek first to understand, then to be understood. When we see ourselves as limited in our understanding and prone to error, we automatically seek more understanding. But when we think we see everything, there’s no need to seek understanding. We already understand everything we need to understand, which means that listening is fruitless. Seeking understanding when we already possess it is a waste of time.
Experts in psychology tell us we perceive much less of the real world than we think we do. “The capacity of conscious contents at any single moment is surprisingly limited,” writes Bernard Baars, Senior Fellow at the Neurosciences Institute in San Diego. “We cannot read this sentence and listen to a conversation at the same time. Nor can we pay attention to the s-p-e-l-l-i-n-g of a word without taking a risk that we will miss some of its meaning.”[i] Experts in attention demonstrate in study after study how our focus on one aspect of reality blocks out every other aspect.
But human nature is to believe the opposite – that we’re pretty much seeing everything, thank you. In my book I write,
Do you see yourself as blind? Or do you imagine yourself a paragon of perception? Most self-identify as highly perceptive.
“I recall an autocratic company president,” writes marketing expert Robert Rosenthal, “who, when given details on a collaborative process that brought together the best thinking inside and outside his company, smirked and said he was the only one needing to be consulted.”[ii]
Too many of us are like this president. We’re not only blind, but we’re blind to our blindness.
When we see ourselves as mostly blind, we automatically want to listen. We seek understanding naturally. We’re automatically more humble and circumspect. But when we see ourselves as catching everything, we don’t want to listen. We already understand, so there’s no need to seek to understand. We’re automatically arrogant.
The sixth perception is, See the value of cooperation.
This is the root of Covey’s sixth habit, Synergize. Synergy is the idea that one plus one is greater than two, that a combination of things can create a greater effect than the sum of things considered separately. A wall of bricks is a bigger and better thing than a pile of equal number bricks. A two-by-four can hold up a hundred pounds before breaking, but stack two and they can hold a thousand pounds. One strand of rope can hold five hundred pounds. But weave three strands and they can hold five thousand pounds.
When we have this view, we automatically want to combine forces and create greater value. We want to work together.
The seventh perception is, See the limits of effectiveness.
This is the root of the seventh habit, Sharpen the saw. When a saw gets dull, our sawing is ineffective. But when we invest time to sharpen it, our work becomes effective again. When we see how our effectiveness declines over time, we respect our limits, and automatically seek ways to refresh and recover.
Making Covey’s habits automatic.
When we focus on the perceptions at the root of Covey’s habits, we get the power of automatic influence working for us. Covey’s habits become second nature.
[i] Bernard J. Baars, In the Theater of Consciousness: The Workspace of the Mind (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), p. 39.
[ii] Robert Rosenthal, Optimarketing: Marketing Optimization to Electrify Your Business, p. 14.
