Inform Yourself

My good friend Jay Niblick, founder of Innermetrix International, recently completed a study called The Genius Project. His study became the basis for his latest book, What’s Your Genius?

Masters and Blinds Spots

A very common perception for most people is that we all see the same reality. We tend to be fooled into thinking that everyone sees things as we do. Surely everyone notices the fatal flaw in this strategy way down the road, don’t they? Surely the others sitting at this table appreciate the impact that this decision is going to have on all the workers, right? Of course the rest of the team understands the importance in taking action right now.

The truth is, no one sees reality in exactly the same way you do, and your unique neural networks play a significant part in explaining why. While your emotions, your experiences, and your knowledge all play a large role in explaining why your view on reality differs from others, your mental filters and the unique combination of data they allow in is also an important part of it. Since your neural networks are unique, so too is the information that is filtered into your decisions or blocked out. When your neural networks are robust high-speed connections, they filter information into you at tremendous rates and you see that one aspect of reality very clearly. If, however, these networks filter information out then you may be completely unaware of certain aspects of a reality.

Just as not all neural networks are created equally, so too not all voices are equal either. The more robust the network, the louder the voice associated with it and the clearer you see that aspect of reality. The less developed the network, the softer that voice will be and the more ambiguous that aspect of reality will seem to you. It is different for each person. One person’s mind might be biased towards the factual aspect of a situation and blind to the humanistic aspects, so while they make sure action is taken, they are blind to the fact that in so doing they have irritated a lot of people. Another person might be so focused on the humanistic aspects of the situation that they completely ignore the big picture, so even though the bus is indeed driving off a bridge that is out, at least everyone on the bus is feeling valued and understood.

Jay Niblick describes the strong networks as masters and the less developed ones, if they are less developed enough, as blind spots. Master dimensions are so loud that they over ride the others and demand more attention, while blind spot dimensions are not as dominant and you may sometimes ignore this aspect of reality in favor of the louder voices of your masters.

Just as we all have physiological blind spots in how we see; we can each have neurological blind spots in how we think as well. Your mental blind spots can cause you to miss key aspects of a situation and as a result your decision might not be as accurate When you create a score for each of these three dimensions or classes of talent, you can plot those scores and create patterns, which is the easier way to understand how they all play together. When we do this, we come up with seven unique patterns (or Master Patterns).

The seven Master patterns are:
1. The Balanced Pattern – Masters: Head, Hand & Heart. Blind Spot: none
2. The Social Pattern – Masters: Hand & Heart. Blind Spot: Head
3. The Director Pattern – Masters: Head & Heart. Blind Spot: Hand
4. The Efficient Pattern – Masters: Head & Hand. Blind Spot: Heart
5. The Supportive Pattern – Master: Heart. Blind Spots: Hand & Head
6. The Practical Pattern – Master: Hand. Blind Spots: Head & Heart
7. The Systematic Pattern – Master: Head. Blind Spots: Heart & Hand