When Expertise Becomes a Blind Spot

Have you ever been so sure you knew the answer that you stopped looking at the problem?

Experience is valuable. Expertise matters. Businesses need people who know their craft.

But expertise comes with a hidden risk, it can cause blind spots.

Many years ago, a my husband found himself dropping things from his right hand, and was tripping quite a bit.  Then his memory became fuzzy. I urged him to go to the doctor, and the doc tested him for the normal things, and he checked out fine. 

It turned out he had a brain tumor.  The doctor heard hooves running and thought horse. Not zebra.  

After that experience, every time I had a headache it was hard not to think I too had a tumor.  But rehydrating more often than not made the headache go away, and if that failed, ibuprofen always did the trick. 

The more experience we gain, the more likely we are to recognize patterns. That's usually a good thing. It helps us solve problems quickly and avoid mistakes we've seen before. 

The trouble starts when we see what appears to be a familiar problem instead of slowing down a moment and taking a second look.  I see this happen in many industries.  An accountant sees a financial problem. A salesperson sees a sales problem. A technology consultant sees a software problem. An operations person sees a process problem.

None of them are wrong. They're simply viewing the situation through the lens they've spent years developing.

Have you ever heard the saying, "When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail?" Well, every profession has its own hammer.

The challenge is that businesses rarely suffer from just one type of problem. What looks like a staffing issue might actually be a workflow issue. What appears to be a software limitation might be a communication problem. A performance problem might turn out to be unclear expectations.

Have you been witness to something, and when you talked to other witnesses they saw something different?  I’ve experienced that. 10 people can see the same thing, and because of experience, bias, perspective, angle of vision (real or metaphorical), they will see different things and – the key here – they will interpret what they see through their lenses.

In a business environment, let’s say profit has been dropping for the last 6 quarters.  What’s the first thing typically done?  We look at the metrics.  Let’s say the metrics show output has slowed down by an average of 5% per quarter.  Another metric shows overtime is up 15% over the same time last year.  Customers are complaining about defects, and sales is working hard at ensuring the quality issues are just a glitch.

Before asking, "How do we fix this?" We need to understand what is actually going on.

Every department gives a different answer.  Finance says profits are dropping because of customer returns (and refunds) and the increased overtime.  Production says the reason quality is down and overtime is up is because of really high turnover over the last two years.  What is driving the turnover?  Is it a training issue? A heavy-handed manager? Has company culture gone toxic?  Is it political? Regulatory? Or did all the older workers who had institutional knowledge separate from the company? 

I have found that metrics seem to have the effect of a fire, sometimes.  I like to think of metrics, when outside of desired ranges, as smoke rather than fire.  A signal as it were. 

So who is right? They all are.  And all for what appeared to be legitimate reasons when the decisions were made.  Yet on the surface, it looks like a people problem on the production line. 

The goal is to avoid becoming so attached to our favorite tool that we stop seeing reality.

Sometimes the best question isn't, "What's the solution?"

Sometimes the best question is:

"What if I'm solving the wrong problem?"

And you just might, if you only focus on metrics and what you see on the surface.  You won’t know for sure until you get curious and follow processes and ask team members.  And by focusing on the flow and not the people, it creates a safer space for teams to be more forthcoming with what they see as the actual issues.

Healthy Flow. Healthy Business