a superpower everyone can tap into
If you had a superpower, what would it be? Reading minds, rewinding time, being in two places at once? Or perhaps anticipating the winning lottery numbers, soaring with the birds, stopping all evil in the world? I can’t promise you that reading this article will make you a telepathic super hero. But it might just help you to be more connected to the here and now, to understand yourself and others better, to act with the best outcomes in mind.
The superpower of noticing
Stop, close your eyes, and be silent. What do you hear? Look out of a window. What do you see? Take a deep breath in through your nose. What do you smell? If you’re in a familiar environment, at home or at work, chances are this is the first time you’ve really noticed the smell of coffee, the birds outside, or your colleagues discussing last night’s football. This is important. Through the superpower of noticing – becoming hyper-aware of your surroundings – you have shifted ‘state’.
The idea that we typically exist in two states is not new. In Thinking Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman refers to the two states as systems. Firstly the ‘intuitive system’, which is fast, automatic, and effortless. Secondly a logical system, which is slower, more conscious, and explicit.
Getting off autopilot
We spend a lot of our time at work in the intuitive system – we know how to do what we do, so we automatically get on with it. While this arguably makes us more efficient, it also means we miss things. We don’t see that a great member of the team is struggling to cope with their workload. We fail to notice that our smaller clients are moving to a competitor.
Spending time in the logical system, where we are fully conscious of our environment, is important. Once we’ve noticed, we can support the team member who is struggling. We can work to rapidly improve our offering before a big client follows the smaller ones out of the door.
Put simply, when we notice, we can act. Both of these are conscious choices. If we don’t notice the signs around us, or we notice but don’t act, then nothing changes. We continue to exist in our intuitive world, living life on autopilot.
Be efficient and effective
The big takeout here is that intuition is efficient but not always effective, and certainly won’t bring us breakthrough moments.
When we notice something, what thought does this trigger? How did the thought make us feel? How did it encourage us to act? If we apply a different thought to that moment, how would that change how we feel and then act?
It’s easy to carry on as we always do, to sit in the regular team meeting and let moments wash over us, to hear a colleague talking but not actively listen. When we make a conscious effort, in our logical system, to notice and then to act, we move from passive to active. We open up new avenues, we change destinations. We understand ourselves, our colleagues and those close to us better. Ultimately, each time we notice, we help to make the world around us a better place.
Superpowered living starts here
Challenge yourself to spend more time being ‘conscious’. Move more slowly. Consider your actions. Notice what isn’t said in a meeting and call it out. Notice the body language of your team members as they tell you everything’s okay. Notice any downward trends before they start to snowball. Notice the events, people or words that trigger unwelcome emotions in you. Unpick why that might be, then take action to change the usual outcome.
To supercharge the superpower of noticing, change your routine. Take a new route to work. Try out a different desk. Take five minutes to stop and just listen… you might learn something important.
While it’s not as epic as reading minds or turning back time, noticing is a superpower we can all make the most of. And the results of using it might just turn out to be extraordinary.
To find out more please get in touch / +44 (0) 20 7298 7878
More about the author
Alec Brazier
Alec is a keen naturalist. Noticing the natural world to understand how it works, and what we can do to better protect it, is one of his passions. The joy he derives from noticing nature translates directly to what he loves about the work we do at Egremont. “We help our clients create the space to stop, to notice, to see things differently and deliver breakthrough transformation.”
