Once you see the opportunity, you cannot unsee it

Take a look at the image below.

What do you see?

Start at the centre and follow the neck down. Go back up and you find the ears, turned to the left. Nose and eyes face to the right.

There is a giraffe in the picture. Once you have seen it, you cannot go back. Look at that image again in five years and the giraffe will be waiting for you.

Was the giraffe there before I pointed at it?

Think of the colleague who keeps saying "why are we not doing this, it is clearly the way forward," while nobody else seems to agree. Then think of the times you have been that colleague.

Other people failing to see the thing tells you nothing about whether the thing is there. They simply have not been shown the neck.

Here is a harder, but perhaps more useful, lesson. When you are explaining something for the third time and still get blank looks in return, the frustration you feel is real. It is also most likely misplaced. Obvious to you does not mean obvious to them. You have been staring at this picture—the phenomena you are trying to convey—for months. They have just learned about it.

Seeing for yourself is just half of the work. The harder half is helping other people to see it too, which means finding your version of the neck: the one detail that reorganises everything else once it is noticed.

Saying "there is a giraffe here" does nothing. Saying "start at the centre and follow that line down" does.

Next time somebody in your organisation is not getting it, resist the urge to repeat it to them again, but more slowly. Instead, ask yourself which part you have not shown them yet.