Leaders Can’t Afford To Be Clarity Blind - Though Most Are

I found a great quote in The Overstory by Richard Powers:

“You can’t see what you don’t understand. But what you think you already understand, you’ll fail to notice.”

This is a really important observation that applies to many things. In the case of The Overstory, it applies to trees. We understand so little about trees, while at the same time our familiarity with them makes us blind to perfectly visible facts, lessons, and perspectives. We don’t realize how amazing trees are, how they communicate, and how important they are to us. And we don’t see how short-sighted, misguided, and self-destructive is our human-centric view of the world.

The same is true of clarity. We think we know what clarity is. We think it is good. But we don’t know what we don’t know. We don’t know how to assess levels of clarity, how to recognize the extent to which it is missing, or how to create greater clarity. At the same time, this inability to understand clarity affects everything we do. Our most familiar and frequent tasks—tasks such as decision making and problem solving—suffer from a lack of clarity. But we don’t see that. This inability is what I call clarity blindness.

This is why my newest book, The Power of Clarity: Unleash the True Potential of Workplace Productivity, Confidence, and Empowerment (Bloomsbury, July 2021), begins with Richard Power’s quote. His challenge is to help people see the overstory so they will shift their perspective and change their behavior. Mine is equally daunting. I want people to see the incredible disclarity—the lack of clarity—surrounding us. Only upon seeing the disclarity will your perspective shift. Only then will you be ready to learn new techniques and change your habits.

The evidence is plentiful - if you can see it

Evidence of clarity blindness include:

• Not seeing that unproductive meetings have nothing to do with rules, templates, or controlling the group and everything to do with a lack of clarity as to what you need to accomplish and how you will do that.
• Speaking in, what I call, Treadmill Verbs—verbs such as review, report, share, communicate, and inform—all of which are open invitations to talk without any clear purpose or any way of knowing when you will be done. Like walking on a treadmill, you can review or report forever!
• Not realizing that 95% of conflict is caused by a lack of clarity.
• Using the same words to ask for approval of a plan as to ask for advice on the persuasiveness of an argument or for proofreading of a document: please review.
• Not recognizing that the most important and most common task in any organization is decision making and yet we approach it with less clarity of purpose and process than making our morning coffee.
• Suggesting things are “a little unclear” without realizing that they are horribly unclear and that we don’t even have the language or scale to talk about levels of clarity.
• Not noticing that everyone feels more confident and energized when they are clear about what they are trying to accomplish, why, how, how well, with whom, and when and how often that confidence and energy are missing.

The first chapter of The Power of Clarity has a perfectly clear purpose. I want readers to see themselves and their organizations in the multitude of examples I provide and conclude, “OMG! She’s right! We do these things every day. I couldn’t see it before and now I can’t NOT see it!”

As one of my clients, Jim Goodwin, CEO, CHD, said, “I hadn’t realized how entrenched I was in so many time-wasting habits until Ann Latham made them transparent. It’s almost embarrassing.” But guess what. It’s not his fault! Nor yours! We are not wired for clarity! Furthermore, we haven’t been taught how to create clarity!

For example, have you ever been taught how to make a decision? And even if you have, what are the chances you and your co-workers would describe the same process if asked?

And yet, decision making is arguably the most important task and most frequently executed task that exists. “We just talk and figure it out” is the default process for this highly critical task that governs our lives and controls our risks. Does that make any kind of sense?

Clarity may not come naturally to us, but that doesn’t mean we can’t change and become a lot clearer. It all starts with being able to see the disclarity around us, as it occurs, so we can change our behavior and bring new tools and techniques to bear.

Clarity blindness is costly

No leader can afford to be clarity blind! Those who are suffer from:

• Poor productivity
• Unnecessary delays
• Destructive conflict and frustration
• Lack of confidence
• Wasteful meetings
• Second guessing
• Risk avoidance
• Shifting priorities
• Personnel problems met with unnecessary and unproductive tiptoeing
• Inability to synchronize the brainpower and commitment of others
• Excessive to-do lists
• Inability to focus and utilize resources effectively

Yes, all of those are consequences of disclarity!

But, sadly—or maybe fortunately—you won’t even know you are suffering if you are clarity blind. You’ll just chalk the disappointment and frustration up to business-as-usual and of-course-everything-takes-longer-than-it-should.

Clarity is the new frontier of performance improvement

If you can’t see the lack of clarity surrounding you, you will never be able to eliminate it. Clarity is the new frontier of performance improvement. You can ride the wave to greater performance, confidence, and empowerment by learning more or you can watch from the beach without really understanding or recognizing what you are seeing and why others are getting ahead and you aren’t. Now is the time to make clarity a priority. I’m on a mission to make that happen. I hope you will join me. The whole world would be better off with greater clarity. Become a Clarity Advocate. You can start by sharing this article and other content you read about creating clarity.

This article first appeared on Forbes, June 17th, 2021

ANN LATHAM is the founder of the US-based consulting firm Uncommon Clarity?. Her clients represent over 40 industries and range from organizations such as Boeing, Hitachi, and Medtronic to non-profits such as the Public Broadcasting Service and institutions of higher education.

She is widely considered an expert in strategic clarity and strategies for improving productivity, performance, and commitment. She has been interviewed by publications such as The New York Times, Bloomberg, MSNBC, and is an expert blogger for Forbes.com.

She is an accomplished speaker and the author of The Clarity Papers and Uncommon Meetings. 

The Power of Clarity, her newest book, will be released by Bloomsbury Publishing on July 6th, available for pre-order now at Amazon or your favorite bookstore.

Visit her website for an abundance of free resources and special offers.

? 2021 Ann Latham. All Rights Reserved.