Fresh Eyes

Life guard on duty- Silive.com

Cooling off in a pool is a summer ritual for many of us.  Seeking out a little heat relief, my family and I spent last week doing just that.  During those pool outings I learned a valuable safety technique from the hotel's pool life guard team.  Having been too busy in my past vacations to have ever recognized this strategy, after the fact, I appreciated just how simple and intelligent the team's pool safety plan to be.  While what I am about to write may be common knowledge for some, for me it was a profound human performance learning moment.

Every 30 minutes, without leaving a pool unattended, the life guards would rotate duty stations at the various hotel property pools.  At first, the cynic in me thought the pool's budget crunch must have cut the hours down for their teenage workers.  Finally, after watching a full rotation of the life guard staff, it dawned on me...The lifeguard staff is rotating to maintain fresh eyes!  By rotating, the life guards were forced to re-examine each pool customer status and the over-all threat assessment of the pool environment.

You see, whenever we enter into an unfamiliar environment such as an office, house, social encounter, or in this case a pool, our alertness rises because our brain must re-assess the threats and opportunities.  Fresh eyes can pick up on details that the comfortable perceive as irrelevant to the mission. Once comfort and familiarity creeps in, we soon begin to tone down our alertness to the details. In the case of the life guards, the purpose of the rotation was to re-awaken the alertness of each life guard by forcing their minds to constantly reassess.

This raises the question of whether or not we are missing the details of life because of familiarity and routine. Whether it be relationally, work orientated, or even physically, our human performance can benefit by a set of fresh eyes.  You can come up with your own list of productive ideas once you give thought to the principle of fresh eyes, but for starters, here are some simple "Fresh Eyes" tips.

1. Take a different path home on your commute: You may discover a new restaurant, or just revive an appreciation for your community.

2. Re-arrange your office: The new desk, and or book shelf alignment can re-energize your thinking.

3. Get up and move: Getting up to move around every 30 minutes actually can reduce your risk for heart disease and diabetes.

4. Go for a walk with a loved one: If this is out of the norm, it may brush off the cobwebs in the communication portion of the relationship, because taking a walk provides the opportunity to experience new stimuli together.

5. Listen instead of having to have all the answers: Leaders have to lead. However, the trap that leaders often fall into is the feeling that they have to have all the answers.  Apply some fresh eyes by taking the time to genuinely listen with appreciation.  You can still make the final decision, but it will now be with the input of an additional vantage point that happens to be true for the rest of your group.  Often times, that additional information can be the freshen up seasoning that takes an idea to the next level.

Win Today!

Victor