Oracle of the not-so-obvious? Everyone knows that our point of view impacts our perceptions. What most of us don’t know are the limitations of a particular perspective, or when our viewpoint is substantially different from others.

When we look at ourselves in the mirror, right is left and left is right. Unless we're a photographer who is familiar with this transposition, or his model who is used to seeing herself in print as well as in the mirror, we can experience a disconcerting unfamiliarity with our own image.

Watching sports from the comfort of our living rooms can impact our understanding of what we are seeing. It seems obvious to us that the wide receiver is completely open—why can’t the quarterback see that? This might be because from his vantage point, the only things that are obvious are the six very large, very loud and very menacing tacklers in his face.

Sometimes our view of things is limited by a lack of current information or even the knowledge that there is more information available—this would be ignorance, not stupidity. In other situations, misunderstandings occur because of arrogance. We think that because we’ve always been correct before that we will continue to be right. By not considering that things change over time, we assume that the “facts” as we now know them will always be the same.

The most outrageous assumptions occur when we make decisions based on personal experiences without considering that our experiences may be far outside the norm. A first-time voter is devastated by the loss of her presidential candidate. She can’t understand how he could lose when everyone she knows voted for her guy. She didn’t consider that there were a great many people outside of her world who saw things differently.

The true measure of leadership—personal, professional, political and industrial—is the ability to consider and fully understand all options, measure them against a goal and make an informed decision based on well-rounded reasoning. We wouldn’t think about driving without frequently glancing at the mirrors as well as occasionally turning in the driver's seat to check out our blind spots. Expertise born of experience will identify the obvious choices and accurately position for consideration the less obvious ones.

Essex Two helps its clients by looking out all of their windows and properly adjusting the position of each mirror. With the client’s objectives in mind and their goals in sight, choices become obvious.

Our website has case studies that demonstrate our ability to present and position the available choices with their corresponding results.

Worth your time: Wider than the Sky, by Dr. Gerald M. Edelman, winner of a Nobel Prize in Medicine, offers a concise, scientific explanation of human consciousness to readers with no previous formal education in neurobiology. The author promises a deeper insight into issues that are the center of human concern to any reader willing to make a concerted effort to understand this challenging subject. He delivers wonderfully well on his promise. The conscious brain as described in Wider than the Sky is complex, dynamic, variable and unique to humankind.