Invisible

I read a recent post by Seth Godin on the invisibility paradox. We believe more in what we see, even if it’s a placebo effect, than what we don’t. We’re unsure what to do with things that are invisible.

At work, this translates into focusing more on what we can easily measure than what we cannot. Measuring our effectiveness with hours spent at work, following KPIs to their rabbit holes, calculating profit at the expense of human well-being, are all examples we experience daily. What’s harder to see, or measure, is the culture we work in, the level of trust we have with our colleagues and managers, time spent thinking of, and developing, new ideas, and even how the space we’re working in is helping us, or not, in being more creative or effective at work. When we don’t put the culture on our radar, we tend to forget it exists.