There's some excellent psychology research, and subsequent Noble Prize and book, called the invisible Gorilla. The authors, Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simmons, do an incredible job at showing us how our intuition can be so incredibly deceptive. Nobel Prize winner and Princeton professor Daniel Kahneman references the study in his book, "Thinking Fast and Slow", in which he discusses related issues. The basic premise of the study is quite simple. A group of students appears on a video with a few wearing all white and a few wearing all black clothing. They proceed to move around in a random group and pass basketballs between them. The test subject is asked to watch the video and count how many times the basketball is passed between students wearing white clothing. It's a difficult task that takes all of one's focus, similar to watching those cup and ball magic tricks. During the video, a person in a gorilla suit walks right across the screen. Shockingly, many people are so focused on counting that they never see the gorilla. More shockingly, they don't believe that they missed it. They are sure they would have seen something like that. They were looking at the video intently the whole time, how could anyone miss a gorilla? The researchers have to show the subject to prove the blindness that their concentrated effort caused. Once the research subjects see the gorilla, they are no longer able to miss it. In retrospect, it's obvious, but when “in the moment” it's completely hidden.
The magic and illusion industry will always be a thriving one because they play on our hard-wired blind spots. Our brains are wired to direct attention in particular ways and focus on certain things. We want to draw conclusions, assumptions, and patterns, to make sense of our world. That's how God designed us, and the tendency serves us well in life. So many production decisions happen based on our intuition and experience. We often don't have a lot of time to think, so we just react to what's in front of us. As opportunities and problems arise, we address them at that moment. We live in that moment. We operate a moment to moment - moving from one thing to the next with complete focus. We count the bouncing balls.
Technical staff and volunteers have to be focused. This isn't a bad thing. But we all have a gorilla (or two) in our work that we probably can't see because of our focus. The busier we get, the more we tend to create processes, routines, and shortcuts, to limit the amount of resources needed to achieve the goal. As the work builds, and expectations mount, we tend to become even more hyper-focused. Greater challenges breed more focus and resolve, all the while we could have dancing gorillas that we need to see.
So, what do we do about it? In a busy season like Christmas when we must be fully dialed into the task at hand, how do we keep from missing important pieces? First, take time to slow down and process. Even a simple ten minutes of journaling and reflecting on the big picture can do wonders. Second, become a better question asker and encourage this in others. Don't ever be afraid of working through the "why" - even when you are convinced you know the answer. Third, don't be opposed to bringing in a consultant or outside voice for perspective. Sometimes you just need another set of eyes. This could be an audio/video contractor, another technical director, or even a key volunteer from another ministry at your church. Be open to this fresh view and insight. Finally, create opportunities to observe and learn from others. Visit other churches of all sizes and learn about how they do things. Take the time to connect with other technical staff and volunteers and ask for insight and perspective. Asking for the insight of others does not mean you don't know what you're doing, it simply means you are self-aware enough to know you need outside perspective. We all need it, no matter our skill level.
We all have gorillas in work. We all miss things because we're so focused on the task at hand. The busier we get, the more dialed in we get, and the more prone we are to overlook important things. Be intentional about grasping the big picture and challenging your own assumptions.
