You know the old saying “Perception is reality”? In my office we have an exercise that attempts to prove that people tend to see what they want to see. Watch the video linked below and count the number of times the basketball is passed.
Did you see the gorilla? Many on our management team looked at us like we were nuts when we asked that in a recent meeting. Some got 18 passes, some got 12. Were you so focused on the details that you missed the gorilla? Go back and watch it.
The exercise is an attempt to prove to our leadership team, and employees in general, that they might be missing something directly in front of them; an obvious way to handle an account or problem. There are many ways to do your job and there might be a better way than the old standard if you look at the entire picture; or as they say ‘think outside the box’.
Take a look at your own job; be it job seeker, HR Pro, Compliance Officer, or widget pusher. Are you missing the gorilla?
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I love that video, I’ve seen it before and I totally missed the gorilla the first time. Great post!
What an interesting experiment. I actually saw the gorilla and was a little miffed at myself that I let it distract my counting. I wonder what that says about me. Do you know if men and women see this video differently?
@HRMinion Thanks! I had never seen it before a few weeks ago.
@Trish That’s the same thing that happened to me.
We never made it passed this section of the video, I suspect the gender bit was just to throw people off. I havent seen a noticeable gender difference in who sees the gorilla and who doesnt. The more detailed (DiSC high D, or Type A) tend to not see it and get the count spot on.
I’m with Trish…the gorilla completely put me off the count!
But you are so right…the answer is usually right in front of you, but you’re too busy looking everywhere else so you miss it!
Good post, good experiment!
That’s a hilarious video!
There’s a couple of different ways you could look at this:
1. The gorilla as distraction. Viewed in this context the gorilla is something that prevents you from focusing your full attention on a task. For me, e-mail notifications are my “gorilla.”
2. The gorilla as unspoken issue. It’s the classic “800 pound gorilla” scenario. It’s the thing that everyone’s aware of but no one wants to acknowledge. The questions to answer then are “Who’s going to be brave enough to point it out?” and “What do we do if other people can’t (or refuse) to recognize it?”
Thanks for the post April!
@Mervyn That was the point we were trying to make with the staff. Take a look at things differently and you might see that gorilla. Thanks for the comment!
@Victorio – Email notifications and that calendar reminder thing, biggest distractions for me too. It was funny to see people look around like “did you see that gorilla?” during the video.
I’ve never seen that video before but it’s fun. It’s hard for me to believe that someone actually didn’t SEE that gorilla. Like Trish, it was distracting for a split second, but I tried not to let it throw off my count. The hand waving thing was hard to ignore.
Now all I can think of is: so how many passes were there? What’s the “right” answer? I counted 18. What does that say about me if that’s my most pressing concern right now?
@Joan You are correct! There were 18. It says that you are very detailed but can see the big picture. Good job