A blind spot refers to something we are unaware of, something that is invisible to us, and it constitutes one of the main components of "Truth triggers" (see the previous post).
These blind spots may be aspects that we don’t see about ourselves or our organization but other people do see.
When it comes to ourselves, these blind spots can take the form of either assumptions or unknown information. The former refers to information that we take for granted and for that reason, we don’t question it, thereby becoming a blind spot. The latter is data that we don’t know, new information, information that we are not mindful of ourselves.
The problem with blind spots is that they reduce our capacity to understand the whole story. Part of the information regarding ourselves is invisible to us. It represents a part of the movie that we never saw. Therefore, because we are missing part of the story, it is easy to understand how sometimes we struggle to engage in constructive conversations, understanding others’ perspectives, demands, or complaints that generally involve us and impact our relatinships.
The best way to become aware of those blind spots is to ask others for feedback. The Johari Window diagram depicts that situation clearly (see next post).
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