Richard Wiseman is a boffin I can get behind. 

Not only is Richard a psychologist and professor (wise man by name, wise man by nature) but he also happens to be an amateur magician. 

I feel a "shuffle off" coming on...

Anyway, I came across Richard when I read about an interesting experiment he ran a few years ago. 

Richard got a bunch of volunteers, handed them a newspaper and asked them to count how many photos were inside.

Most of the volunteers took a few minutes to flip the pages, count the photos and got the right answer (43).

But what most of the volunteers missed was a headline on the second page of the newspaper which said “Stop counting. There are 43 photographs in this paper”

They also missed another headline a few pages later which said “Stop counting. Tell Richard you’ve seen this and win £250”.

When I think back to my 20s and early 30s working on the banking rollercoaster, I wonder how many opportunities I missed by following the rules and sticking so rigidly to the task in hand.

Of course, I wouldn’t have called it “following the rules” at the time.

It was more like walking a well-worn path without ever realising – let alone considering – that other paths, trails and avenues might offer shortcuts or lead in unexpected yet useful directions.

I was so conscientious that I had a sort of tunnel vision for doing the right thing and nothing else.

This meant endless hours over-preparing for presentations, crafting the “perfect” email, refusing to delegate tasks, never questioning anyone or anything and even trying to avoid office gossip lest I heard something I shouldn't.

Now I’m back in the merry world of banking with The Subtraction Method up my sleeve, work looks very different.

It looks more like a game of trial and error, of adventure, of trying things, tinkering about, rolling the dice, taking a left turn when other people are turning right, playing with ideas, messing about with possibilities and going all-in on the fact that there’s simply no such thing as the “correct” way to do anything. 

In fact, the more often I pause, take a breath, ignore the done thing and look for original, hidden possibilities, the more often I find them. Possibilities which surprise even me when they bubble up from nowhere.

So have I lost the conscientiousness I had before?

Well, if conscientious means by the book, then yes.

But if being conscientious means getting the best results, then no. Always sticking to what’s worked before is the most reliable way I know to miss the best outcomes.

Simply put:

Doing it by the book blinds us to the moment. But the moment is where the answers lie, hidden in plain sight. 

The Wiseman experiment is the perfect example of this. The answer was literally staring the volunteers in the face, ready & waiting for them to follow the quiet pull of their instincts and scan the page with fresh eyes.

Maybe this idea gives you pause for thought. Perhaps you’re a paid up member of the "play it by the book" fan club.

If so, would you like to take part in a short experiment?

A short experiment which *highlights* this very idea?

All you need to do is count the number of full stops ("periods" to my friends across the pond) in this email. Once you’re done, hit reply and let me know.

Stop counting. Tell Coach Tom there are 32 full stops