Clarity lives beyond the noise
Most leaders are familiar with the risks of the executive echo chamber. We review the same market data, attend the same strategy meetings, and deal with similar disruptions. Still, it is easy to default to believing our own interpretation is the only correct one.
This weekend, my wife Amy and I watched a documentary at the Belcourt in Nashville about the poet Mary Oliver. What stood out to me was her focus. Even after achieving widespread recognition, Oliver remained unconcerned with traditional measures of success. She consistently left the noise behind, returning to the woods and shoreline to observe. Nature gave her clarity.
I try to follow that same discipline with Dialogue Miles™. Stepping away from the boardroom to walk a trail, refresh my thoughts, and have unscripted conversations away from digital distractions is often where my best business insights emerge.
Here's an example from a recent walk. After days of rain, a trail near a stream was closed. Most people saw the warning sign as a roadblock. But someone else saw the high water as a chance to fish and headed straight for the stream with a pole.
Same circumstance.
Different perspectives.
This dynamic plays out in business every day. Teams and leaders face the exact same facts, sit through the same reviews, and encounter the same market headwinds. Yet they walk away with entirely different views. When we dismiss perspectives that differ from ours, we risk missing the exact insight required to solve our toughest problems.
Mary Oliver’s work was rooted in an uncommon willingness to pay attention. In our day-to-day operations, executive busyness often hides the subtle shifts happening right around us.
Her life also highlights how readiness works. There are seasons when organizations are still figuring out their footing, and seasons when they are ready to share hard-earned truths. We cannot force readiness in ourselves or the people we lead. But when a team member or a peer steps forward with a frontline perspective, we need to be listening.
Three Ripples
The lens we choose: The exact same market challenge produces entirely different outcomes depending on whether your team views it as a roadblock or an opening.
The value of pacing: Stepping away from daily execution isn't a luxury; it is a tactical necessity to spot shifts that constant busyness hides.
Frontline wisdom: The people around us carry operational observations that hold the key to our next breakthrough, if we create the space to hear them.
Call to Action
As summer turns to fall, build a deliberate pause into your rhythm. Rather than rushing straight into the next quarterly push, try a different kind of check-in with your leadership team or direct reports:
Ask what they noticed in their markets or workflows when away from daily routines.
Ask what stood out to them from recent customer or operational interactions.
Ask what energized them—and what friction is draining energy across the organization.
You may find that an ordinary experience produced a useful strategic insight. In hearing their perspective, you will likely spot a blind spot you have been missing.
The Question for You
Think of a recent business challenge where a colleague saw things differently than you did. What did their perspective help you realize?
-Joe Morgan
