On 26 Jun 1995, Barry Mallis wrote:
> I agree with you completely. My use of the phrase "eye for the big
> picture" certainly leaves room for interpretation! Let me try to go
> further in light of your observation.
>
> We on this list easily use words like vision, focus, mental model. The
> reader generates an image, and speaking simplistically, we communicate if
> not on the same page, then at least in the same verse, chapter or tome.
>
> Following this thought in relation to "eye for the big picture" and your
> own thoughts, Andrew, I'd say that the the eye discerns the big picture by
> becoming sensitive to the power of "peripheral vision". I think someone
> else on the list may have used that phrase already. A leader's role is
> enhanced by becoming aware of that ability most of us naturally have to
> take into account and juggle in our random access memory myriad pieces of
> information from the many side shows surrounding our presence. I have
> always been impressed by leaders who could make connections between
> ostensibly disparate elements, synthesizing them into something fresh,
> insightful and evocative.
>
> While this trait may not be essential in a leader, it certainly does help.
> Leaders can draw back the many veils which we naturally accumulate over
> years and through experience. Someone said on the list that if the only
> tool we have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail. Yup. So
> how do we maintain a full kit? Peripheral vision--the eye for the greater
> picture.
>
> Rumi wrote 700 years ago:
>
> Begin as creation, become a creator.
> Never wait at a barrier.
> In this kitchen stocked with fresh food,
> why sit content with a cup of warm water?
>
Dear Barry,
Here's another "eye" metaphor: the all-seeing eye. One can use this to
explain how someone can speak for everyone about anything.
My view is that most people are denied the capacity to see the whole
context because (a) they move through life sampling in time and space in
trajectories that encompass an extremely, extremely, small span of what is
going on. If a situation is complex, (b) they lack the mental capacity to
construct the relational patterns which, alone, may have the capacity to
enlighten.
For the foregoing reasons, some people choose to get together in groups
and, by sharing their collective knowledge and interpretations in a
systematic way, such as that outlined in my last 3 books, it will be
possible for them to teach one another while constructing the patterns
that none of them alone had the power to construct.
Once a pattern is constructed, it becomes much easier for people to assess
it and possibly modify it; but until it is there it seems that metaphors
substitute for whatfors.
-- JOHN N. WARFIELD jwarfiel@osf1.gmu.edu