The Art of Seeing the Invisible – Part 3

The Art of Seeing the Invisible – Part 3

by Sid Raisch

“Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.” Jonathan Swift

NOTE: Some of you are near peak of the season while others have moved on through, but all of you should be in “Management Mode”. This means you’re operating rather routinely on a daily basis at a high level of volume and personnel. The routine becomes a sort of paralysis by default where things are happening without much question, as “the way it needs to be” to get things done, or status quo. There are a few problems with this mode and reading about them will make your time here worthwhile.

There’s real money in here but it is invisible to you. Don’t skip reading the rest of this!

Fasten your seat belts, this is going to get bumpy, in that it is going to play with your mind.

Things like the kids and grand kids growing up too fast, declining health, and poor financial results are easy to miss if you are focused on seeing your day-to-day work. Unloading, watering, displaying, serving customers, watering some more and so on are some of the day-to-day funs. The extra level of difficulty of finding and acquiring product and people to handle it is a more intense distraction these days. Meanwhile, the invisible is happening, or not happening, in plain sight -  if only it could be seen.

“You can observe a lot just by watching.” ― Yogi Berra

The invisible is difficult, but not impossible to see. If you can figure out how to look beyond what you’re actually seeing, it is there.

I’m a left-brain dominant personality. I can see the tangible black and white perfectly clear. I’m also adaptive to the right brain and can see the intangible, invisible “what-if” scenario. How can this be? It comes through a lot of work that was catalyzed starting when I was 18, and attended an all-day seminar by Mike Vance, former Dean of Disney University who taught the program at the Ohio Nursery Short Course. Since then, I’ve learned more to put all of the creative thinking ability I could muster against the opportunity of seeing the invisible all these years. I’m not a Master of creative thinking, and never will be but my consciousness and competence is well above the left-brain black and white place I began. The visible is tangible and instructs the intangible invisible that we don’t see. We can get so blinded by the excitement of the spring season view and completely miss what is not happening in the moment.

I strive to make the invisible visible for my clients. Increases in sales dollars, transactions, average transaction, units per transaction, margin dollars, and bank account balance are visible but have the invisible dimension as well.

Here are a few of the invisible opportunities I look for to make them more visible so they can be acted upon.

  1. What would happen if you could have (or would have) afforded bigger and better shopping carts that would bring in another 10 or 20% per average transaction? What would be different today if you had done this sooner? (They would have quickly paid for themselves for one thing.) Click to Watch THIS to see what one IGC has to say about it.
  2. What would happen if you would have found, hired, and retained the best employees, instead of only having the “good enough” ones who found you, were hired, and stayed stagnant without the better persons who were growing even better in your company? 
  3. What would happen if you were getting $10, $20, or $50 more per average transaction in margin dollars without the customer noticing a difference?

One more question:

What would be different in your company and in your life today if you had done just these three things, or had done them sooner?

Here’s a Million Dollar (at least) question: What would your future look like if you could see more things like these that are now invisible clearly enough that you would confidently act upon them?

Someday you could have, be, and do what you can see yourself having, being, and doing if only you’ll invest the time and some money to see it first.

I’m proud of you for taking a break from Management Mode to read and consider these things, if you have. If you’ve read and haven’t really paid attention to what this means you can always go back and re-read. While you’re at it do that at least a few times and share this with your team leaders a few times until they do as well. They’ll also see a lot if you help them observe it.

Remember that the invisible is where the MAGIC happens. It is outside of your COMFORT zone and it must be at least a little uncomfortable to get there. Seeing is believing, and once you see what was once invisible, you can’t unsee it. You can hardly stop the better future from happening, unless you fail to help your team also see it.

REMEMBER: What you are not changing, you are choosing. You are choosing to accept what you have and what will come to you without intentionality, and you’ll continue to get much more of what you’ve always gotten. That’s not necessarily bad, but it’s not necessarily what you really want if you take the time to see it.

Start making the invisible more visible by writing a few more thoughts on what you could see and achieve here:

Make Luck – Luck is When Preparation Meets Opportunity – PREPARE NOW by adopting the new rules and build your future with them. Text, call, email or message me. I can help.

Want help?

 

 

 

 

Want Help? I’m here for you. Text or call now while you are in the mood to Raise the Bar by becoming Exceptionally Exceptional.

Sid Raisch
Cell: 937-302-0423
[email protected]

Sid Raisch is a leading consultant for business growth, change, and results throughout the US for over 40 years.  He is a consultant to The Garden Center Group and has helped transform both national and local businesses in horticulture into valuable assets with programs that create change in culture, community and company.

REMEMBER: Your interaction (by phone and email) with Group Service Providers such as Sid Raisch, Steve Bailey, Tim Quebedeaux, Robert Hendrickson, Jean Seawright, and John Kennedy are included in your retainer!




 

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