You may know the old fable of the blind men and the elephant. Each man touches one part of the animal and reports with full confidence: it is a wall, it is a snake, it is a spear, it is a fan. Every one of them is right about the part under his hands. Not one of them is holding the whole elephant.
That is most business situations, most of the time. At any given point we are in touch with a partial truth, and there is always another angle that would expand what we understand.
When a situation is knotty, the common pull is to gather the hard facts and decide. Facts matter, and I am not suggesting you set them aside. But a business is not made of facts alone; it is made with people. You are a person. Your team members, partners, vendors, and clients are people. A decision made on facts alone cuts out the human dimension the situation actually runs on. For many entrepreneurs it also cuts the spirit out of deciding. It turns something alive into arithmetic.
So before generating solutions, it can pay to explore what is actually going on, from three angles: yourself, the others involved, and the circumstances. And to do it with real curiosity, the way a child on a beach turns over a rock just to see what is underneath. Not auditing, not diagnosing. Exploring with curiosity.
Here is what each angle might turn over.
Yourself.
This might look like a decision where the numbers say yes and you still hesitate, week after week. Ask yourself: what is happening for me here, what is at the heart of it, what am I wanting, and what is holding me back?
Founders who sit with those questions for even a few minutes often find the hesitation has a name. A named hesitation is easier to work with than a vague one.
The others.
This might look like recurring friction with a co-founder or a key person, where you already have a story about why they act the way they do.
Exploring their angle asks: what do I assume is true for them, and what actually matters to them?
Assumptions, once written down, often turn out to be one hand on the elephant. Checking even one of them can change the conversation you have next.
The circumstances.
This might look like a quarter going sideways and being read entirely as performance, yours or the team’s, when part of it sits in the circumstances: market timing, a dependency you do not control, a seasonal pattern. Exploring this angle asks: what circumstances might be influencing me or the others here?
Sorting what you have little or no control over from what you can control or influence makes the response clearer and the self-verdict less harsh.
Most of us have a favourite angle, the one we reach for first. Which also means most of us have one we routinely skip.
Try this to discover yours:
Bring to mind one live situation you are mid-way through deciding or that keeps nagging at you.
Notice which of the three angles you have explored least, and give that one a few honest minutes.
Explore without judgement:
- why it matters now
- what the skipped angle showed you
- whether you will act on it, and if yes, when
- what outcome you want, and how you will recognise it.
A partial view honestly expanded beats a confident view left unchecked.
I’d love hearing what came up from your exploration.