Clear Hallucinations

My ill, (but now recovering) Dad said this to us from his hospital bed after we had described to him some of the odd, strange, and really bizarre things he had said in the last two weeks, his mental state clearly affected by a combination of infection, medication, etc.

I need some new glasses.  If I am going to have hallucinations, I want to be able to see them clearly.

It was a funny comment, but one that in a way does have a bit of truth to it.

I think it can be pretty easy to fail to recognize a real problem or shortcoming in ourselves or our products and services,  or that an assumption we had made is completely wrong and that the real issue is we (or variously our customers, partners, employees, the media, etc.) just can't 'see' it correctly.

It is not at all difficult to rationalize and to conclude that if we just were able to explain it all a little better, to have just one more conference call, demonstration, or meeting that everyone would finally come around and embrace our wonderfulness.

But sometimes we need to step back and realize that no matter how many ways, and through how many different prisms that we view something, it may just be that the idea itself is flawed, and not just a problem of how we are trying to get the message across. Zombies! - Flickr - bikini sleepshirt

Knowing the difference between a bad idea and bad messaging is not always easy.

As I told my Dad, no matter what glasses he put on, I was pretty confident that zombies were not actually roaming the halls of the hospital late at night and stealing clothes from the closet.

At least I don't think so.