Mind Scope Metaphor: Are you Telescope, Microscope or Kaleidoscope?

Telescope oversights the big picture; and microscope amplifies the important details.

People have cognitive differences: some are like a telescope with nature big picture thinking, they can look forward and think long-term; others are like microscopes; they look inwards. They are good at analyzing and breaking things down into their component part, and they are good at details; there's no such thing as one thinking always be superior to the other one, it all depends on circumstance and situation driven.

There is room for both microscopes and telescopes in complexity: Match the thinking processes to the purpose. Microscope or telescope -logic or magic, is like the yin-yang of it: how apparently opposite or contrary forces are actually complementary, interconnected and interdependent in the natural world. One has to be both at appropriate times. One has to be at the fence of the box to see both inside and outside depending on requirements. Analytic thinking logic is fundamental for problem-solving; but without 'synthesis' and 'seeing connections', it is hard to describe telescope magic. The telescope description is also a core part of the definition of complexity/complex adaptive systems (CAS).

More often, senior business leaders and strategists are telescopes. They look outwards. They are good at seeing the big picture, seeing connections and synthesizing the whole from the parts. These are increasingly important skills in complex situations where it is impossible to predict the behavior of the whole from the behavior of the parts; and where the relationships between component parts are more important than the parts themselves. For senior leaders, be a telescope over the majority of the time, but a microscope when necessary. Do not want to lose sight of the big picture. It is interesting to remember that a telescope has a wide angle scope attached to it so we can narrow in on the object (star) we are looking at and a microscope starts at low magnification and is then zoomed into stages.

It is about logic/intuition ratio at solving the problems. From such a perspective, "larger" (tele-/macro-) or "smaller" (micro-) scale is thought of being relative to the scale of the initial consideration or understanding of the problem. "Microscope or Telescope" is a classical systems problem. The scale (scope) / number and character of system elements is often selected to have all critical elements and relationships included at a volume of resulted information minimized. Due to the limitations of the processing power and/or time constraints, the problem can be recursively scaled up and down, considered from a different perspective at different combinations of factors and conditions before an acceptable solution is found. However, the question is probably more about logics/intuition ratio at solving the problems. That ratio is very individual. According to Jung's psychological classification, about a quarter of people are good in logic thinking, at the same time being intuitive by their nature. The Sensation/Intuition + Thinking/Feeling dichotomies simplistically describe the variety of "possible characters", their relationships, communication, and ways of solving problems. Jung's classification of the psychological types is further addressed and developed at socionics, "a theory of information processing and personality type"

Overall speaking, we all need to be capable of both lenses...The magic is in being able to enable people and communities to look through both the microscope and the telescope. Only by exploring complexity across different vantage points, can we truly understand both the problem and the landscape within which it sits...and sometimes we need to go beyond the telescope into the space we can’t see - but we can perceive and model it well, and avoid - the periscope - doesn't look at anything unless they think there might be a threat looming, and likely to go deeper and hide if they find there is one.. But go beyond, like a kaleidoscope with a full-range zoom to wonder and manage the complexity of such digital normality!

Posted in: Future of Leadership,metaphors,Mindshift,Strategy,Talent Master