Seeing Things Differently: The Key to Breakthroughs in Business and Beyond
Mathieu Stern
In 1967, a 24-year-old graduate student named Jocelyn Bell Burnell was poring over reams of data from a radio telescope she’d helped build. The telescope, perched on a field in Cambridge, UK, was designed to pick up faint radio signals from the cosmos. For weeks, Bell Burnell had been sifting through miles of chart paper, searching for something extraordinary but mostly finding noise—commonplace interference caused by human technology. Then she noticed something unusual. A faint, rhythmic pulse appeared among the chaotic signals—once every 1.3 seconds. At first, it seemed trivial, perhaps another artefact of the machine. She had seen similar blips before, dismissed them, and moved on. But something about this pulse intrigued her. It was too regular, too precise. While her colleagues brushed it off, Bell Burnell kept digging. Her persistence paid off: she had discovered pulsars, rapidly spinning neutron stars, a breakthrough that revolutionised astrophysics and earned her team a Nobel Prize
Bell Burnell’s discovery was not the result of better tools or more resources. It was her willingness to question the obvious, to look at the noise differently, that led to one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs of the 20th century.
For today’s leaders, the lesson is clear: in a world awash with data, opportunities often hide in plain sight. The real challenge isn’t finding the answers—it’s learning to see the questions differently.
Nature’s Blueprint for Innovation
The octopus is one of nature’s most fascinating problem solvers, largely because it approaches challenges in a way that seems almost alien. Without a skeleton to constrain its movements, the octopus has evolved a distributed nervous system where most of its neurons are in its arms, not its brain. Each arm can act semi-autonomously, gathering information, solving puzzles, and even completing tasks like unscrewing jars without direct input from the central brain. This decentralised intelligence gives the octopus remarkable flexibility and adaptability, enabling it to outsmart predators, escape enclosures, and exploit opportunities in ways few animals can.
For CEOs, the octopus provides a metaphor for distributed problem-solving within organisations. Haier, the Chinese appliance giant, mirrors this model. By breaking down its hierarchical structure into hundreds of micro-enterprises, Haier allows each unit to operate autonomously, making decisions rapidly and innovating locally. This decentralised approach fosters agility and creativity across the organisation. Like the octopus, businesses that embrace flexibility and empower their “arms” to think and act independently can thrive in unpredictable environments.
The Science of Perspective Shifts
In the mid-17th century, John Graunt—a London haberdasher with no formal scientific training—noticed a peculiar opportunity in something most people overlooked: the city’s death records. At the time, these records were mere lists of names and causes of death, used primarily for administrative purposes. Graunt, however, saw patterns in the data that others had ignored. By analysing these records, he uncovered trends in disease outbreaks, population changes, and even life expectancy. His work laid the foundation for the field of epidemiology and transformed how societies think about public health.
Graunt’s breakthrough didn’t come from new tools or revolutionary data; it came from reframing a common dataset in an uncommon way. Similarly, modern leaders can find opportunities by questioning how they interpret the information they have. Netflix, for example, didn’t invent video content or the Internet. Instead, it reframed how people consume entertainment, moving from DVDs to streaming and creating a subscription model that disrupted an entire industry.
The lesson is clear: innovation often comes not from invention but from the willingness to see familiar data through a new lens.
Nature’s Lesson in Adaptability: The Honeybee
Honeybees are master strategists in dynamic and uncertain environments. When a scout bee locates a potential food source, it performs a “waggle dance.” This movement encodes the direction, distance, and quality of the resource, using the angle of the dance relative to the sun and the intensity of its movements to communicate critical details. But here’s where it gets interesting: the hive doesn’t blindly follow the first recommendation. Instead, other bees independently evaluate the information, scouting the location themselves. This process allows the hive to balance exploration (seeking new opportunities) with exploitation (maximising known resources).
This decentralised decision-making ensures resilience. For example, when a hive is deciding on a new nesting site, scouts will present competing options, and the hive collectively reaches a consensus, ensuring the best possible choice for the colony’s survival. The process thrives on redundancy, diversity, and adaptability.
Companies face similar challenges, balancing operational efficiency with innovation. Amazon excels at exploiting its core business—streamlined logistics and e-commerce—while simultaneously exploring bold initiatives like AWS, Alexa, and autonomous drones. This dual approach is not accidental; it’s baked into Amazon’s culture of experimentation and decentralised decision-making.
The honeybee’s success demonstrates that effective leadership isn’t about central control; it’s about creating systems where the collective intelligence of the team can flourish. By allowing diverse perspectives and ideas to compete and then collectively refining them, businesses can adapt and thrive in even the most complex markets.
Breakthroughs from Broken Frames: Velcro
In 1941, Swiss engineer George de Mestral returned from a hunting trip in the Alps with an unexpected nuisance: burrs stuck to his clothes and his dog’s fur. Most people would have brushed them off and forgotten about them, but de Mestral’s curiosity led him to ask a different question: Why do these burrs stick so effectively? Examining them under a microscope, he discovered their secret—tiny hooks on the burrs’ surface latched onto loops in fabric and fur. This observation sparked an idea: what if this hook-and-loop mechanism could be replicated for practical use?
It took over a decade of experimentation, including finding the right materials (nylon turned out to be the key), but in 1955, de Mestral patented what would become Velcro—a revolutionary fastening system. Today, Velcro is used in everything from spacesuits to medical devices to everyday clothing. Its success stemmed not from groundbreaking technology but from a willingness to see a common annoyance as a source of inspiration.
BreKthroughs arise not from solving obvious problems but from asking, What’s hiding in the details that others overlook? Leaders who cultivate curiosity and encourage teams to look beyond the surface can uncover solutions that reshape industries.
The Leadership Imperative: Cultivating a Different Lens
Seeing things differently isn’t a matter of luck; it’s a skill that can be cultivated. For CEO’S, the question isn’t “What’s the answer?” but “How can I look at this differently?”
Encourage Dissent: Diverse perspectives challenge groupthink. Ray Dalio’s “idea meritocracy” at Bridgewater Associates thrives on radical transparency and open debate, fostering breakthrough ideas.
Change the Environment: Just as Darwin’s finches adapted to different island ecosystems, leaders can prompt new thinking by altering the context. Hackathons, cross-functional teams, or even shifting meeting formats can spark fresh ideas
Learn from Failure: NASA’s moon missions didn’t succeed on their first attempt, but each failure was reframed as a learning opportunity. Companies like Tesla embrace this mindset, iterating on failure to drive success.
Look Outside the Industry: Breakthroughs often come from cross-pollination. BMW’s iDrive system was inspired by gaming joysticks. CEOs who explore analogies and innovations outside their sector often uncover transformative ideas.
The Takeaway: Seeing as a Superpower
Breakthroughs don’t arise from more effort in the same direction—they come from turning the map upside down. Whether it’s rethinking the workforce like the octopus, balancing exploration like the honeybee, or reframing constraints like Velcro, nature and science remind us that new perspectives often lead to transformative results.
For CEOs, the challenge is clear: the next great idea isn’t hidden in the data—it’s hidden in how you look at it. By embracing curiosity, fostering diverse thinking, and challenging entrenched assumptions, you can unlock solutions that aren’t just incremental but exponential.
Albert Einstein famously never conducted his own experiments. His genius lay in looking at the same evidence as everyone else and daring to imagine it differently. His thought experiments—like picturing himself riding a beam of light—revolutionised physics and redefined what we thought possible.
Sometimes, the most profound discoveries don’t require new data or advanced tools; they require the courage to question, reframe, and see what others overlook.
Because sometimes, all it takes to change the world is seeing it differently.
