#225

If you want someone to gain insight, give them contrast.

Show someone a single photo and they’ll make a few observations - a comment on the lighting, a guess at the mood, maybe a note on the setting, maybe some commentary about the people that might be in the photo.

Show them two photos - the same people, same place, but from different times and suddenly, insight appears.

They’ll notice the differences. The physical differences. The setting differences.

The learning. The life lived in between.

Contrast creates insight because our brains are wired to be alert to changes, not necessarily similarity.

It’s the comparison that makes the familiar visible again.

It’s why before-and-after stories move us.

It’s why ‘how-it-started’ and ‘how-it’s going’ memes are all the rage.

It’s why reflecting on “who I was then” versus “who I am now” unlocks awareness we might not access in the moment.

It’s why organisations only see cultural progress when they revisit their “before” picture.

It’s why we miss the obvious when we’re in it.

Like the fish who can’t see the water they are swimming in.

The fish doesn’t notice the environment it swims in - not because it’s blind, but because it’s surrounded by it.

The water is everything. It’s normal. It’s invisible. It’s immersed in it.

We’re the same.

We rarely see the systems, habits, cultures, and patterns we’re immersed in - until something changes.

Until we step out of the water.

Until something offers us contrast.

That’s why reflection matters.

That’s why from – to stories matter.

When change is happening it’s critical to make the changes – the from to’s - more visible.

It provides contrast.

It can show us what we couldn’t see from inside our own environment.

So, if you want to gain insight - personally, professionally, collectively - don’t just ask:

“What’s true right now?”

Ask:

“What’s different from before?”

“What’s changed in me, in them, in us?”

“What am I surrounded by that I’ve stopped noticing?”

“What’s the water I’ve been swimming in?”

Insight doesn’t live in isolation.

It lives in the space between two moments, two pictures, two perspectives - and sometimes, between the fish and the water it didn’t even know existed.

So, what contrast could you look for today, to see what it’s been trying to show you all along?