The Power of Noticing

“What you see is rarely all there is.” — Max H. Bazerman, The Power of Noticing: What the Best Leaders See (2014)

Leaders make thousands of decisions each year, yet their greatest mistakes often come not from bad judgment, but from failure to notice.
Harvard Professor Max Bazerman calls this “bounded awareness” — the tendency to overlook information that sits in plain view. At Tafawuud, we explore how noticing — the discipline of seeing beyond what is presented — shapes negotiation, governance, and executive decision-making.

1. The Hidden Price of Focus

Focus is productive, but it can narrow perception.
A leader who looks only at key metrics may miss early signs of risk or opportunity.
The question is not whether to focus, but how to balance focus with curiosity.
Systematic awareness demands that leaders periodically step back to ask:
What am I not seeing?

2. Thinking Three Steps Ahead

Strategic noticing means anticipating, not reacting.
It requires integrating diverse data, exploring uncomfortable perspectives, and identifying what could shift the picturethree steps ahead.
The leaders who notice early patterns are the ones who turn volatility into advantage.

3. From System 1 to System 2

Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011) distinguishes between:

• System 1 – intuitive, rapid, effortless.

• System 2 – deliberate, analytical, reflective.
  Noticing belongs to System 2. It asks executives to pause and question:
  How could that have happened?
  Why did I not see that coming?
  This shift from instinct to reflection is where real foresight begins.

4. From “What You See Is All There Is” to “What You See Is Not All There Is”

Bazerman urges decision-makers to recognize the illusion of completeness.
Data rarely tell the whole story. The leader’s role is to identify when and how to obtain the missing information — even when time pressures tempt a quick decision.
Most executives lack insight not because it is hidden, but because they don’t ask for it.

5. The Learning Point

One executive reflection captures it simply:

“I made the mistake of accepting the choice as my colleague presented it.
I could have — and should have — asked what all the options were.”

The strength of a negotiator lies in this discipline: asking for the right data before deciding.
At Tafawuud, we view noticing as a form of leadership — an act of curiosity that transforms reaction into strategy.

Tafawuud Insight

“What’s in front of you is rarely all there is.”
The leaders who pause to notice not only make better decisions — they build organizations that learn before they fail.

References

• Bazerman, M. H. (2014). The Power of Noticing: What the Best Leaders See. Harvard Business Review Press.

• Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, Fast and Slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

• Harvard Law School – Program on Negotiation (PON). Decision-Making and Bounded Awareness Frameworks.