CHAPTER 1 POWER OF OBSERVATION
"People's minds are changed through observation and not through argument."
– Will Rogers
Observation is an action or a process of carefully watching someone or
something. Observation is simply a way of understanding the world we live in,
but is it really simple to observe? What makes a few of us more observant and,
on the contrary, why do others simply ignore or fail to register events around
them?
Whenever someone from another organisation visits your company and
presents their proposal or expertise, aren't you trying to observe—their body
language, dressing sense, communication and behaviour, confidence level, way
of content delivery, and quality of content? All these observations help you
form a perception about the visiting person and his organisation. Whether you
notice something actively or passively, then your observation skills are helping you in your day-to-day professional and personal lives.
Our mind is always busy; it will observe things around. You would never pay
attention, yet somehow sub-consciously your mind registers events analyses, and
decides for actions, reactions.
For example, while you are driving and paying attention in order not to allow
somebody to cross the road before your car comes; similarly you automatically
apply brakes while approaching a hairpin bend. This happens, because your brain
observes, assesses and processes the information; it is fed through your eyes or
ears, and then takes the appropriate decision without you having to intervene.
Now, let's digress a bit from the present to the past, to understand how
observation skill has helped the humankind. Have you ever thought about why
Homo sapiens (humans), are the superior species that ever walked on Earth?
Why are humans ruling the land despite being inferior to other animals in
terms of physical strength, speed, and agility?
A human child cannot survive for years without help from parents, whereas
a three-month-old kitten, can independently manage its life. A human child
takes almost a year, even to stand on its feet and walk, but we see how a
newborn calf manages to stand on its feet and starts floundering when it is just
a few days old.
Imagine a fully-grown adult, lest a child, to fight with a two-year-old lion,
whom do you think is likely to win? The answer is obvious, but I’ll leave it to
you to decide.
Let us come back to the critical question, ‘Why are homo sapiens the
superior species?’
The human race has evolved from a cave-dwelling troglodyte to today's modern humans capable of making space stations. Thanks to the ability to think and transfer knowledge through generations, it has helped humans reach the pinnacle of success. Now before knowledge transfer, it's essential to gain knowledge. Humans gain knowledge through observing the happening around them or through someone else's experiences. Thus, the key to this evolution is the ability to observe, and then critically
think about it. The observation then led to knowledge. The knowledge of a
human transferred to fellow humans.
This transfer of learning became a possibility through communication. Long
before the invention of scripts, how do you think information or learning
passed through generations? It was through verbal communication and
memorising it. Ancient Indian religious, and scientific learnings from Vedas
passed through generations via listening, Sruti, and memorising, Smriti, this
Tradition is still practiced in many folds of religious education.
Therefore, observation acted as a building block of knowledge.
If we go through the study of ancient civilisations of Egypt, Central Asia, Latin America, Indus
valley, and later Vedic period—we see that thousands of years ago, wise men
researched medical science, astrology, and mathematics; and wrote a treatise
with their observation. Generation after generation, people studied,
documented, and improved the repository. All these happened because of
observation led learnings.
Malcolm Gladwell, in his highly acclaimed book, Blink, has elaborated upon the
significance of the phenomenon called 'thin-slicing'. He maintains that the human
brain can work out a meager amount of information, a thin slice, and derive
incredible conclusions. This is possible only due to a reservoir of data in our
mind, which we gather after years of observation.
Today, we have super-powerful telescopes and satellites to assist scientists in calculating
the exact date and time of the next eclipse or any other earthly
phenomenon.
Ever wondered how many years ago, Egyptians were able to
predict next eclipse with accuracy?
Now we have scientific proof that many ancient civilizations knew about
movements of planets, solar system, and stars position. They did this
without even having any advanced machinery back in those days.
Imagine the tiring task of recording the daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly
variation in the position of planetary objects, and analyzing them to predict the
next planetary phenomenon accurately.
This superb feat was possible because of years of minute observation.
Evidently, the knowledge we have today is an outcome of continuous
learning which was saved and communicated throughout human history.
Therefore, power of observation and the ability to communicate has helped
humans conquer the world.
In further sections of the chapters, we will go through evidence of the
power of observation.
1.1 An Apple Can Change Everything
Three centuries ago, a man was enjoying the English summer under the shade
of an apple tree. Apples were ripe and were falling here and there. The man
observed the apples fall and wondered “why are the apples falling down?”
Falling of apple was not a unique phenomenon, but he reasoned with
himself, "Why does an apple fall on the ground? Why downward, instead of
falling sideways, or going straight into the sky?"
Indeed, the question was quite silly, but eventually, this man's observation, of
this inconsequential event led him to bring, the theory of gravity, in the year
1667.
He went on to become a great scientist, Sir Isaac Newton.
Isn't it amazing that observation of even obvious things can be very radical,
or open new doors that seem non-existent to the most?
Let us take a coffee break, not in literal terms, but to understand how
observation and actions can revolutionise how we all drink coffee today.
1.2 Coffee and Count of the Filter Cone
If we list the best gifts from the USA to the world, then in all possibility, it will
be blue jeans, rock-n-roll, and coffee.
However, few know that coffee started slowly in the US and a revolution
against the British King George III in 1773, led to the coffee revolution.
Boston Party was the reason for the mass switch from tea to coffee in the
US.
Fast forward 200 years of that event in the early seventies, premium
coffee shops, was getting popular in the United States. To cash in on the growing
market demand, a visionry entrepreneur established a new coffee house in
Seattle in 1971.
The new entity became a hit amongst multitudes and was on the way to
becoming what it is today. However, there was an interesting twist.
This coffee house chain sourced plastic cone filters from an organization called,
Hammarplast.
One day, Howard Schultz, General Manager of Hammarplast, reviewing through the sales records, discovered an interesting trend. He found that a small
coffee shop chain in Seattle is purchasing an unusually large quantity of plastic
cone filters.
Interested and intrigued by this type of sales, Howard decided to drop by.
On his visit to the coffee shop, he found nothing out of the ordinary; it was a
typical coffee shop like any other.
He ordered a cup of coffee, and this is where he found the difference. Two things
pleasantly surprised him: knowledge of employees about coffee and second,
their customer care.
He saw no one who rushed; rather each one chatted peacefully, compared
their coffees flavor and advised them how to meet consumers' desire tastes.
More, the surrounding enables customers to relax and share tales with buddies and
also, families.
Howard Schultz felt inspired and applied as the marketer at this
chain of the coffee shop immediately, after his observations. Working
there, after some periods ended, then:
had a disagreement with the owner of that coffee shop and quit.
Somehow, he was so interested that he came to get that coffee shop
chain later on.
Today the turnover of that coffee chain is more than 20 billion USD and has
footprint all over the world. This coffee chain market capitalisation, made Howard
Schultz, one of the richest persons in the world.
Any guesses?
Yes, you are correct—it is Starbucks!
If there was a single most crucial thing, which Howard did right in his
lifetime, it is that he observed. He used the power of his observation to unfold
the possibilities of future, unbox something extraordinary, and so did Newton
in the earlier story.
Do you use the power of observation?
Yes, no, or maybe.
Your answer can be anything, but let me tell you that you are using the
power of observation every day, without realizing or thinking about it.
Earlier in the chapter, I had mentioned the relationship between observation
and humankind; let us explore more about it.
1.3 Role of Observation in Human Life
The most common, and straightforward method for getting information about
everything around us, is to observe. Hence, observation acts as a fundamental
and the primary way of getting information about anything.
However, it should be remembered that observation is not just seeing
things, but it is all about carefully examining those things, and to make a
sensible judgement about them.
Improving observation skills allows you to "listen" with more than just your
ears, and make better decisions and perceptions. It also enhances the ability to
interact with others and to respond appropriately. Both are key to success in
professional and personal life. At work, an excellent employee hears well
and knows what is going on around him.
Learning by observation. Theoretically, the most frequent
type of learning is observational learning. Observational learning refers to learning
by watching others, retaining the information and then later repeating the
observed behaviors.
There are a few other theories of learning like classical conditioning,
and operant conditioning. These theories help place an emphasis on how direct experience,
reinforcement or punishment causes learners.
But a significant amount of learning is often indirect; consider for example,
how a child sees his parents waving at each other and goes and imitates these.
Kids learn this way, by observing and imitating others. Psychology refers to
this process as, observational learning.
Observational learning occurs during the whole lifetime but tends to be the
most common during childhood, as children learn from elders and society.
Observation also plays an essential role in the socialisation process. Children
often learn how to behave, and respond to others by observing how their
parents interact with each other, and other people. That's why parents need to
act a 'certain way,' so children do not learn bad manners. That's why, in
popular culture, people judge parents based on their children's behaviour.
Famous Canadian–American psychologist, Albert Bandura, spent his life
researching—learning through observation. Through experiments, he
demonstrated that we are naturally inclined to engage in observational
learning.
Children as young as just 21 days old have shown to imitate facial
expressions and mouth movements. Isn’t it amazing?
In his famous Bobo doll experiment in 1961, Bandura demonstrated that
young children would imitate an adult model’s violent actions. In the
experiment, kids were presented a movie, during which an adult constantly beat the
giant, inflatable balloon doll. Then, after looking at the video clip, they were
granted the freedom to play with a real Bobo doll - just like one they saw during
the film.
The test demonstrated, that the children, who had viewed violent behavior on
the movie clip, beat up Bobo doll; but other children who did not get to see all
that bloodshed in that movie clip.
not seen the film clip. This proves the point that children’s behaviour largely
depends on the culture surrounding them. This research raises the question on
the impact of violent movies, television programmes and video games on
children.
Psychologists Craig Anderson and Karen Dill established the link between
video game violence and aggressive behaviour. Through the experiment, they
proved students who played a violent video game behaved more aggressively
than those who had not played violent games.
Later, the American Psychological Association deduced that violent interactive video games exposure increased aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
All these researches prove the fact that observational learning is prevalent in children.
We Indians are fond of cricket; hence, let me take you through the example of cricket.
1.4 Being Observant, You Will Enjoy More
It was March 16 2012, Sachin Tendulkar was batting, and Dale Steyn was
bowling. The third ball of the seventh over, Dale Steyn bowled, and Sachin
Tendulkar played beautiful cover drive. The whole stadium erupted with joy;
those who were watching the match on TV sets also started clapping. Millions
watched the shot and enjoyed it.
Only a few people observed the entire proceeding. For them, it was like
Dale Steyn bowled over pitch in-swing ball, just outside the off-stump, Sachin
Tendulkar read the ball before the ball had time to touch the pitch and taking his
left foot out, reaching for the ball, and punched it well-timed; with face of
bat closed so that the shot stays on ground and through the fielder at
mid-off and covers. Sachin's toe was along the direction of the shot he played.
Next day those who watched how Sachin played cover drive
were able to perform a similar cover drive (they were able to imitate
because they had observed and learnt). At the same time, those who just
watched Sachin's shot, blamed the pitch for not being able to play a similar
cover drive, themselves.
Thus, those who observed closely, learnt much more than others, who just
watched.
Observation helps us learn faster and better. It is a painful and time-
consuming process, but is a sure shot recipe of winning. You will enjoy this
more if you know the proceedings well; observation is the best way to
understand them.
Now the question arises, why some of us are more observant than others? It
largely depends on the natural flair of curiosity. Let us understand this in
detail.
1.5 How Does Curiosity and Observation Help in the Decision-
making Process?
Curiosity refers to a keen sense of desiring to know or learn something. A first and necessary step of the decision-making process involves the making of some curious observations.
A curious person does not easily accept things. He has doubts towards all the things, he sees and hears. Curious people are questioners who never accept status quo, they hunt for answers for themselves.
The above lines point out the curiosities help one gain knowledge, along with the correct choices in their lives.
This can make you one up from others.
When you are curious, you identify the situations in which decisions have to
be made on the spot or in the future. The curiosity generally stimulates other
processes, that help you in decision-making like—questioning, comparing,
inquiring about things, experimentation, visualisation, scepticism,
categorisation, identification of different patterns, imaginative thought,
evaluation, logical reasoning, prediction, inference, etc. All these processes will
lead you towards suitable decisions.
Observation helps in the ability to notice important things to gather
information. No doubt, if you are observant, then you can become a good
decision-maker.
With curious observation, you can make your decision process easy, and
effective. During the decision-making process, do not stop your thinking
process and think about the problem repeatedly. Think and visualise the whole
scenario in your mind, to predict the outcome of your decision.
Curiosity during the decision-making process leads to dissatisfaction i.e., you do not get content with the decision, and in the end, dissatisfaction leads towards improvement in decision-making abilities. Therefore, the more curious we are, the more we will observe, and thus, our decision-making ability would be better.
Good observation skill helps in overcoming statistical bias. Let's understand this through an example of the mythological world.
1.6 Observation is Above Statistics
According to Hindu mythology, Narad Muni is one of the most prominent devotees
of Lord Vishnu. He used to chant "Nayaran Narayan", the other name of
Lord Vishnu, with every breath.
One day, he went to Lord Vishnu and asked, "My Lord, who is your biggest
devotee?" Narad Muni was quite sure that Lord Vishnu would take his name.
Lord Vishnu said, "My biggest devotee is a poor farmer on Earth." Narad
Muni was very much astonished and afflicted. He forthwith made up his mind to visit that farmer. This farmer was Divinely empowered, by virtue of which he became invisible; approached near that farmer, and found that the farmer repeated, "Nayaran Narayan," only twice in 24 hours. The farmer was engaged in agriculture, feeding cows and buffalos, cutting wood for cooking food, etc.
Narad Muni returned to the Lord Vishnu and said, "My Lord, it appears there
be a mistake on your part, the farmer chanted "Nayaran Narayan" only twice, while I chant almost 1,000 times in a day; therefore, statistically, I should be the winner, so please let me know, how this farmer can be your biggest devotee? Lord Vishnu smiled and told him that all the queries would be answered, but he has to do a critical task for him before that. Narad Muni said,
"My Lord, I am always in your duty; please let me know what I need to do?"
Lord Vishnu gave Narad Muni a small diya (lamp), which was lit. Lord
Vishnu said, "O dear, you have to go around the Earth, and come back within
24 hours, just keep in mind that the diya must not get off." Narad Muni had
the divine power of flying; therefore, he was very confident that he would
successfully perform the task. As soon as he left the place with the diya, he
realised that it's not so easy to keep it lit, as the wind was a threat to blowing it
off. He somehow, covered the diya, and suddenly a storm came, Narad Muni
had to struggle to keep the lamp lit, and somehow, he crossed that area. He was feeling tired and thirsty, but he was worried that if he stops, he might not reach Lord Vishnu within 24 hours; hence, he continued to fly. Next, there was heavy rain. Again, he was in deep problem; with a lot of effort, he
managed to cross that area also. Finally, with great effort and pain, he reached
to Lord Vishnu's abode and claimed that he managed to complete the task
successfully, within 24 hours. Lord Vishnu said, "Indeed, you have completed
the task within 24 hours, and ensured that diya is lit, so no doubt you are
successful in your task; but now tell me how many times you have chanted
'Nayaran Narayan' in last 24 hours?" Narad Muni realized that not even a
single time, he chanted "Nayaran Narayan" in the task period. Narad Muni
said, "O Lord, I was so busy performing the task that I missed out chanting
your name."
Lord Vishnu said, "Dear Narad, imagine the poor farmer is also performing
the task which is equally difficult, still, he is managing to chant my name twice
a day, now tell me, isn’t he is my biggest devotee?” Narad Muni humbly
accepted this fact.
The moral of the story is, if you go by pure statistics, you can commit
mistakes. You have to observe all the facts around the statistics, to reach a
correct conclusion.
Does observation help in our studies? Let’s understand it from the story
below.
1.7 Observation and Study
Louis Agassiz, the famous Swiss biologist cum professor, at Harvard, had a
unique way of teaching. He was master of in-depth comparison and holds a
distinguished position in the studies of life science and zoological education.
Once, he placed a fish specimen on the table in front of one of his post-
graduate students and asked him to find out more about the fish, without
causing any harm. Louis Agassiz then left the class for some other reason.
The student spent some time watching the fish, and lightly scribbled away for nearly
an hour, until he was satisfied that he knew everything he could about that
fish.
The student became angry when his professor didn't come in that day,
and also for the following few days. He finally realized what Agassiz had in his
mind; the professor was asking him to observe the fish more deeply.
After a few days of study, the student finally began to notice finer details, that
had escaped his vision previously like—how the scales of the fish were shaped
and the patterns they made; how the colour of fish differs on different parts;
the placement of the teeth, shape of each tooth and so on. When his professor
finally returned, and the student explained all that he had learnt, Agassiz
replied, "I am not happy with the findings," and walked out of the room.
The student got disappointed that the professor had discarded all his
efforts, but he gathered the courage to further try. He sidelined all his previous
notes to start afresh. He studied the fish for many hours per day for an entire
week. When he met with the professor the next time, the student had
Produced work, a milestone in the study of the species of the fish.
Upon completing his survey of the sunfish, he wrote, "I had learned the art
of comparing objects based on the work of a naturalist".
Professor Agassiz is very fondly known as the great professor, only after the famous Greek philosopher Socrates, in the sense that his legacy extended to his disciples who became distinguished professors and noted scholars.
You know, skill of observation helped many discoveries. Let's seek them out.
1.8 Role of Observation in Scientific Discovery
"To acquire knowledge, one must study;
But to acquire wisdom, one must observe."
– Marilyn vos Savant.
Invariably every scientific investigation begins with an observation.
In his famous book, A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking noted, "good
scientific theories must be built on a large class of observations."
Observations are the basis of scientific theories.
Creativity usually begins by observing the situation and paying close
attention to how problems and challenges are being solved. In the case of
product innovation, existing systems, products, or natural occurrences can be
applied to a new challenge.
1.9 How Did Edward Jenner Invent the Smallpox Vaccine?
In the middle of the 18th century, smallpox was a deadly disease of humans. It
killed about one-third of those infected. Survivors often bore scars on their
faces and other parts of the body. It was a leading cause of blindness back
then. Thus, it was a big challenge for physicians, and scientists to find the
solution to this deadly disease.
British physician, Edward Jenner, was born in 1749. Jenner proved that that
infection with cowpox could protect a person from smallpox infection.
Cowpox was a cattle disease, which used to transfer to humans, but it was not
so deadly and harmful.
While Jenner was talking to his milkmaid, she claimed that she would never
have smallpox, because she has had cowpox. Similarly, he observed that many
other dairy workers also believed that cowpox infection protected them from
smallpox.
Jenner was astonished to know this kind of belief in dairy workers, and
decided to deep dive into this belief, and thus, decided to experiment with the
the milkmaid's boy. He inoculated something he scraped from a cowpox sore, off a
milkmaid's hand into the arm of a boy eight years old, Phipps. The boy ill, but had recovered in few days, or recovered from smallpox. Some weeks afterwards, Jenner now took out a portion of discharge from a recent human small-pox sore and grafted that onto Phipps's arm with the view of infecting him with
smallpox. Phipps, though did not get smallpox. Jenner repeated the
same experiments on other humans and published his data in a leading journal.
Jenner succeeded in developing a vaccine against smallpox. This helped to make this disease free from earth. Due to the vaccination program implemented in large scale across the globe, smallpox was finally declared eradicated from earth by World Health Organisation in 1980.
1.10 Benjamin Franklin and his Observations
In the mid- 18th century, most people believed that wet clothing, and
dampness in the air, caused the common cold. However, Benjamin Franklin
observed that sailors, who were continually wearing wet clothing, were not
suffering from cold; thus, something was wrong in their belief about the
common cold.
After analysing for some time, he eventually concluded that people often
catch a cold from one another, when sitting near, and breathing in each other's
transpiration. Even before the discovery of viruses and germs, Franklin had
worked out that common cold, transferred between human beings, through air.
Thus, by watching wet sailors, he made the whole world believe that something
is being transferred between human beings, due to which common cold is happening.
It was a huge discovery and because of this, microbiology research and medicine of cold originated.
Benjamin's Contribution in Electricity:
In the mid-18th century people did know the existence of electricity, but not the way as today
about it today. Back then, people used electricity for magic tricks, by creating
sparks and shocks to amaze people. Scientists were experimenting for
centuries, but could not get much success; hence, there was no practical use of
electricity.
Benjamin, a curious and inventive thinker, studied electricity in detail and
came up with his hypothesis.
Franklin observed several similarities between electricity and lightning as
they both—created light, made a loud noise when they exploded, were
drawn to metal, had a special smell, etc. So Franklin came up with the idea that electricity and lightning were the same thing. Franklin wrote his ideas on electricity in several letters to his scientist friends, who were living in London. His scientist friends found Benjamin's observation quite interesting, so in 1751, they published them in a book called, Experiments and Observations on Electricity. Benjamin decided to prove that electricity and lightning were the same thing.
Franklin desperately needed something to get close enough to the clouds to
attract lightning.
His plan required something tall, like a hill or a tall building; but in
Philadelphia, the US, they had neither a mountain nor a tall building.
He came up with an idea; this one involved a key and a kite.
Thus, instead of getting himself up near the lightning, he flew a kite up to it
with a metal key attached to it, to attract the lightning, and it worked.
Franklin proved with this experiment that lightning and electricity were the
same thing.
However, even after successfully proving his hypothesis about electricity, he
didn't stop. He firmly believed that the knowledge about electricity must be
used for practical purposes that should help the humankind. Still, the larger
question was – what could have been the practical use of the knowledge of
electricity?
Fire in the tall buildings caused by lightning is a thing of the past.
Franklin resolved to do something about it. Franklin realized that lightning mainly hits the
highest part of a building, and electrical current within lightning may cause a fire.
Thus he invented the lightning rod. It is made of metal and attached to the highest point on
the house. The lightning struck the rod, not the house
and the electric current from the lightning entered into the ground without
damaging the house.
Do you know this invention has saved thousands of lives?
Thus, with the help of observation skill, Benjamin contributed to
humanity.
1.11 Velcro's Jungle Connection
One day, Georges de Mestral, a Swiss engineer, was trekking in the jungle
along with his dog and observed that burdock burrs (a kind of seed), was stuck
to his clothes, and even his dog's fur. He tried to take them away, but it wasn't
so simple. He put the burrs in the microscope and found that it is the hook-like
structure that tangles with cloth or fur. He wondered whether the burrs could be
used for something useful. He became so convinced with his idea of creating synthetic
burr, that he continued his efforts for more than a
decade, and finally, he got success and called his invention Velcro, and patented
it in 1955. We use Velcro in our bags, shoes, etc.
I hope you agree that this is a perfect example of curious observation.
If you do not know what Velcro is, please refer to the picture below
1.12 Alexander Fleming, and his Anti-bacterial Medicine
Tuberculosis and Pneumonia are bacterial diseases. Both of these deadly
In early 20th century, it had no cure, and many humans were being killed by such diseases.
Lots of scientists worked hard to bring an end to these bacterial infections. Alexander Fleming was one such scientist, but at that point, he left in the midst of an experiment due to some work. Upon his return after several days of his absence in his lab, he found a disorganized state of his room and started cleaning it.
some of the glass plates on which he had been growing a certain kind of
bacteria. While cleaning, suddenly, he observed an odd thing: one of the plates
had become contaminated by mould. Surprisingly, the area around the mould
looked free of bacteria. Fleming's observation indicated that a causal
relationship might exist between mould or something produced by the mould,
which might prevent bacterial growth. This rather small observation of
Fleming's led to a series of scientific tests which brought in a new knowledge and
finally to the invention of Penicillin that cures bacterial infections. Penicillin helped
curve the deadly TB, and the pneumonia; and therefore millions have been saved alive.
As you will conclude with me-if creativity can take a spark and inspire one,
to view situations from an environmentally created observation the possibilities
come endless. One may find creativeness at its peak moment-in virtually any forms
having that
open mind can lead to immense outcomes. In companies, the marketers,
product developers, salespeople, and CEOs often observe and think about
how observation can relate to their product or service. Allow yourself to
dream, imagine, and create. Organisations, which are dedicated to challenging
the status quo, and continuously seeking creative solutions, are often the
winners in today's fast-paced market.
Now the question arises, why have I termed observation as an ignored skill?
You might have noticed the importance of observation while going through
the various anecdotes mentioned in this chapter. Tell me honestly, how many
times have you tried, to develop this skill?
Not much of discussion happens on this topic, not many educational
courses are being offered, and not many books have been written on
observation skills. The simple reason behind this phenomenon is something
that is very common, which is usually ignored.
Now I hope you will try your best, to develop observation skills through
concentration, and curiosity.
The next chapter is about your ability to connect various independent
events, to understand its implications.
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