1. www.executivecoachingindia.com
Coaching & Inattention blindness is a phenomenon where people fail to see an object or
person in front of them since their mind is focused on something else. We would
Mentoring
come across such instances in our everyday lives. For instance, we wouldn’t
have noticed a friend or acquaintance in front us when we are seriously
Coach Training preoccupied with some thought process.
Leadership Our eyes are just a sensory input device. It does not register in the mind
Training everything it sees. The conscious perception happens in the brain only when the
information from the sensory input (i.e. the eyes) gets registered in the brain.
Hence the significance of the focus or the attention comes into picture.
Soft Skills Training
Inattention blindness is not negative phenomenon. It is a positive aspect for our
brains to function effectively. William James, the founder of behavioral
Team Building psychology states about attention in this way, “Only those items which I notice
shape my mind - without selective interest, experience is utter chaos"1. Without
HR and Business the brain’s ability to block the irrelevant information, our brain would go through a
Programs chaos if it registers each and everything that the eyes see. Attention helps us to
choose that which is important and that which can be ignored.
Workshop Since our brain has this ability to focus and give attention and also choose to
Facilitation ignore everything that our eyes see, there are possibilities for mishaps to occur.
If the attention part of the brain wrongly discards that information which is
Psychometrics important, it is possible for inattention blindness to occur leading to injury or
accident. For instance, if an individual driving a car fails to see someone coming
The Orange Academy in the opposite direction, it can lead to an accident. Many of the accidents and
provides coaching & injuries happen due to inattention blindness and not due to carelessness,
mentoring services; stupidity or incompetency.
and leadership training
& development The reason for the inattention blindness to occur is because people are not
services. Our clients aware of inattention blindness or do not admit that they too can have inattention
include several of the blindness. Even with improved training to achieve the attention functionality,
best known companies inattention blindness can occur because many of the brain’s processing with
across industry sectors, regard to perception happens automatically and unconsciously.
where we work with
some of their senior-
most executives. We Reference: CAMC (The Canadian Aviation Maintenance Council). (n.d). Inattention Blindness: Let's not the Blame
the Victim Just Yet, Occupational Health & Safety, Vol.18, No.1
are headquartered in
Bangalore, but work
with clients all across
India and overseas.
+91 7760503350
Authored By Akash Chander,
Principal Coach
© The Orange Academy 2012
Email: learn@executivecoachingindia.com
