Inspiration from The Dark Side of The Moon: The Reverse-Prism Model

"Life is like a prism. What you see depends on how you turn the glass." – Jonathan Kellerman

Do you know what happens when you shine light into a glass prism?

If you are familiar with Pink Floyd's famous album The Dark Side of The Moon, you know exactly what I am talking about. And if classic rock is not your thing, here's what happens. When you shine white light into a glass triangle, it refracts the light into a beautiful spectrum of colors. However, I recently discovered through my research that you could shine these colors into a prism, and it will come back as pure white light. Not what I expected!

What I love about this is that it not only is how the nature of light works, but it also perfectly represents something I have been seeing for quite some time in my work with leaders.

When business leaders learn to take in the full spectrum of information in their industry or their environment and then use it to narrow their focus, they can penetrate the clutter of options and rapidly advance their mission. This is what most successful leaders do exceptionally well; they diverge their thinking to collect information and then converge them into insights that allow them to take action.

This isn't just a gift that effective leaders have but a skill that can be learned. This is the key concept behind my Expand and Narrow model. When you expand your vision, you break out of your old patterns. As you begin to see new possibilities, you then narrow your focus to penetrate through old paradigms and create something entirely new.

It is no different from how light naturally works, which is an inspiring insight into how success in business works. So how can you use this approach to create new insights into your business or your life?