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The rest of the paper sets out to explain what L&D team at ACC
Figure 6: Scenario Planning in Perspective
Concrete has so far done to help our middle managers develop
their skill around using these tools.

At L&D we began with the axiomatic understanding that, as
time goes on, the range of possible future outcomes becomes
greater – that is there is greater uncertainty about will happen.

Peripheral Vision: Being Focused versus being
Alert

To drive this workshop successfully it was important for L&D to measure how ACC Concrete as an organization was equipped to anticipate the future.
The challenge here was subjective in nature, since the objective was to measure the importance managers gave to Peripheral Vision.

1. It was important to assess to what extent each individual manager was alert and perceived the periphery of their respective business domains
at regular intervals.
2. In cases where the individuals did have a
sufficiently developed peripheral vision it was
necessary to understand to what extent they were
able to identify weak signals within their periphery.
3. Finally, it was important to understand how
accurately the individual could articulate the
impact of the weak signal in a future business
scenario

In human sight, focal vision helps us concentrate on core
tasks such as reading or working on a project. Peripheral
vision on the other hand helps us see the threats sneaking up
on us or recognize the opportunities at the edges of the
vision. For organizations, as for individuals, what emerges in
the periphery is difficult to see, tough to comprehend, and
hard to seize or evade. In essence, peripheral vision requires
different strategies and capabilities than focal vision (Figure
8) .
17

L&D’s assignment was to assess the strength of this Figure 8: the human eye v/s the organization’s eye (Picture courtesy The Periphery: Why
competency in ACC Concrete. it matters, from the book Peripheral Vision by George S Day and Paul J. H. Schoemaker)

Assessing organization’s preparedness for
18
future using Strategic Eye Test: Measuring the Vigilance Gap
At ACC Concrete we adopted the “Strategic Eye Test” tool to assess the level of understanding managers had about peripheral vision and the
amount of attention they paid to weak signals that appeared within their business vision. That is, the survey measured the gap between the
organization’s need for peripheral vision and it’s ability to sense weak signals in the environment.

Research done by George S Day and Paul J H Schoemaker identifies five components of peripheral vision capability that are particularly important
for an organization to be consistently good at sensing the periphery

17 Peripheral Vision: Detecting Weak Signals that will make or break your company by George S Day and Paul J. H. Schoemaker. Harvard Business School Press
18 ibid