Seeing What Others Miss
Some people see trees. Others see forests.
I see the irrigation system under the forest floor.
That’s the gift, and the curse, of my ADHD brain. Where others focus on the surface, I see the patterns underneath. The connections. The cracks. The cause-and-effect chain no one else notices until it breaks.
For years, I thought this was just a distraction, my inability to focus on what was “important.” But over time, I realized it was my superpower. I wasn’t failing to focus. I was focusing differently.
And sometimes, that difference changes everything.
The Problem: Systems Are Invisible Until They Break
Most organizations don’t reward people for spotting problems early. They reward people for fixing them late.
Why? Because systems are invisible. They hum in the background… Processes, cultures, team dynamics… Until something goes wrong.
- Harvard Business Review notes that 70% of corporate change initiatives fail, often because leaders ignore systemic issues until they become crises.
- A McKinsey survey found that leaders spend less than 20% of their time on systemic design, but over 60% on firefighting problems caused by neglected systems.
In other words: if you’re the one pointing out invisible issues early, don’t expect applause. Expect silence. Or worse, dismissal.
Personal Anecdote: The Apple Story
When I was at Apple, I spotted a system issue in our team. I won’t name names, but it was clear: the way we were structured was slowing us down, misaligning priorities, and creating cracks in communication.
I flagged it. I explained it to my managers. I mapped out the consequences if we didn’t fix it.
They smiled politely, told me to focus on my job, and moved on.
Six months later, the cracks became chasms. The very issues I had warned about surfaced as full-blown problems. And suddenly, the same managers started rolling out “new measures” to address them. Measures that looked suspiciously like what I had suggested months earlier.
I wasn’t bitter. (Okay, maybe a little.) Mostly, I was validated. Because the system I saw (the one nobody else wanted to acknowledge) was real.
That moment taught me: just because people don’t see the system yet doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
Framework: Systems Thinking 101
Here’s how I think about systems:
Events: What just happened.
Patterns: What keeps happening.
Systems: Why it keeps happening.
Most people stop at events. Some notice patterns. Very few dig into the system.
But it’s the system that tells the real story.
Peter Senge, author of The Fifth Discipline, defines systems thinking as seeing “the underlying structures that drive behavior.” He argues that events are symptoms; systems are causes.
That’s why systems thinkers often feel out of sync. They’re talking about roots while everyone else is staring at leaves.
ADHD and Pattern Recognition
Here’s where ADHD comes in.
Novelty-seeking:
ADHD brains scan constantly for new stimuli, making us more likely to notice anomalies.
Non-linear thinking:
Research in Frontiers in Psychology shows ADHD adults score higher on divergent thinking, connecting dots across contexts.
Hyperfocus on inconsistencies:
Once we spot a crack, we can’t unsee it. We zoom in obsessively until the pattern emerges.
That’s why we often see systems others don’t, not because we’re smarter, but because our brains are wired to detect the unusual, the inconsistent, the thing that “doesn’t belong.”
What looks like distraction is often pattern recognition in disguise.
Data: The Power of Systems Thinkers
What stats say:
- A Deloitte report on future leadership highlighted systems thinking as one of the top three skills for the next decade.
- MIT’s Systems Design Lab found that leaders trained in systems thinking improved organizational problem-solving outcomes by 45% compared to traditional managers.
- ADHD research (Journal of Attention Disorders, 2021) shows that individuals with ADHD are more likely to excel in environments that require rapid pattern recognition and adaptive thinking.
In other words: what was once labeled as distraction is increasingly recognized as the future of leadership.
Actionable Takeaways
If you want to harness your own systems-thinking edge:
Zoom Out Before You Zoom In.
Don’t just ask “what happened?” Ask “what keeps happening?”
Map the System.
Diagram the process. Who interacts with whom? Where are the bottlenecks?
Look for Tension Points.
Anomalies and contradictions are clues to deeper patterns.
Name It Early.
Even if people dismiss you, document what you see. Six months later, it may save the project.
Pair Intuition with Data.
Trust your gut, but back it with evidence. People listen faster when you show the receipts.
Conclusion: Don’t Wait for the Break
At Apple, I saw the system breaking before anyone else. Nobody listened, until they had no choice.
That experience taught me two things:
- Seeing systems is a gift, even if others don’t recognize it.
- Your job isn’t just to spot them. It’s to articulate them so clearly that, eventually, others can’t ignore them.
Because systems always reveal themselves. The only question is whether you’ll wait for the break, or have the courage to see it early.
