He would place a fish in a jar of formaldehyde on a table, instruct the student simply to observe it, and then leave. No guidance. No questions. No hints. Just the fish and the instruction to study it.
Hours later, when the student returned with a perfunctory description – convinced there was nothing more to see – Agassiz would send him back. Look harder. And again. You have not yet seen.
What followed was not a lesson in biology, but in perception.
Slowly, reluctantly, the student began to notice what had initially escaped attention: subtle asymmetries, hidden structures, faint markings, minute variations of texture and form. What had first appeared lifeless and monotonous revealed itself as a dense universe of complexity.
The exercise was not about the fish. It was about the discipline of seeing.
Agassiz understood something fundamental: true observation is not passive. It requires patience, humility, and the willingness to suspend premature certainty. To see deeply is to endure uncertainty, boredom, and frustration. It means resisting the seductive urge to conclude too quickly, to label too easily, to assume too much.
Only then does reality begin to disclose itself.
Most of us glance, categorise, and move on. We register appearances and mistake them for essence. We confuse familiarity with knowledge. And so, in organisations and in life, we repeatedly miss what matters most, not because it is hidden, but because we have not yet learned how to look.
Agassiz’s lesson was brutal but profound: most people look, but very few actually see.
Leadership scholar Manfred Kets de Vries recently shared this story on LinkedIn, and it resonated deeply with us.
In our Grey Elephant Strategy Workshop, we highlight seven highly visible forces of progress that are, generally, widely ignored. We just don’t see them, or don’t want to confront them.
Understandably so. Grey elephants are big, often scary forces we’d rather not have standing on our toes.
Dean recently asked the CEO of one of our clients – one we’d worked with using our Grey Elephant framework, which Grey Elephants kept him awake at night.
His answer astounded our team.
“None,” he said.
Not because he was arrogant, but because he said his executive team had studied the grey elephants so thoroughly, they now speak of dancing with elephants.
“And how,” he asked, “can you be anything but amazed at a dancing elephant?”
So perhaps – rather than looking and not seeing – we should try to dance with the elephants in our lives.
I’d love to share our Grey Elephant framework with you. Contact us and we’ll send you our guide to dancing with elephants.
He advises executive teams on strategy and change, has worked with L’Oréal, Rio Tinto, GSK, Deloitte, John Lewis, M&S and others, and co-hosts the Elephants in the Boardroom podcast.