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We talk a lot about visionary leadership. You know, the ability to see around corners, spot emerging patterns, and imagine futures that don\u2019t yet exist. These are all very important activities for strategic work. But something we rarely consider is what happens when the physical instrument of vision itself is under siege. Said more bluntly, what happens when our eyes succumb to the daily assault of screen time?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
I recently spoke with Dr. Valerie Sheety-Pilon, SVP of clinical and medical affairs at VSP Vision Care, whose organization has spent three years tracking the state of vision health in the American workforce. The data she shared stopped me cold\u2014and it reframed how I think about the infrastructure of creative, imaginative work. Here are three of my takeaways.<\/p>\n
Three years ago, VSP\u2019s Workplace Vision Health Report<\/em> found that 50% of workers were experiencing at least one eye issue. I would definitely fall into that category\u2014I have spare pairs of plus-one readers in every room in our house. But by last year, that number had climbed to 63%. Today it\u2019s 66% and rising. That\u2019s a 16-percentage-point jump in just three years, and it spans both desk workers and non-desk workers alike.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The culprit isn\u2019t mysterious. We are now spending upward of 100 hours a week in front of screens: phones, tablets, monitors, and televisions. That sustained \u201cvisual load,\u201d as Sheety-Pilon calls it, is generating screen-related visual discomfort at a rate our workplaces haven\u2019t been designed to absorb. The downstream effects, according to VSP\u2019s research, are reduced productivity, diminished ability to focus, and a declining quality of work output.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When I asked Sheety-Pilon whether visual fatigue might also affect higher-order thinking\u2014the kind of imagination, problem-solving, and creative association that I call wonder <\/em>\u2014she didn\u2019t hesitate. \u201cThere are studies that connect visual fatigue as a component of that imaginative deliverable of creativity,\u201d she told me. \u201cHigh visual load is impacting cognitive health as part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n This is the point where Sheety-Pilon\u2019s perspective aligned deeply with my own perspective about what we need in our current Imagination Era. In my book Move. Think. Rest.<\/em>, I point out that our sentient intelligence constantly picks up cues and data through our bodies that inform and enrich our cognitive, rational decision-making. We are hardwired to use our whole selves, not just our prefrontal cortex.<\/p>\n Sheety-Pilon frames it as the \u201cvisual sensory capacity,\u201d one critical component within a dynamic, interconnected sensory system. \u201cIf we improve our vision, and then our hearing, and then the other senses that all come together,\u201d she explained, \u201cwe can get that perfect package where we can be the best we can be every day.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\nInsight #2: The Body Is a System, Not a Collection of Silos<\/h2>\n