Why We All Heard “Black Cows”

Four of us heard the same wrong word on a Gino Vannelli record last weekend.

And I was the reason.

I was golfing with some friends at a beautiful course in Kananaskis Country. Dave was kind enough to drive, which meant I got to look around instead of paying attention to the road.

At one point, I noticed several dark bovines standing by the side of the road, out of the sun.

And for reasons that made perfect sense in my head, I immediately belted out:

"Black cows look better in the shade." 🐄

If you know Gino Vannelli's "Black Cars," you know the line, or at least you think you do.

The guys laughed, so we put the song on.

We all heard "black cows."

The actual lyric hadn't changed. But I had framed what everyone was about to hear, and once I had, the song seemed to confirm it.

I'm pretty sure "black cows" is how I'll hear that song forever now.

It made me wonder how often the same thing happens at work.

Someone gives the first interpretation of a problem.

"This customer is leaving because of price."

"That number is down because the market softened."

And if that interpretation sounds reasonable, particularly when it comes from someone confident or experienced, it can become the lens through which everyone else looks at the evidence.

Then the evidence starts to sound a lot like "black cows."

There are the things we miss because we're too busy driving.

But there are also the things we see perfectly well and interpret differently because someone else told us what we were looking at.

That might be the more interesting blind spot.

Who tends to be the first voice in your meetings?

And how often do you go back and check whether the data actually said what they said it said?

P.S. If you now hear "black cows" when you listen to the song, I apologize in advance.