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I wasted two hours at a car auction last month.
Not because I bid wrong. Not because I picked the wrong car. Because I followed the visible process without asking if there was a better one.
Here's what happened: I arrived early, inspected about 200 vehicles, found the one I wanted (number 136 in the lineup), and settled in to wait.
The auction started. Car after car rolled through. An hour and a half in, they were on car 112. I was doing the math on how much longer I'd be sitting there.
Then I walked up to the registration counter to ask about a different car, one that wasn't in that day's auction. Could it be entered?
The greatest inefficiencies in life hide behind unquestioned assumptions.
The answer surprised me: "Sure, or we can just give you the likely auction price and you can buy it now."
That made me pause. I asked the next question: "Can I do that with a car that's already in the auction but hasn't come up yet?"
"Of course."
I could have bought my car two hours ago. The option existed the whole time. I just never asked.
There’s Always An Invisible Path
I could only smile because, even though I was caught up in the moment and missed it, I knew that every system has two sets of rules.
The visible rules: The posted process. The official sequence. The way things appear to work. At the auction, that was: wait your turn, bid when your car comes up, follow the order.
The invisible options: The faster paths, the exceptions, the flexibility that exists but isn't advertised. At the auction, that was: tell us what you want, and we'll make it happen now.
The visible rules are for people who don't ask.
The invisible options are for people who do.
I'd been playing by the visible rules. Not because the invisible options were hidden from me. Because I never thought to look for them.
Sound familiar?
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Why Experts Miss The Invisible Path
You'd think experts would be better at this.
We're trained to analyze, to see what others miss, to understand how things really work. But that training often works against us here.
We're good at understanding the content. The cars. The data. The substance of whatever we're evaluating.
We're less good at questioning the container.
The process.
The structure.
The "way things are done" that we accept without examination.
I spent my preparation time inspecting vehicles.
That was content work.
I spent almost no time asking how the auction actually operated.
That was system work.
The system question took 30 seconds and would have saved me two hours.
I've made this mistake more times than I'd like to admit. In bureaucracies. In negotiations. In organizations where I assumed the visible process was the only process.
It usually isn't.
The Influence Connection
Here's why this matters beyond saving time:
The people who understand how systems really work are the ones who get things done when others can't. They find the path. They know who to ask. They don't accept "that's the process" as the final word.
That's influence.
Not because they're breaking rules. Because they're discovering that the rules they thought existed were never rules at all.
When you're the person who finds the faster path, the invisible option, the way through when everyone else is waiting, people notice. They come to you when things need to happen. Your reputation becomes: "They figure things out."
That's worth more than expertise alone. Expertise tells you what's right. System fluency tells you how to make it happen.
Both matter. Most experts only have the first.
The REVEAL Framework
Here's a reminder to myself and to you on how to find the invisible options before you waste time on the visible process:
Gif by TheAvenue_Film on Giphy
Let’s get it…
R — Recognize you're entering a system
Any time you're in a new environment with established processes, whether an auction, a bureaucracy, a company, or an institution, recognize that you're seeing the default path, not the only path.
Just naming this helps. "This is how it appears to work. That's not necessarily how it has to work."
E — Express your actual goal
State what you want and what you value. Clearly. Early.
If I'd said, "I'm interested in one specific car and I value my time.
What's the most direct way to buy it?" I would have learned about the shortcut immediately.
Systems can't serve your priorities if you don't tell them what your priorities are.
V — Verify the constraints
Before you settle into waiting or accept a limitation, ask: "Does this have to work this way?"
Often the answer is "No, but that's how most people do it." That's not a constraint. That's a default.
E — Explore exceptions
Ask directly: "Are there faster options? Do people ever do this differently? What am I not seeing?"
The people who work the system know the shortcuts.
They'll share them if you ask. They just won't volunteer them unsolicited.
A — Ask the adjacent question
I discovered the main shortcut by asking about a car that wasn't even in the auction. The tangent question revealed how the whole system worked.
Sometimes the indirect inquiry opens more doors than the direct one.
L — Learn before you settle
Spend your first few minutes on meta-questions about the system, not on the content inside it.
"How does this typically work? What do people usually miss? What would you do if you were me?"
A few early questions can save hours of unnecessary compliance with rules that were never required.
Every system has visible rules for people who follow along and invisible options for people who ask, so ask before you settle into waiting.
LEVEL UP
AI Prompt: The Hidden Options Finder
Copy, paste, and complete this in your favorite LLM:
I'm about to enter a process or system and I want to make sure I'm not missing faster or better options. Help me prepare.
Here's the situation: [Describe the process, institution, or system]
Here's what I want: [Your specific goal]
Here's what I value: [Time, cost, simplicity, etc.]
Help me:
1. Identify assumptions I might be making about how this has to work
2. Generate questions I should ask to surface invisible options
3. Suggest who might know shortcuts that aren't advertised
4. Anticipate what flexibility might exist that isn't obvious
5. Draft how I could state my goal and values upfront to unlock better paths
6. Flag any "visible rules" that might not actually be requiredPOLL
When Entering a New Process or System, What's Your Default?
CURATED ROUNDUP
What to Review This Week
Read: Thinking in Systems by Donella Meadows
Listen: The Lost Art of Asking Good Questions by Jack Zenger
In Case You Missed It!
The Bottom Line
Every system has a visible process and invisible options.
The visible process is for people who follow along. The invisible options are for people who ask.
Experts often miss this because we focus on substance over system. We prepare for the task instead of learning the environment. We optimize within constraints we never verified.
The skill is simple: before you settle into any process, ask if there's another way. The answer might save you hours. It might change what's possible.
At minimum, it reveals how things actually work.
The people who build influence don't just understand the content. They understand the container. And they ask the questions that open doors others don't know exist.
Thanks for reading. Be easy!
Girvin
Your expertise gets you into the room. But your ability to connect without a script is what keeps you there. When you freeze, you don't just lose a conversation—you lose authority.
The Impromptu Communications Navigator is a complete toolkit for navigating the unscripted moments that define your career. Stop freezing. Start connecting.
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