Then we have areas that we know we don't know. For instance, I know that I'm pretty uninformed about the tax code. Because of my awareness of my ignorance, I can make smarter decisions about taxes—by hiring an accountant. Or being especially careful when I fill out my taxes each year.
The reality is that no person or organization can know everything. So ignorance about particular topics or situations is a reality of being in the world.
But a blindspot occurs when a person or organization is ignorant about a situation and doesn't realize the ignorance exists. It may be due to dogma. It may be because the situation has changed—what used to be true no longer is but people haven't recognized that. It may be due to a lack of depth—someone doesn't realize the degree of complexity to a particular issue. In short, a blindspot is a case where we don't know that we don't know something.
Blindspots are particularly damaging to organizations. That's because most big surprises (especially environmental or market ones) to organizations tend to occur because of a collection blindspot that meant the organization and executives simply failed to perceive the potential for surprise with that specific issue.
A "Day One Problem" is a situation where things have never worked from day one. It's an engine that never ran, the customer fulfillment process that was mixed up from the start, the sales department that never met quota, or the team that was always substandard with their work products. Why do we care about whether or not a problem is a "Day One Problem" or not?
Motivation is one of the most common work-related issues I hear from clients ("these people are unmotivated" or "we want high scores on the climate survey to improve everyone's motivation"). Yet motivation, especially from a performance perspective, tends to be oversimplified by most managers and executives.
The "Elevator Speech" is a pretty common way to self-promote and market. I'd always heard that the term "elevator speech" came out of GE when Jack Welsh was there as a way of making sure that a team had a succinct and compelling explanation for what they were about.
I mention the elevator speech because performance consultants have traditionally been challenged with finding clear, coherent ways to explain to co-workers and potential clients what it is that they do. An elevator speech is a 30 second explanation of who you are professionally and what you do.