Insight: Harnessing the Power of Inspiration

The theory is that the brain’s two hemispheres work in very different ways. While the left hemisphere deals with intense focus on detail, the right takes a more holistic approach – seeing the whole picture, as it were.

The right half of the brain processes weak connections between concepts and works more with unconscious memory than the left. But for a person to recognize the connections it makes, the mind needs to be ‘quiet’, i.e. not intensely engaged in active thought processes in the left hemisphere. In short, in order to solve a problem, we sometimes need to stop thinking about the problem.

“You get ideas from daydreaming. You get ideas from being bored. You get ideas all the time. The only difference between writers and other people is we notice when we're doing it.” [2]

In a 2012 study, Benjamin Baird and Jonathan Schooler took the investigation into insight even further. Their results show that relaxing alone is not enough, and that creative thought is specifically encouraged by mind-wandering, or daydreaming.

Four groups of students were given a creative task to perform. Three of the groups were given a break, and respectively allowed to rest, engaged in an intensive memory exercise or given a monotonous task proven to encourage daydreaming, before returning to the task. The results were stark. The students encouraged to let their minds wander performed an average of 41% better than the other three groups. [3]

Why Does Insight Matter?

Understanding how insight works is important because it means the idea that taking a break, going for a walk or playing a game – doing anything that takes your mind off an issue – is no longer a vague notion of helping with problem-solving, it is scientifically supported. The process can be useful for more than just problem-solving, though. Insightful thought can also be beneficial in generating new business ideas or for helping employees to come to grips with new concepts or processes introduced to the organization.

How to Encourage Insight

There are a number of practical things you can do to encourage insightful thinking:

Plant the Seeds

If you want employees to consider a specific problem or task, they need to know the details in advance. Giving their minds time to wander is no use if their unconscious doesn’t know what it’s supposed to be working on. Even if you’re just looking for new ideas, be sure to let employees know this, along with any general parameters, e.g. “We’re expanding our line of toys to appeal to older children and want some new product ideas for 8 to 11 year olds.”

De-Stress

Stress is an insight killer. The more pressure people feel to come up with the goods, the less chance there is of them tapping into that moment of insight. A 2002 study by Teresa Amabile, Constance Hadley and Steven Kramer looked at the effect of time pressure on creativity. [4]

“Our study indicates that the more time pressure people feel on a given day, the less likely they will be to think creatively … Moreover, the drop in creative thinking was most apparent when time pressure was at its worst … people were 45% less likely to think creatively than they were on any of the low pressure days.”

Surprisingly, the study found that employees also suffered a creative drought for at least two days after the time pressure had abated – meaning stress not only kills creative thinking in the moment, but also creates what the authors call a ‘pressure hangover’. So if you’re trying to tap into insightful thought, the last thing you want to do is pile on the pressure – it will only be counterproductive.

Rest

Tired brains are unlikely to produce the alpha waves needed for insightful thought. Try to ensure staff are well rested and instead of having another cup of coffee to keep going on a problem, consider suggesting they take a break instead. While a relaxed state of mind alone is not necessarily enough to foster insightful thinking, it is a necessary precursor.

Have Fun

Bring fun to the workplace. Google have installed table tennis, billiards, foosball tables and even video games in the Googleplex. These are not just employee benefits – the search engine giants know their value in stimulating creative thinking. Giving staff the opportunity to switch off their mind by doing something entertaining can also produce the happy alpha waves that lead to breakthroughs and new ideas. In fact, Kounios and Beeman’s study showed that people in a good mood solved up to 20% more insight-related problems. [5]

Laugh

Utilize the power of humor. Laughter is believed to have many positive, healthy effects, but it could also be the key to unlocking the brain’s creative thought processes, as JD Couger discusses in his book Creative Problem Solving and Opportunity Finding. [6] He references both Arthur Koestler, “one of the most important writers on conceptualization”, and University of Michigan research in asserting that laughter has a direct physiological response on the brain, releasing endorphins which generate a feeling of wellbeing and stimulate creativity.

Chat

Bringing people together in an informal environment could also be great for stimulating creative thought and insights. When Pixar was building a new office, Steve Jobs wanted to ensure that his creatives spoke with each other as much as possible, so he dictated that there was only one set of toilets and that they were right in the heart of the building, alongside the cafeteria, meeting rooms and mailboxes. Jobs believed interaction across all staff would encourage creativity. [7] In an MIT study, Professor Thomas Allen also found a distinct correlation between social interaction and creativity. [8] While it is difficult to say which causes the other, creating a communal space for staff to interact casually could have a positive effect on their creative thinking.

Switch Off Online Distractions

In the modern technological world, many people have instant access to emails, social media and the internet. But focusing our brains on these tasks is not likely to be beneficial to creativity, as it engages the left brain in active thought and inhibits daydreaming.

Consider the Environment

In order to stimulate insightful thinking, consider the physical environment your staff work in and the various sensory impacts it has on them:

• Sight: a 2009 study into the effects of color on cognitive tasks suggests that the color blue has a stimulating effect on creative thinking, whereas red positively influences performance on detail-orientated tasks. [9] However, in a 2006 study into the effects of light and color on psychological mood, while color was generally found to have a positive effect, some results suggested that very strong colors had a negative impact on staff. [10] Therefore a judicious use of blue could be the best approach to office color design in order to stimulate insights.
• Scent: the study of aromatherapy has long worked with essential oils to impact on both body and mind. A number of these scents are believed to have a positive effect on reducing stress and encouraging relaxation – key precursors for insights. Among the best known are rose, geranium, lavender and frankincense. [11] However, there is a subjective element to this, as it is important that the person finds the scent pleasing in order to receive the beneficial effects of the oils. Try to find a few which are pleasing to the majority.
• Sound: while it is important to allow staff to be distracted in order to tap into their right brain potential, they shouldn’t be distracted by intrusive sounds like noisy air conditioning systems or colleagues chatting. A 2007 study into workplace design found that dense, open plan offices produced high levels of ambient noise that were distracting to employees in a stressful way. [12] Offering as much privacy as possible is advised to minimize this negative distraction, as is limiting the overall size of open plan offices, where possible.

Do It Yourself

Don’t forget to apply all of this advice to yourself. A 2007 Cool Companies article said:

“New research has found that, of all the factors that influence the success of an entrepreneurial company, there is one that dominates: the creativity of the entrepreneur driving the company.” [13]

As well as the above, think about other ways to let your own mind wander. Before you even get to work, consider setting your alarm a little earlier so you can wallow in that drowsy, half-sleep state, or give yourself some extra time in the shower to soak, relax and let your subconscious roam. Don’t resist the temptation to gaze out the window occasionally – you never know what you might find out there.

Summary

Tapping into the brain’s ability to produce seemingly instantaneous answers to problems, come up with new ideas or understand new concepts is entirely possible. However, in order to achieve the right mental conditions, it is necessary to create circumstances which may seem contrary to a strong, focused working environment. But encouraging staff to relax, laugh and let their minds wander could actually lead to the unexpected breakthroughs which provide the kind of quantum leaps forward that organizations are constantly looking for.