Where Do Insights Come From?

To encourage these insights yourself, be alert to information or data which contradicts current thinking about your products, customers or processes. Take a skeptical approach to existing beliefs, and investigate these anomalies to see if they lead to a better understanding. For example, say your organization works based on a particular belief about what your customers like about a product. If one or two specific customers contradict that belief, instead of writing them off as an anomaly, do some research with other customers to see whether your belief is based on a flawed assumption.

Connections

The connections path includes spotting connections, coincidences or just curiosities that spark a chain of thought and lead to a new idea. [3] It can be combining two things in a new way or understanding why something happens by noticing what incidences of it have in common.

Darwin was contemplating the origin of the variations he was seeing within the species he studied when he read Malthus’ work on the competition for resources in population growth. He realized that this competition applied to the natural world too - and his ‘survival of the fittest’ theory of evolution was born. To encourage these insights, be open-minded and seek out new ideas and experiences. Talk to colleagues and find out about their work, or spend more time with people you don’t normally encounter. You might find, for example, that a laborious process you’ve been trying to improve has been circumvented entirely by another department because of their different expertise.

Creative Desperation

And finally, creative desperation is what Klein calls it when you’re at a roadblock and need to find a way through. [4] To do this, you analyze all of your assumptions and look for a ‘weak’ one that might be wrong. When you find one you can change, you have the insight you need. Creative desperation saved the life of smokejumper/firefighter Wagner Dodge when he lit an ‘escape fire’. Dodge realized that he couldn’t outrun the notorious 1949 Mann Gulch wildfire, but he could create a safe space if he exhausted the fire’s fuel – the grass – by setting another fire in front of him. In a creative desperation situation, think critically about the assumptions you have made regarding the restrictions you are under. Which of them are real? And which may be open to change?

Encouraging Insights

As described, each path requires different circumstances. Creative desperation is specifically about solving a present problem, where the other two are about discovering a flaw in an existing belief, or coming up with a new idea altogether. The contradiction path needs a skeptical mindset, willing to investigate oddities; the connections one, an open-minded approach to new ideas; and the desperation approach requires critical thinking skills.Klein identifies four things that might encourage all kinds of new insights, with the caveat that these are just his own speculation: [5]

1. Making insights a habit: people have small, mundane insights every day, like realizing they can save time by shopping at lunchtime instead of after work, for example. Make a point of noticing and celebrating your everyday insights.
2. Using your curiosity: when comparing two groups who had the same information but who did or did not have insights, Klein discovered that the difference was curiosity. So actively investigate anything unusual that catches your attention - be curious about everything.
3. Encouraging other people: ask people what has surprised them recently and try to get them talking about why. See what comes from the conversation.
4. Investigating confusions and conflicts: If you’re having difficulties in a working relationship, try to understand the other person’s perspective by asking questions like “What did you think I wanted?” or “Why did you take that decision?”

Obstacles to Insights

The problem with generating insights at work is that organizations tend to be focused more on eliminating errors than on generating insights. [6] Why? Because organizations thrive on predictability – budgets, projects, business plans, etc., all usually depend on everything running in a predetermined, predictable way. Because of this, insights can be stifled. New ideas can be seen as a threat to continuity. This can be especially true within a management hierarchy, where insights from the coalface are filtered out by managers wary of passing up ideas that may reflect poorly on their judgment.

To foster more insights, organizations need to focus less on the down arrow and more on the up. [7] That can mean a cultural change, which encourages people to offer new ideas, and has a mechanism in place to review and act upon them. It also requires a flexibility to change plans when an insight leads to a better plan.

Conclusion

While it is by no means empirical, Klein’s research into insights does present some food for thought, and it is a useful attempt to explain the circumstances behind a phenomenon that is otherwise somewhat nebulous and difficult to define. Whether or not Klein’s own suggestions to encourage insights work, understanding the circumstances that lead to these insights can only be useful in helping people be more receptive to them and maybe even to actively pursue them.