Dr. Eric Frazer, PSY.D.

Chapter 7: Opening To Insights

Companies today say that they want innovators. How does that happen? Yes, there are instances in which people have an “ah-hah” moment, but that is not the event that creates innovation. Insights come from a mindset, in which one is open to the unknown, the willingness to be wrong, being capable of taking risks in one’s thinking, and testing alternative hypotheses. When one, and one’s team, engage in this mindset and decision-making process, it creates the space for insights to be cultivated. This is an example of collective intelligence. Companies struggle with this for a number of reasons. At an individual level, people struggle with being wrong, having a bad idea, or coming up with a predictable and logical solution, instead of coming up with the best solution. This ‘safe’ way drastically diminishes innovation, and subsequently, a company’s capacity to be an industry leader. If you’re not sure where you or your organization stands in terms of insights, take a look at some of these questions.

Does your team or organization embrace a mindset of "thinking outside of the box?”

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Is your team or organization willing to make a wrong decision in service of finding the best decision later in the process?

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Does your team or organization have a degree of internal trust to experiment and test ideas without assigning blame when a solution fails?

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These are some examples of how insights can be squashed before they even have the opportunity for incubation. One of the tell-tale signs of an organization's inability to cultivate innovation and insights is when the leader, or leadership team, insists on being right. Being right, is more important than being best. With a dictatorship style of leadership, the only guaranteed outcome is that insights will develop slowly, innovation will struggle, and the most talented people will leave.

The Exercise:

Write down a time you had a deep personal insight about yourself; a time you realized something about yourself that was a blind spot. What do you suspect triggered that new awareness? Write down a time you had a remarkable professional insight at your place of work. What was unique about your idea or solution? How did that discovery process occur for you? Further Learning:

Listen to “The Knowledge Project Podcast: #144, Gary Klein: Insights For Making Better Decisions.”