Seeing What Others Don’t

Pull Over

A police officer observed the driver of a new BMW flick ashes from his cigarette onto the upholstery. He wondered who would be so uncaring as to do that in a brand-new car. The officer pulled the vehicle over and arrested a car thief – he’d caught the careless crook in the act. This story demonstrates the power of a flash of insight.

Businesses rely on such insights to shape decisions and trigger innovation. Yet, to boost performance, managers work hard to reduce errors. In the process, they often neglect to facilitate useful insights. While many experts say that focusing on avoiding errors stifles innovation, they don’t know how to increase insight: What ignites that flash? What traits or events impede people and block their ability to seize an insight? And, how can you build your stream of insights?

Insight Stories

Martin Chalfie, a professor of biology at Columbia University, won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2008. Chalfie was studying the nervous system of worms. He attended a lecture about a topic unrelated to his field. The speaker described the discovery of a protein in jellyfish that enables them to fluoresce underwater. Chalfie realized...