The Four Lenses of Innovation: A Power Tool for Creative Thinking

UnderstandingIdeation

In Seeing What Others Don’t, Gary Klein defines insights as “discontinuous discoveries”³²—pieces of information that unexpectedly shift our viewpoint, or our set of beliefs, in a way that is transformative. These revised understandings disrupt or restructure the normal patterns of thinking in our minds, creating entirely different associations or connections, thus enabling us to envisage completely new ideas and solutions.

To return to James Webb Young’s metaphor of the kaleidoscope from earlier in the book, it is as if a powerful insight turns the crank in our minds, so that existing facts and concepts click together in a new combination, revealing a strikingly novel relationship between these elements. In other words, the insight (the new understanding) is the catalyst for change. This causes a shift in our thinking patterns—a leap (or several leaps) of association—that connects various elements (thoughts, concepts, data) in a totally new relationship. The result is a new combination of thoughts—which we call an “idea”—that suggests an original, exciting, or better course of action. The recognition of that idea and its breakthrough potential is the moment when we suddenly “see” the answer with all certainty and clarity. This is what I believe to be the Eureka moment (literally meaning “I have found it!”).

When we put this all together, what we have is ...