Seeing What Others Don't: The remarkable ways we gain INSIGHTS

Worry, analysis, and speculation are not our best discovery tools, and most of us have, at one time or another, gotten incredibly lost and confused using them.

In solving problems, we instinctively want to identify answers. Instead of generating cautious hypotheses, we offer bold conclusions. Instead of acknowledging that problems have multiple causes, we stick with the first cause that pops to mind. Doctors assume they have the right diagnosis, which they base on symptoms they have seen in the past. In b

This question eventually led O’Brien to Chris Argyris, whose writings resonated with Hanover’s managers’ experience. Argyris’s “action science,” offered theory and method for examining “the reasoning that underlies our actions.”9 Teams and organizations trap themselves, he says, in “defensive routines” that insulate our mental models from examinati

The odds of relevant discovery rise dramatically when three things happen: 1. The information comes from the relevant sources at multiple levels of the customer’s organization. 2. The questions asked are nonstandard, creative, and challenging (e.g., “What am I afraid of finding out?”). Even the most diligent multilevel, multiangle, and multizone an