Okay, a clever play on words, actually to be correct, homophones. Don’t want to incense the English major spouse…
What I meant to communicate with the title, is sometimes it takes an action or occurrence to give one insight, ergo the incident incites insight. Still not making sense? How about you go through an experience and that experience, although not directly connected to another event in your life that is on your mind, shows you a possible direction to take.
Inciting insight.
It happens to us all. A problem is percolating around in your head with no solution. You can’t come up with a logical direction to take to resolve the problem. Every solution you posit is, when reviewed to determine if it’s an acceptable way forward, so full of logical holes you wonder why you ever thought of it.
Then, while you’re working on some other issue needing your attention, and with no warning at all, no heavenly music accompanied by angels bearing a parchment with your solution on it (starting to sound like Sean of the South) a fully formed thought containing your solution pops into your head.
Well, something clicked, didn’t it.
This phenomenon is often referred to as an “aha moment” or a “eureka moment”. It happens when a solution to a problem or a creative idea suddenly comes to mind, often after stepping away from the problem and focusing on something unrelated.
Psychologists explain this as part of the incubation effect, where the subconscious mind continues to work on a problem even when your conscious mind is occupied with other tasks. When the brain makes connections or recognizes a solution, it surfaces into conscious thought as an insight.
Interesting, you say, but it happens, we know why, so what difference does it make?
Here’s a couple of ways it makes a difference. I tend to concentrate, to the point of exhaustion, on solving problems. It’s what I did professionally, and what I do naturally now that I’m retired (which means tired again, right?).
One thing I learned in my professional career, when a problem was especially difficult or resistant to a solution, was to let things lie for a while. Allow the subconscious to work on the problem with no interference from the conscious mind trying to crow-bar a solution. Under these circumstances your subconscious is free to look outside the box, something it can’t do with your conscious mind trying to set a direction for your solution. It worked for years then, and it works now.
Some subscribe to what they call a brainstorming session to solve difficult problems. A brainstorming session, as I see it, involves a leader (project lead?) who gathers people who may have some insight (there’s that word again) into a solution for the problem. I believe that brainstorming works better, if at all, when you don’t have everyone an expert in the field, or even in the field needed to address the problem.
A gaggle of experts, each forwarding his or her personal preference for a solution produces some rather high bandwidth noise, and isn’t conducive to inspiring a solution in the person responsible. My preference for a brainstorming session is to document the deliverables, time frame, acceptable expense, and technology requirements, if any, before working on a solution. Once the brainstorming session is complete and documented, the leader takes the results, reviews them, and recommends a preferred solution, possibly with a second or even third option if one is available. You’d be surprised at how many times just having the non-expert viewpoints in the conversation helps find workable or out-of-the-box solutions. I’ve had experts tell me they got the idea for a solution from 
something said by a non-expert who brought a fresh point-of-view to the conversations.
If a solution doesn’t present itself, it’s time to move on to something else and let the subconscious do it’s job.
Does this always work? No, it certainly does not. Failure to provide a solution means going back to the gulag and doing the hard work over again. Invention and problem solving, as in all other creative functions, is iterative. You may go back to the start point several times or more. The idea is to produce the best solution, consistent with requirements and budget, that you can. Taking time in design can produce a better product, however you have to have the time to do that. Justifying the time is probably the important first step.
One last thing which is really only applicable to projects you take on in your private life. Have a budget. Let me repeat, have a budget. Some solutions are readily available if you have sufficient funds. If you don’t know how much you can spend, you’ll never know you’ve produced the best, most cost-efficient result. And of course anyone who assigns you a project without a budget in a business setting is not hitting on all cylinders.
To a hammer, everything’s a nail. If you work your projects like that, you miss out on all the really excellent solutions that don’t involve hammers or nails, your projects will cost more, and the deliverable will not be as useful or efficient in most cases.
Work on these concepts and you’ll find your solutions will probably be a lot more inventive, applicable, and accepted by those you produce them for.
And that’s how you incite insight.
Like what you’ve read? More is available at Jack’s Substack
Continuity planning, civilian and military
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