Seeing What Others Don't: The Remarkable Ways We Gain Insights

Gary Klein attempts to understand what causes people to come up with great insights. He categorizes many insight anecdotes to build his theories. A police officer sees a driver "ash" his nice new car, and guesses (correctly) that it has been stolen. A scientist studying transparent organisms gets insight after seeing other glowing organisms. A smoke jumper, unable to outrun a fire, saves himself by setting a fire ahead of his path. Some insights were made by putting logical pieces together. Others were made against the flow. He comes up with a theory that includes a nice chart showing how seemingly contradictory factors can work together.
Later chapters deal with what blocks us from making insights and what we can do to make more insights. Computer systems fit squarely into the "block" category. They guide us to a specific way of doing things. This constrains our ability to think outside the box. We also need to spend effort to meet the demands of the "tools". Presentations and diagramming tools are some of the simplest examples. It takes so much effort to get an idea into an electronic form. Even a simple improvement to a process may be weighted down by the effort of showing it on the diagram. Many other systems can be even more nefarious. We may not be able to do something better because our software wont let us. Business processes can also be a problem. If we want to avoid error, we must stick by the process. However, the process reduces our chances of getting insights that can help improve the process. Is somebody showing insubordination, or are they gaining a new insight? Leadership needs to facilitate risk taking and experimentation in order to gain new insights. Cross-collaboration can be helpful. (The story is given about Steve Jobs wanting only a single set of restrooms for Pixar in order to force employees to meet.) However, it is difficult to force insights. It is more important to not trample on the insights and the situations that allow them to be acted upon. A culture most allow insights to be acted upon, but not overwhelm with too many insights.
On interesting point made was on heuristics. These rapid assumptions because they can lead to biases. However, these are also an important factor in obtaining rapid insight. Studies typically have focused on their "negative side". However, very little has been done on the positive side. We should not throw them out because they can sometimes lead to bad. Like many other things, the quest for reliability often helps quash the needed future insights.
What is best for society? Large organizations crave predictability. It is difficult for them to encourage insights, even when they try. Efforts to encourage that behavior is beneficial. However, it will most likely be the loners and the smaller organizations that innovate.