Looking for A-Ha: what neuroscience tells us about creativity

That was the title of my talk at ASCIM 2016 in Bangkok recently. I really enjoyed preparing for this talk. It took me probably a full 4 days of researching, reading, putting pieces together and then changing them all again. The best reward for this kind of effort is double. First of all, I learned a lot by preparing for this. The reactions from participants during the talk, and from those that came up to me after the talk, confirmed that they had learned some valuable new things as well. Nice visual summary made by the conference drawer to remember the key points !

What insight looks like

One key objective of an Action Learning session is to help a colleague get a better understanding of his or her problem. A better understanding leads to better solutions ! Asking questions helps a leader explore possibilities he or she had not thought of before. This takes time, and simply telling someone what should be done does not work. To come to a genuine insight, our brain requires questions and explorations.

We often ask team members to write out in a full sentence their understanding of the underlying problem. Sometimes, the leader sharing the problem insists that he understands the problem very well, and that there is not really a need to write it out.  Yet the different rounds of asking questions to one another and evaluating different perspectives can sometimes lead to real insights. When the "light bulb is switched on" leaders immediately see their challenge - and the solutions - in a whole different way.

Here are two examples from actual sessions.

The leader's understanding of the problem at the start of the session:
"How can I improve the employee engagement score related to the department's leadership ?"

The leader's insight of the problem at the end of the session:
"How can I develop trust between myself and my leadership team ?"

And the second one ...

At the start:
"How can I improve the relationships between myself and the team ?"

and at the end:
"How can I control my emotional reactions to minimize the impact on the team ?"

Maybe it is time for you to take a fresh look and the challenges you are facing ?