Quotes from Gary Klein

Eventually I was able to sort these 120 cases into five different strategies for gaining insights: connections, coincidences, curiosities, contradictions, and creative desperation.

Many of Admiral Stark's subordinates were so fixated on the idea that the navy battleships were protecting Pearl Harbor that they had trouble seeing the ships themselves as a Japanese target. The connection strategy is more than just connecting the dots. It involves changing the way we think.

We have trouble overcoming the four factors—flawed beliefs, insufficient experience, a passive stance, and a concrete reasoning style—that emerged from the contrasting twins study.

The person making the discovery gets some new piece of information and sees how it combines with other information to form a new idea. Sometimes the person sees a new way to combine different kinds of information even if none of them are new.

People who can pick up on trends, spot patterns, wonder about irregularities, and notice coincidences are an important resource.

The connection path is different from the desperation path or the contradiction path.

The greatest obstacle to knowledge is not ignorance; it is the illusion of knowledge.

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift. —Albert Einstein

Intuition is the use of patterns they've already learned, whereas insight is the discovery of new patterns.

Biking is about rhythm and flow. It's the wind in you face and the challenge of hammering up along hill. It's the reward at the top and the thrill of a high-speed descent. Biking lets you come alive in both body and spirit. After awhile the bike disappears beneath you and you feel as if you're suspended in midair.

We can increase insights by exposing ourselves to lots of different ideas that might help us form new connections.

The more central the belief is to our thinking, the harder it is to give up. These core beliefs anchor our understanding. We use them to make sense of events, to inquire, and to arrive at judgments about other ideas. And so we are much more likely to explain away any anomalies rather than revise our beliefs in the face of them.

In many cases, the problem isn't about having or noticing insights; it is about acting on them. The organization lacks the willpower to make changes.

When we put too much energy into eliminating mistakes, we're less likely to gain insights. Having insights is a different matter from preventing mistakes.

Insights change our desires; the new stories shift our goals, leading us to give up some ambitions and pursue others.

Coincidences change our understanding, change what we notice, change what excites us, and set us on the path to making a discovery. Coincidences can also change our actions. One way they do this is by giving us an idea of what we need to alter to break a pattern we don't like

The ancient Greeks worshipped the human capacity for insight. Scott Berkun, in examining the topic of innovation, pointed out that the Greek religious pantheon included nine goddesses who represented the creative spirit. Leading philosophers such as Socrates and Plato visited temples dedicated to these goddesses, these muses, who were a source of inspiration. We honor this tradition when we visit a museum, a "place of the muses," and when we enjoy music, the "art of the muses

they were demons about cost. They enjoyed finding a bargain and were proud of getting good quality at a low price. They took great satisfaction in not paying extra for fancy packaging or marketing gimmicks. They were committed to keeping the weekly shopping bill as low as possible.

you don't expect much, if you don't inquire in a way that respects the intelligence of the other person, you probably won't find many insights.

Decision researchers were trying to reduce errors, which is important, but we also needed to help people gain expertise and make insightful decisions.

Martin Chalfie is a perfect example of the experience most people have of "connecting the dots" and solving a problem by being exposed to more ideas. Like Chalfie, we get a new piece of information that combines with other information we already have, and, presto, we make a discovery.

Curiosities provoke people to investigate further, just as coincidences do. The initial "What's going on here?" reaction doesn't contain the insight, but it starts the person on the road to gaining the insight.

I still observe executives exhibiting the same lack of courage or knowledge that undercut previous waves of innovation. They declare that they want more innovation but then ask, 'Who else is doing it?' They claim to seek new ideas but shoot down every one brought to them.

On November 9, 1989, while CIA experts on Soviet and East German politics were briefing President George H. W. Bush on why the Berlin Wall was not likely to come down any time soon, a National Security Council staff member politely entered the Oval Office and urged the president to turn on his television set—to see both East and West Germans battering away at the Wall.