4/C PROCESS GLOSSY LAMINATION + SPOT GRITTY MATTE UV jacket design by pete garceau Available as an e-book Visit www.publicaffairsbooks.com Follow @public_affairs on Twitter www.publicaffairsbooks.com Seeing What Others Don ’t Seeing What Others Don ’ t The Remarkable Ways We Gain Insights The Remarkable Ways We Gain Insights “No one has taught me more about the complexities and mysteries of human decision-making than Gary Klein.” —MALCOLM GLADWELL GARY KLEIN GARY KLEIN Insights—like Darwin’s understanding of the way evolution actually works, and Watson and Crick’s breakthrough discoveries about the structure of DNA—can change the world. We also need insights into the everyday things that frustrate and confuse us so that we can more effectively solve problems and get things done. Yet we know very little about when, why, or how insights are formed—or what blocks them. In Seeing What Others Don’t, renowned cognitive psychologist Gary Klein unravels the mystery. Klein is a keen observer of people in their natural settings— scientists, businesspeople, firefighters, police officers, soldiers, family members, friends, himself—and uses a marvelous variety of stories to illuminate his research into what insights are and how they happen. What, for example, enabled Harry Markopolos to put the finger on Bernie Madoff? How did Dr. Michael Gottlieb make the connections between different patients that allowed him to publish the first announcement of the AIDS epidemic? What did Admiral Yamamoto see (and what did the Americans miss) in a 1940 British attack on the Italian fleet that enabled him to develop the strategy of attack at Pearl Harbor? How did a “smokejumper” see that setting another fire would save his life, while those who ignored his insight perished? How did Martin Chalfie come up with a million-dollar idea (and a Nobel Prize) for a nat- ural flashlight that enabled researchers to look inside living organisms to watch biological processes in action? Klein also dissects impediments to insight, such as when organizations claim to value employee creativity and to encourage breakthroughs but in reality block disruptive ideas and prioritize avoidance of mistakes. Or when infor- mation technology systems are “dumb by design” and block potential discoveries. Both scientifically sophisticated and fun to read, Seeing What Others Don’t shows that insight is not just a “eureka!” moment but a whole new way of understanding. GARY KLEIN, PhD, a senior scientist at MacroCognition LLC, was instrumental in founding the field of naturalistic decision making. Dr. Klein received his PhD in experimental psychology from the University of Pittsburgh in 1969. He spent the first phase of his career in academia and the second phase working for the government as a research psychologist for the U.S. Air Force. The third phase, in private industry, started in 1978 when he founded Klein Associates, a research and development company that had grown to thirty-seven employees by the time he sold it in 2005. He is the author of Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions; The Power of Intuition; Working Minds: A Practitioner’s Guide to Cognitive Task Analysis (with Beth Crandall and Robert Hoffman); and Streetlights and Shadows: Searching for the Keys to Adaptive Decision Making. Dr. Klein lives in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Business/Psychology $27.99/$31.00 can $27.99/$31.00 can ERIK OWEN “ Gary Klein pins down what until now has been the elusive topic of insight in his best and most personal work yet. The examples are memorable and Klein translates them into subtle and powerful lessons for practitioners and academics alike.” —KARL WEICK, Rensis Likert Distinguished University Professor Emeritus, University of Michigan “ Gary Klein’s brilliant book is a superb analysis of why and how some people are able to understand things others do not. As one of Gary’s students and disciples I can attest to the exceptional value his insights have added to my own leadership and decision-making ability. This new book is a must-read for all leaders and should be added to his other works as the definitive collection on how decisions are, and should be, made.” —GENERAL ANTHONY C. ZINNI, USMC (retired) “ Gary Klein has done it again in this brilliant and ‘insightful’ book about how our minds work and how we make sense out of what is in front of us. Seeing What Others Don’t is remarkable on many fronts, most notably in being a pleasure to read, easy to grasp, and filled with practical advice. It is a must-read for parents, executives, coaches, teachers, healthcare providers, military tacticians, security and intelligence agents, and those in dangerous and stressful positions. Read, learn, perform, and enjoy.” —EDUARDO SALES, PhD, president of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society SPOT GRITTY MATTE UV INDICATED ON PAGE 2 Seeing What Others Don’t 9781610392518-text_Klein 4/9/13 2:12 PM Page i 9781610392518-text_Klein 4/9/13 2:12 PM Page ii Seeing What Others Don’t • • • • • • • THE REMARKABLE WAYS WE GAIN INSIGHTS GARY KLEIN PublicAffairs New York 9781610392518-text_Klein 4/9/13 2:12 PM Page iii Copyright © 2013 by Gary Klein. Published in the United States by PublicAffairs™, a Member of the Perseus Books Group All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address PublicAffairs, 250 West 57th Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10107. PublicAffairs books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the U.S. by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, call (800) 810-4145, ext. 5000, or e-mail special.markets@perseusbooks.com. Book Design by Pauline Brown Typeset in Bembo Std by the Perseus Books Group Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Klein, Gary A. Seeing what others don’t : the remarkable ways we gain insights / Gary Klein. — First edition. pages  cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-61039-251-8 (hardcover) — ISBN 978-1-61039-275-4 (e-book) 1. Insight. I. Title. BF449.5.K58 2013 153.4—dc23 2013005824 First Edition 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 9781610392518-text_Klein 4/9/13 2:12 PM Page iv For Jacob and Ruth 9781610392518-text_Klein 4/9/13 2:12 PM Page v 9781610392518-text_Klein 4/9/13 2:12 PM Page vi CONTENTS PART I ENTERING THROUGH THE GATES OF INSIGHT: HOW DO INSIGHTS GET TRIGGERED? ONE Hunting for Insights 3 TWO The Flash of Illumination 17 THREE Connections 33 FOUR Coincidences and Curiosities 45 FIVE Contradictions 61 SIX Creative Desperation: Trapped by Assumptions 79 SEVEN Different Ways to Look at Insight 91 EIGHT The Logic of Discovery 101 PART II SHUTTING THE GATES: WHAT INTERFERES WITH INSIGHTS? NINE Stupidity 111 TEN The Study of Contrasting Twins 119 ELEVEN Dumb by Design 139 TWELVE How Organizations Obstruct Insights 151 THIRTEEN How Not to Hunt for Insights 171 PART III OPENING THE GATES: HOW CAN WE FOSTER INSIGHTS? FOURTEEN Helping Ourselves 181 FIFTEEN Helping Others 193 SIXTEEN Helping Our Organizations 207 SEVENTEEN Tips for Becoming an Insight Hunter 225 EIGHTEEN The Magic of Insights 241 Acknowledgments 251 Notes 255 Story Index 269 Index 273 vii 9781610392518-text_Klein 4/9/13 2:12 PM Page vii 9781610392518-text_Klein 4/9/13 2:12 PM Page viii PART I • • • • • • • ENTERING THROUGH THE GATES OF INSIGHT How Do Insights Get Triggered? 9781610392518-text_Klein 4/9/13 2:12 PM Page 1 [...]... in 2000, and his warnings continued until 2008 when Madoff turned himself in Markopolos got the brush-off each time The SEC 9 9781610392518-text _Klein 4/9/13 2:12 PM Page 10 10 SEEING WHAT OTHERS DON’T kept treating him as a crank because Madoff was highly respected, a former NASDAQ chairman and well-connected philanthropist Madoff had sat on the Board of Directors of the Securities Industry Association... 9781610392518-text _Klein 4/9/13 2:12 PM Page 20 20 SEEING WHAT OTHERS DON’T Wallas warned of the danger of trying to put the insight into words too quickly, before it was fully formed Finally, during the verification stage we test whether the idea is valid If the insight is about a topic such as mathematics, we may need to consciously work out the details during this final stage Wallas’s four-stage model... look for different things in keeping with our new story Gottlieb examined his new patients differently once he picked up the AIDS pattern Insights transform how we feel what 23 9781610392518-text _Klein 4/9/13 2:12 PM Page 24 24 SEEING WHAT OTHERS DON’T excites us or makes us nervous The two police officers got amped up when they suspected they’d found a car thief Markopolos began with dread that Madoff... the firefighters about their toughest challenges We collected their best stories, and we probed those stories to learn more about the firefighters’ strategies 25 9781610392518-text _Klein 4/9/13 2:12 PM Page 26 26 SEEING WHAT OTHERS DON’T What we found surprised us Our results didn’t fit any of the existing models of decision making The firefighters weren’t trying to compare options to select the best They didn’t... of the talk, the speaker described how jellyfish can produce visible light and are capable of bioluminescence In 1962, a Japanese scientist discovered the protein 7 9781610392518-text _Klein 4/9/13 2:12 PM Page 8 8 SEEING WHAT OTHERS DON’T that fluoresces to produce a green light in the jellyfish When ultraviolet light is shined on the protein, it reacts by emitting green light That was Chalfie’s eureka... were on a routine patrol, and not much was going on that morning The older cop was driving He’s the one who told me the story, proud of his partner As they waited 3 9781610392518-text _Klein 4/9/13 2:12 PM Page 4 4 SEEING WHAT OTHERS DON’T for the light to change, the younger cop glanced at the fancy new BMW in front of them The driver took a long drag on his cigarette, took it out of his mouth, and flicked... investor makes a profit but only up to the strike price—the gain is capped If the price falls far enough that it hits the put level, the investor has limited the loss 11 9781610392518-text _Klein 4/9/13 2:12 PM Page 12 12 SEEING WHAT OTHERS DON’T his original beliefs Before he looked at the numbers, Markopolos couldn’t imagine that a man with such renown and celebrity as Madoff could engage in a crude swindle... epidemic that came to be called “AIDS.” Gottlieb’s paper, “Pneumocystis Pneumonia—Los Angeles,” appeared on June 5, 1981 13 9781610392518-text _Klein 4/9/13 2:12 PM Page 14 14 SEEING WHAT OTHERS DON’T Gottlieb’s insight centered on a frightening pattern He didn’t know what caused this coincidence—his insight didn’t extend that far He just knew that the cluster of cases seemed ominous In December, Gottlieb... on the lookout for patterns, as Gottlieb was, and see connections and associations that might be important, just as Chalfie did We notice inconsistencies, like 15 9781610392518-text _Klein 4/9/13 2:12 PM Page 16 16 SEEING WHAT OTHERS DON’T the young cop and like Markopolos, getting suspicious when we spot irregularities that might be important We get excited when we find better ways to do things, as I... revolutionary, means Members included Bertrand Russell, Leonard and Virginia Woolf, H G Wells, and other luminaries The society was named after the Roman general 17 9781610392518-text _Klein 4/9/13 2:12 PM Page 18 18 SEEING WHAT OTHERS DON’T Fabius Maximus, nicknamed The Delayer, who avoided open battle with the Carthaginian leader Hannibal, relying instead on continual pressure The Fabian Society was . MATTE UV INDICATED ON PAGE 2 Seeing What Others Don’t 9781610392518-text _Klein 4/9/13 2:12 PM Page i 9781610392518-text _Klein 4/9/13 2:12 PM Page ii Seeing What Others Don’t • • • • • • • THE. Data Klein, Gary A. Seeing what others don’t : the remarkable ways we gain insights / Gary Klein. — First edition. pages  cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 97 8-1 -6 103 9-2 5 1-8 (hardcover). when, why, or how insights are formed—or what blocks them. In Seeing What Others Don’t, renowned cognitive psychologist Gary Klein unravels the mystery. Klein is a keen observer of people in their