How important is the actual path that a project team takes in order to get to the big "Ah-Ha" moment during a project? Isn't it enough, just to get to the big idea? Who cares how you get there, right? Wrong! The cognitive heavy lifting that is typically done during a project's analysis phase is crucial to the development of mental reframes or "Ah-Ha" moments. I feel that many companies are too easily willing to cut the path to discovering the real big ideas and "Ah-Ha" moments short. Cutting this part of the process short, makes it virtually impossible to get beyond the obvious low hanging fruit that is often times disguised, making people think that it is a big idea, when really it is not.

Unfortunately, most companies expect the big ideas to be generated during the creation phases of a project when designs are being implemented and production decisions are being made - an attempt to kill two birds with one stone. Having a rigorous, repeatable phase to a project, which provides adequate time for cognitive
'thinking', rather than physical 'doing', is an essential part of getting to these big ideas. Too often, people take this path for granted and expect their big idea to come out of the blue.
It is absolutely possible for a random big idea to come from an unstructured source, but this is not a sustainable way to innovate.

There are many activities that fall along the path to getting to the big idea, and it is never obvious which activity along such a path will be the one to yield the one big idea. Being unable to predict which activity along the path will lead you to the big idea, is even more reason why the path in its entirety is so important and should not be compromised. Being rigorous and uncompromising about the specific path can drastically increase the chances of getting to the big reframe, "Ah-Ha" moments again and again.

People use the term "Ah-Ha" moment to describe that moment of clarity when the solution to a vexing problem falls into place with a sudden insight and you see connections that previously eluded you. People often mistake this moment of clarity for a moment of luck, or something that did not require a rigorous path to get there. The visual of this "Ah-Ha" moment being something that falls out of a tree and hits you over the head could not be further from the truth. In fact, the truth is that the "Ah-Ha" moment actually occurs much earlier in the process than one realizes. A recent study done by psychologists at Drexel University reveals that distinct patterns of brain activity leading to the "Ah-Ha" moments of insight begin much earlier than the time that a problem is actually solved. This means that not only is the path an important part to solving the problem, but it shows that the path itself actually holds the pieces needed for the "Ah-Ha" moment to take place. If this path is cut short, or not taken seriously, the "Ah-Ha" moment might not ever
happen.

So going back to the original question - How important is the actual path that a project team takes in order to get to big "Ah-Ha" moment during a project? This path is much more important than most people think, not just for being able to repeat the process again and again, but to actually prepare your mind to be able to come up with the big insight or "Ah-Ha" moment.

I have found that the "Ah-Ha" moment comes after a very intense period of thinking about something for a very long time in a structured way, and then going away from that structure for shorter periods of time. "Think about it for a while, think about it for even longer, and now don't think about it for a little while." The notion of the big idea coming to you in the shower is not far from the truth. When you are elbow deep in a project, the unstructured cognitive moments do not come very often. So this moment in time when you are in the shower might actually be one of the few unstructured cognitive moments during your day. But in order for this moment to happen, it requires a period of very intense, rigorous path following in order to 'prep' your mind to be ready to see the "Ah-Ha" moment.

So, thinking about eliminating "cognitive thinking time" to allow for more physical production time during your next project?
Think again! After all, if the answer was obvious before starting the project, how interesting was the problem to begin with.