Space For Inner Dialogue

{{"uhhhh... uhhhhhhh.... mmmmmuhhhh..."

That's what it sounds like when my team is waiting for me to say what I'm thinking. Especially when we're working on a creative challenge, or trying to articulate insights, sometimes I feel like I just. can't. quite. say it. A trick I've often employed in the zoom age is to "mute" my computer's speakers (not the microphone - we're used to muting the mic; but the speakers, the source of their noise to me) so that I can have a little peace and quiet. Or I even walk away from the computer entirely, aimlessly wandering around the backyard. 

"Ah! THAT'S what I was trying to say!" The insight comes to me, and I return to the computer to share. The team is silent. I forgot to unmute the speakers.}}

I thought I was just weird, but then I came across this passage in "Origins of Genius," which seems to confirm my own experience.

"Experimental research indicates that unconscious mental operations may be particularly useful to the solution of problems that require creative insight. For instance, cognitive psychologists sometimes study problem-solving processes using 'protocol analysis,' in which subjects were asked to' think out loud' while working on a given problem. Although this experimental instruction may not affect the performance of subjects working on more every day problems, the imposition of such a condition does noticeably undermine performance when the subjects are trying to solve insight problems. Thinking aloud by necessity obliges the subject to rely exclusively on conscious mental processes in circumstances when unconscious processes are more likely to overcome the misperceptions and implicit constraints that obstruct finding the solution."

Much of the emphasis of collaboration is placed upon extroverted interaction and communication. In such a meeting-centric era, I find it's incredibly useful to deliberately carve out space to hear myself think. It turns out that that may very well be an empirically-proven strategy for insight problems.

Now the question is, what will I do once we're back in person and I can't just turn off the speakers? 

Click here to subscribe to Paint & Pipette, the weekly digest of these daily posts.