We loved doing it. We also loved the way it ended. I guess we loved doing it because we totally loved the way it ended. It ended with an ‘aha’, suddenly. We loved both the ‘aha’ and the suddenness of it. Joining dots. Remember?
Was it the sudden appearance of an unexpected figure or was it the fact that we surprised ourselves by ending up with something while trying to do something else? After all, the only skill we used was to get our number counting right. And lo and behold there was a ‘monkey’ staring at us!
Isn’t that what an insight is? A new meaning that surprises us by becoming apparent suddenly? Our joy comes from discovering something that seems obvious in hindsight but was invisible to us earlier. And once we see the new meaning we can’t unsee it? Try ignoring it, the ‘monkey’ won’t let you!
So the monkey was done and cast aside. We loved bringing it alive. What next? While we were wishing we had another join-the-dots puzzle, someone told us there actually is another puzzle within the puzzle! “Now join the prime numbers from 13 - 31.” we were told. And we did. And to our surprise bananas appeared out of nowhere! A whole bunch of them hanging right in front of the monkey!
That done, we were asked to look for red triangles and join them too. And you know what! Till then we had not even noticed the tiny triangles in the puzzle! Once discovered, they became the most prominent, screamy elements demanding action from us. Result: a baby monkey next to the mama monkey struggling with a baby banana.
Well, the excitement did not end there. We were informed that just like the tiny triangles there are some more elements that we have not noticed yet. “Give up!” We said. “Hold the paper against the Sun” – The whole monkey family was now visible – the big sister and dad were there all along!
With the paper up against the Sun, something else caught our attention. There was an unusual fold in the paper. The flap unfolded to reveal a hunter behind the bushes with his gun trained at something. No, it wasn’t the monkeys for sure. We knew there was much more to be discovered in that little piece of paper. Not just as much as the paper creator intended but really as much as we wanted.
Do you see insights in the situation above? Isn’t this what the whole world is trying to do through all sorts of ‘insighting’ tools? Trying hard to pull out that differentiated insight that could lead to a truly differentiated idea, which in turn could lead to a disproportionately big prize for them.
Insighting is about spotting new dots and making new connections and it’s a cinch if we are able to change our lenses, our perspectives and our boundaries of thinking, at will.
Simple? Now go solve the puzzle called life :)
PS. Oops! Forgot to weave in the title-thought into the article. Let me make the connection now: Try decoding a joke. There’s always an insight hidden in it… right in its tail. The hilarious twist at the end is an unexpected dot being connected unexpectedly. Go ahead crack up on all the stuff that you are seriously serious about in life. It’s the easiest and most fun way to spot those elusive insights!
