You Can Engineer Insight—Don’t Wait for Lightning to Strike
In 2011, a fast-growing tech company faced mounting complaints about a product that was too hard to use. Leadership insisted the design was solid, yet customer support calls kept climbing. Instead of reading reports or arguing, the new project lead gathered his senior team for a hands-on challenge: build a basic app using their own system—no instruction manual, just the steps real customers used. Within an hour, seasoned engineers got stuck. Some couldn’t even sign up.
One manager shook her head, her coffee gone cold on the table, muttering that she’d never realized the onboarding was so confusing. Laptops clicked, a few phones buzzed with error messages, and what started with confidence turned to frustration. After two hours, the room was uncomfortably quiet—everyone felt the sting of a broken experience firsthand.
The group didn’t need a polished PowerPoint; they tripped over the truth all at once. Change suddenly felt urgent and non-negotiable. It wasn’t about blame, or top-down orders—it was about owning the story together. They rebuilt the onboarding from the ground up, and customer complaints dropped sharply within months.
Behavioral science shows that direct, embodied experiences often spark deeper insight than analysis or abstract discussion. People act on issues they discover for themselves, not ones they’re simply told exist. This is the secret behind transformative teaching, coaching—and even organizational change.
Start by pinpointing that one issue that everyone dances around. Design a demonstration, not a lecture—let people walk through the broken process, see the frustration, or feel the emotional impact. Hold back from solving it for them; instead, create the space for discovery so the truth hits home. Once everyone feels it, listen for the shift in energy—that’s insight ready to be put to work. Make a plan for who’ll try this approach next week.
What You'll Achieve
Uncover blind spots, generate buy-in for needed changes, and build a habit of learning through lived experiences rather than abstract talk.
Design a Moment to Trip Over the Truth
Identify a persistent problem or blind spot.
Choose something that’s been nagging at you or your group, such as a process that isn’t working or a gap in understanding.
Create a vivid, emotional demonstration.
Structure an activity that reveals the problem clearly—walk through the process as a learner, simulate the broken experience, or use a role-play or show-and-tell.
Let people discover the answer themselves.
Don’t lecture or simply present slides; let everyone experience the problem so they reach their own ‘aha’ moment, making the motivation for change much stronger.
Reflection Questions
- What’s one nagging problem people ignore in your group?
- How could you design an experience that confronts the problem head-on?
- What emotions would surface for others if they discovered this issue on their own?
- Why is showing, not telling, so much more powerful?
Personalization Tips
- For students who tune out in math class, ask them to solve a real-life puzzle with ambiguous steps—then guide them to see the underlying math concept.
- If your family struggles with diet habits, demonstrate the sugar content in drinks by piling sugar cubes next to common sodas.
- At work, shadow customers using your product and then ask leaders to replicate the same steps—see what surprises them.
The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact
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