By Ric Dube, Ph.D.

It’s true that top-of-mind ideas can be important ideas. Focus group interviews and team ideation sessions are extremely useful tools that capitalize on teamwork and quick thinking to generate lists of ideas. These approaches use high energy and cooperation to cast a wide net to catch as many different ideas as possible.

Focus groups and ideations are very effective toward generating a breadth of ideas, however, these approaches are less effective in producing the depth needed for breakthrough insights. Despite the virtues of cooperation, there are often richer rewards in rumination, i.e., letting the mind wander and daydream, which permits the brain to create new connections and associations. According to legend, the Greek scholar Archimedes was obsessed with the problem of how to calculate volume until one day he stepped into his bath and saw the water rise. As the story goes, he cried “Eureka! I’ve got it!” as he ran naked through the streets of Sicily.

Cognitive neuroscientists studying the brain with fMRI have recently recorded electrical activity in the right hemisphere that signals impending “Eureka moments.” These scientists have discovered that certain conditions promote these kinds of insights: positive mood, absence of stress, and quiet, unfocused time spent alone, much like Archimedes’ bath.