What are aha moments and why do we want people to have more of them? Don’t worry, it has nothing to do with 1980s Norwegian synthpop bands with dodgy haircuts. We’re talking about an idea that has inspired the creation of our first PurpleBeach event. Simply, to measure our success in terms of the number of aha moments we generate for our participants.
An aha moment is what happens when an idea connects with a challenge you’re facing, either now or in the future. Maybe it’s something that’s been bugging you for ages. Or perhaps it’s the aha itself that reveals the underlying issue to you. An aha moment feels like being let in on one of life’s secrets.
How are we going to make these ahas happen? Our speakers are an incredibly diverse range of thinkers, doers, sages, seers. They’re deep thinkers with profound, radical insights into how the world is changing and how businesses must evolve to get the best from their people. But we’ve selected them for one major reason. They all have the capacity to provoke powerful ahas in their listeners. We think that by bringing them all together into one space, with an enlightened audience, eager to challenge the frontiers of possibility in their own organisations, we can create something cataclysmic.
In preparation for the event, you might want to think about some of the big aha moments you’ve experienced in your life and career so far. For me, there are two that spring to mind. One was the day I realised that my parents were actually people, who existed separately from my needs of them. I’m embarrassed to say how late I discovered that one, but it changed my relationship with my parents and prepared me for becoming a parent. In time, it also informed my relationships at work, particularly those with my manager and direct reports. Another was when a mentor asked me why I didn’t feel able to bring the whole of me to work. From that day on, I really began to enjoy my work and felt free at last to be truly creative.
When you think about your own ahas, how does it make you feel? Does it give you a warm sensation? Can you taste it? Does it make your scalp itch? Do you feel like a door has opened in your brain? We want you to be alert to all your individual triggers, so that you can record and tell us about them either during or after the event.
How you do that is up to you: list them in an e-mail, tweet each one as it comes to you, or share them in person as the ideas strike you. We’ll be counting them all, however big or small.
