that you're working to resolve,

and you're not really thinking about it consciously

at the moment but you're in the shower

and all of a sudden an idea comes to you.

Or you go to sleep and you wake up

or even in the middle of the night and you have an idea

about something that's been bothering you,

something you've been working on.

That is the Zeigarnik Effect.

(string music)

So I'm gonna introduce you to Bluma Zeigarnik.

Bluma was a psychologist

and she's responsible for identifying the Zeigarnik Effect,

the tendency to remember incomplete tasks

better than completed ones.

Ernest Hemingway is said to have used the Zeigarnik Effect

to his advantage.

He would end each day of his writing

by stopping mid sentence.

Instead of completing his thought

he would allow the Zeigarnik Effect,

this productive tension, to work for him.

Executives tend to rush to closure.

We have a bias for action, we want to move on

and get the answer so that we can get a lot of things done.

But I always say that perceptive questions

are much more important than answers

and this is because questions are tools.

Questions generalize across time and place

whereas answers are specific to a given context.

It's my hope that you will practice staying in the question

where creativity and energy often reside

along with uncertainty and anxiety.

So may Zeigarnik be with you.

(string music)