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Intuition is an EQ competency, that is it’s considered something necessary to successful living, and something to be respected and valued. In recent years it has emerged from obscurity, even suspicion. What exactly is intuition?
Main Entry: intuition
1 : quick and ready insight
2 a : immediate apprehension or cognition
b : knowledge or conviction gained by intuition
c : the power or faculty of attaining to direct knowledge or cognition without evident rational thought and inference(www.m-w.com)
According to Intuition magazine online, intuition is increasingly recognized as a natural mental faculty, a key element in the creative process, a means of discovery, problem solving, and decision making. Once considered the province of a gifted few, it is now recognized as an innate capacity available to everyone–not a rare, accidental talent, but a natural skill anyone can cultivate. Remember those math problems you got the correct answer for, but you didnt get full credit because you couldnt show your work? Intuition, Intuition magazine says, is a key ingredient in what we call genius, and it is also an important tool when applied to everyday life.
That having been said, from where does this almost mystical ability come?
In their amazing book, “A General Theory of Love”, authors Lewis, Amini and Lannon, all doctors, agree that all of us acquire wonderfully complicated knowledge that we cannot describe, explain, or recognize.
They cite researchers Knowlton, Mangels and Squire, who devised an interesting experiment they gave subjects the task of predicting the weather in a simple computer model. They designed the experiment so that as unhelpful as the cues looked, they did relate lawfully to the outcomes, but the relationship between cues and effects was deliberately such a complex and probabilistic function that even the smartest person couldnt figure it out. It was way too difficult for logic to unravel; that is, subjects would have to approach this task without the use of the neocortex.
The researchers were right. No one figured it out, but that didnt stop them from getting better at the system they couldnt understand or describe! After just 50 trials, the average subject was right 70% of the time, which means, of course, that some were doing far better than that. What they were doing was gradually developing a feel for the situation and intuitively grasping the essence of what was going on.
We tend to believe that success can only come from understanding (via the neocortex), but in reality our marvelous brains, when presented with repetitive experiences, are able to extract unconsciously the rules that underlie them. Such knowledge, say Lewis, Amini, and Lannon, develops with languorous ease and inevitability, stubbornly inexpressibly, never destined for translation into words. Words being a neocortical ability.
Things we cant describe, but we “know,” come from our implicit memory. Our implicit memory ensures that camouflaged learning permeates out lives. Spoken language, for instance, is a confusing assortment of phonological and grammatical rules that we couldnt possibly describe, yet we all learn to speak our native tongue. In fact, children are able to learn it without any formal instruction at all. Similarly, in learning foreign languages, its generally considered that immersion is the best way to attain fluency spending your days with native speakers and just absorbing it. Consider the extent to which we intuit. In his book, “Language Instinct,” Steven Pinker observes that we all know that thole, plast and flitch are not English words but they could be, whereas vlas, ptak, and nyip cannot be English. Why? Well, just because, but wouldnt you agree?
The advantages of intuition? Its much quicker and also surer to use your intuition. You have a greater grasp on reality, as it were, when you dont confuse things by bringing in the neocortex. “Reason,” said Pascal, is the slow and tortuous method by which those who do not know the truth discover it.
There is guidance available to us at all times, says Penny Peirce, just belowI> the surface of our logic, just after we stop pushing and striving, just before we jump to conclusions. By cultivating the ability to pause and be comfortable with silence, and then by focusing steadily and listening for the first sounds or feelings, for the first impressions, you can help your intuition wake up suddenly and enthusiastically, as if from a long winters nap.
How do you develop your intuition? One way is to learn to still your self-talk, what I refer to as the Talking Head that constant yammering that goes on inside your head. Get centered. Quiet your thinking mind. Slow down and focus on one thing at a time. Listen. Practice.
Although intuition is a natural resource, says Nancy Rosanoff, an intuition trainer, it functions best when developed and exercised. Like a muscle, intuition becomes strong, reliable, and precise when trained and put to use.”
So whats the buzz about intuition? Its coming into its own. Its getting legitimate. Corporations are even hiring intuitionists to make decisions. I say its about time, because its a much surer way to make a decision than are logic and reason; an important decision that is. How much data would be too much to know about the woman youre going to be leaving your baby with all day? About the man youre considering marrying? At some point the data ends, and you make a decision based on your feelings. Do you doubt this? Oliver Wendell Holmes, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, said that 90% of the decisions at his level were emotional. He just rationalized them afterwards. As we all have done.
In small matters, use the head, said Freud, and in large matters, the heart. And that’s intuition!
Susan Dunn is a personal and professional development coach specializing in emotional intelligence. You can visit her on the web at http://www.susandunn.cc.
“We need to be willing to let our intuition guide us, and then be willing to
follow that guidance directly and fearlessly.” (Shakti Gawain)
One can wonder if intuition really exists, and?even more?whether it’s a reliable source for basing our decisions on. Haven’t you ever felt that something was the right thing to do, yet, hesitated to do it, because it would be such a drastic step in your life? Well, I’ve been there. The funny, or maybe sad, part of the story is, that it took me years before I dared to follow my intuition, and a few more years after that, before I got the conviction that my intuition had led me in the right direction. In the meantime I had spent a lot of energy struggling with the question whether I had made the correct decision, or whether I had just been paranoid.
The main reason for doubting ourselves is oftentimes simply because others ridicule our intuition. They may even tell us that we are insane for even considering the direction our intuition sends us. However, the only way we can find out is to do what WE think is best.
Definitions and Statements
Intuition is explained by the Concise Oxford Dictionary as, 1) Immediate apprehension by the mind without reasoning. 2) Immediate apprehension by a sense. 3) Immediate insight.
Increasingly, we notice that management- and leadership experts recommend us to practice more empathy in our leadership styles. This clearly entails the sensitive issue of feeling rather than thinking, right? It’s an encouragement to act with our hearts instead of our minds; to follow the “hunch,” the little voice within us that tells us what would be the right direction to go. Pollock (2002) suggests, “When you must weigh two or more ideas, the most productive approach is to give them an initial screening. This is usually based on a mixture of common sense, intuition, good judgment, imagination and, yes, some luck.”
Referring to the need for meaning at work among the workers of today, Whitehead (2002) exclaims, “? The trend towards imagination and creativity is more than the latest hype from the management consultancies. [?] It reflects a growing realization of how the world actually works. It’s a world [?], not only of facts and figures, but of intuition, hunch and gut instinct.” Whitehead continues, “A huge amount of decision-making is not about weighing up the facts and figures, but following a hunch about what you think will happen.”
In an article about successful investors, Sykes (2002) pulls the intuition issue even further by stating, “Intuition. It’s what separates the men from the boys, or shall I say, the women from the girls? Either way, intuition is vital in decision [-making]?”
A good example of this philosophy is given by Tazzia (2001) when he discusses his findings about “the skills that top marketing officers of the future will need,” thereby listing them as follows, “1. Strategic vision and strategic process, 2. Intuition and the ability to react, 3. Creative development and innovation, 4. Desire for accountability, and 5. An action orientation.” When elaborating on point 2, Tazzia concludes, “The world is too complex and moving too fast for classic analytical tools to cope. You can’t wait to gather all the data, and even if you could, the data would change before you could react.” He then continues, “Can intuition be taught? Not in the opinion of our panel. But it can be killed early in a young manager’s career. Intuition demands that people trust their judgment, take risks. If companies hammer a young manager for a market failure, will he or she ever take a risk again? What you can teach these young people is how to mitigate risks, how to cover their bets. That would be valuable.”
This is exactly what Michael Burke may have meant when he stated, “Good instincts usually tell you what to do before your head has figured it out.” Embroidering on this theme, it may very well be that we are using our intuition all the time, and in everything we do, especially if we consider the following statement: “Practical observation commonly consists of collecting a few facts and loading them with guesses.” (Unknown Source) An interesting development these days is that not only people are using intuition as a strategic management tool. Entire organizations do so as well. Murphy (2002), for instance, sums up the successful approach of a business by stating, “With the right tools and a little intuition, organizations can increase profitability by leveraging customer information to anticipate customers’ needs and influence their behavior.”
Nevertheless, not everybody perceives intuition as a reliable source for decision-making. Suutari (2001), for example, allots it a fairly ambivalent status by asserting, “Time constraints, among other factors, force [a] manager to make a plethora of decisions based primarily on an existing knowledge base, experience and even intuition.” Suutari continues somewhat further in his article, “Experience, (and its cousin, intuition) provide a basis of reference as to what has or has not worked before. However, experience is only valid if the fundamental circumstances are similar. Experience can play a role in decisions in all modes, resulting in a tendency to repeat a specific action until it fails.”
Now this is exactly the part where I don’t agree with this author’s point of view, because I find it hard to see experience and intuition as two related subjects. On the contrary! While experience is based on past occurrences, intuition is more of a guiding sensation into taking the most viable “leap in the dark,” whereby “the dark” is obviously the unknown. But then again, there’s a quote by Dr. Joyce Brothers that says, “Trust your hunches. They’re usually based on facts filed away just below the conscious level.” So, who knows, maybe intuition IS based on experiences, if not from this life, perhaps from previous ones?if you believe in reincarnation??
Interestingly?and seemingly contradicting?McDonalds (2002) comes up with a broad, lyrical range of definitions in which he clearly detaches intuition from any sort of experience: “Intuition. The ability to see any event, any object from a viewpoint of the cosmic whole, from it’s culmination - the seed, the flower, the fruit in relation to the whole. The knowing of something without prior knowledge or the use of reason.” McDonalds (2002) emphasizes the increasing recognition given to intuition by citing the following statement from Intuition Magazine Online, “In recent years, the subject of intuition has emerged from obscurity. Intuition is increasingly recognized as a natural mental faculty, a key element in the creative process, a means of discovery, problem solving, and decision-making. Once considered the province of a gifted few, it is now recognized as an innate capacity available to everyone not a rare, accidental talent, but a natural skill anyone can cultivate. A key ingredient in what we call genius, it is also an important tool when applied to everyday life.”
Personal Thoughts and Suggestions
Having done some reflective thinking, I came up with the following cycle:
The more we eliminate confusing rustle in our lives, the more we become focused. The more we become focused, the better we understand ourselves. The better we understand ourselves, the more intense we live. The more intense we live, the better we hear our inner voice. The better we hear our inner voice, the more empathic we can listen to it. The more empathic we can listen to our inner voice, the more determined we become, for it’s then that we know we hear the right thing? and do it.
Here’s some other food for thought:
1. Use all the knowledge you gained through school- and street education, but never underestimate the feeling you get when making a certain decision. If it doesn’t feel good, reconsider, for if you don’t, 9 times out of 10 the outcome will be unfavorable.
2. No matter how convincing others’ arguments toward the opposite are, if your intuition has been pushing you in a certain direction for quite a while, and you have given it sufficient consideration, go for it. In the end you’ll find you did the right thing. Remember, you’ll never fully fathom others’ motives, but you DO know yours.
3. Once you’ve taken a decision based on your gut feeling, work on it! Even the most excellent project or the most blissful idea can go wrong if you don’t invest time and effort in it. And how easy will it then be for the negativists around you to rub “the failure of your intuition” in your face?
Finalizing: Intuition is a powerful guiding tool in every area of our life if we just care to give it a chance. The value of following one’s intuition can be concluded from Albert Einstein’s proclamation, “I never came upon any of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking.” And finally, it may very well be the immortal Ralph Waldo Emerson, who stated the most dynamic conviction about the power of intuition when he said, “If the single man plant himself indomitably on his instincts, and there abide, the huge world will come round to him.”
References:
Diverse. (1999). Intuition, [Internet]. Cyber Nation [2002, April 6].
Higher Awareness, I. (1999). Intuition and Awareness. Higher
Awareness, Inc. Available: http://www.higherawareness.com/awarenessandintuition.shtml [2002, April 6].
Macdonald, I. A. (2002, February 27, 2002). Intuition…Awaken the Journey Within, [Internet]. Iain A. Macdonald. Available: http://intuition2vishnu.homestead.com/ [2002, April 6].
Murphy, D. (2002). Predictive analytics as the proverbial early bird. Customer Inter@Ction Solutions, 20(7), 26-27.
Pollock, T. (2002). Mind your own business. Supervision, 63(3), 17-19.
Suutari, R. (2001). Playing the decision-making game. CMA Management, 75(7), 14-17.
Sykes, T. A. (2002). Investing 301: Part 3. Black Enterprise, 32(6), 65-67.
Tazzia, E. (2001). Nurturing your natural talents. Advertising Age, 72(44), 20.
Whitehead, M. (2002). Passion at a premium. Supply Management, 7(4), 20-24.
