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Intution is the ability to understand things immediately without thinking much or without reasoning. The instinctive ability to understand and act accordingly is different from decision making which involves conscious planning and planned action. Many a times our intuition guides us to deal with a situation immediately. Intuition is more found in animals and birds as most of their behaviour and life is guided by their instinct. Human has the advanatage of both intution and decision making. ‘‘We are not like animals.'' It tells us that the assumed difference between humans and animals is humans' ability to reason with our instinctual impulses, and the unspoken message is that reason is a higher and better quality to possess. The thing is, not only are we like animals, we are animals. However, we are animals with the distinct advantage of having both instinct and reason at our disposal. So we don't actually have to reject either morality or instinct; rather, we have the capacity to honor and call upon both.
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As our life becomes more dynamic and less structured, intuition gains more and more recognition as an essential decision making tool. You have probably heard of experienced decision makers who are able to directly recognize the best option or course of action in many tricky situations. The solution just comes to them from somewhere in their subconscious mind, instead of being a result a lengthy chain of logical derivations or a computer output from a complicated Monte Carlo simulation.
Yes, intuition can make you a much more effective decision maker, especially when you deal with non-standard situations or in expedient decision making. Yet, before you put more weight on intuitive choices, there are a few important points you need to keep in mind.
Decision making situations where intuitive approach can help most include the following.
First, what do we mean by intuition in the context of decision-making? While different definitions emphasize different aspects, there are three key features that characterize the intuitive mode of thinking.
The main alternative to the intuition-based approach is rational thinking. The rational decision making process relies mostly on logic and quantitative analysis. You consciously analyze all the options. You formulate the main criteria for judging the expected outcomes of your options and you assign certain weights to those criteria to reflect their relative importance. Then, based on the expected outcomes and their weights, you rate your options by their perceived utility. Finally, you choose the option that has the highest rating.
If, for some options, the expected outcomes involve uncertainty, you will also need to incorporate in your ratings the perceived probabilities of different possibilities, or even perform a Monte Carlo simulation.
Rational analysis still plays crucial role in many situations, especially when you have clear criteria and have to deal with extensive quantitative data, like quantitative finance. Yet, you will likely face even more business situations where the rational decision making becomes impractical.
The simplest way to make sense of why and how intuition works is to think of it as an advanced pattern recognition device. Your subconscious mind somehow finds links between your new situation and various patterns of your past experiences. You may not recall most of the details of those experiences. And even if you did, it may be very hard to express the lessons you learnt in a form acceptable for analytical reasoning. Yet, your subconscious mind still remembers the patterns learnt. It can rapidly project your new circumstances onto those patterns and send you a message of wisdom. That message comes as your inner voice and will most likely be expressed in the language of your feelings. For example, some of the options or solutions you consider may not feel right to you.
The first important thing to keep in mind is that even when you rely on intuition it is still very important to do your homework. The intuition will help you navigate faster through much of unstructured data and can work around certain gaps and conflicts in the available information. Yet, even intuition can be misled if too many of your facts are wrong or missing.
Pay attention to your emotional state. If you are stressed or in a bad mood, your true inner voice will be distorted or lost in the background of your strong negative feelings. A similar effect may happen with strong positive feelings. If you want to hear your inner voice, get over the background of your strong feelings. Feel them through or let them go. Take a walk. Do something refreshing. Say your prayers. Forgive and accept. Sigh. Unclutter your mind.
Finally, you can greatly increase the quality of your intuitive decisions if you include certain elements of the analytical approach. In particular, try to follow the procedure of the rational analysis first. As much as you can, capture on paper the ideas on the main options and the criteria for evaluating your choices. Write down the key facts and factors you need to keep in mind.
Following this procedure is an effective way to feed your subconscious mind with all the relevant data it needs. You will help yourself even more if you put all those notes together on paper as a mind map. By having all the important points written in one place you will also unclutter your mind. At that stage you are much more ready to listen to your inner
“intuition,” defining intuitions as affectively charged judgments that arise through rapid, nonconscious, and holistic associations. In doing so, we delineate intuition from other decision-making approaches. We also develop a model and propositions that incorporate the role of domain knowledge, implicit and explicit learning, and task characteristics on intuition effectiveness. We close by suggesting directions for future research on intuition and its applications to managerial decision making.
There is a relation. Intuition is nothing but scientifically called Extra Sensory Power used in decision making when logically not arrived at.
The heart brain consists of more than 40,000 neurons along with a complex network of neurotransmitters, proteins, and support cells. It’s as large as many key areas of the brain in your head. Scientists say that as much as 95 percent of thought, emotion, and learning occur somewhere beyond the conscious mind.The intelligence of the thinking brain is useful, but good instincts can be even better. Whenever an important question or challenge arises, pause for five seconds before you say anything, act, or touch the keyboard. Ask:
• What do my instincts say?
• What does my deeper experience say?
• Are there any gaps here?
• Any hidden breakthroughs?
• What’s next? What’s deeper? What’s more?
A woman we will call Lynn was at her wit’s end. Her business was failing, she owed a huge sum of money that she did not have, and her long-term partner had just ended their relationship. In the small hours one morning she hit bottom, in a crisis of despair. “There has to be something more,” she said out loud, even though no one was in the room with her. “Are you asking?” a voice said clearly, outside of her head. She was too stunned to respond.
Intuition in the context of decision-making is defined as a “non-sequential information-processing mode.”[1] It is distinct from insight (a much more protracted process) and can be contrasted with the deliberative style of decision-making. Intuition can influence judgment through either emotion or cognition, and there has been some suggestion that it may be a means of bridging the two.[1] Individuals use intuition and more deliberative decision-making styles interchangeably, but there has been some evidence that people tend to gravitate to one or the other style more naturally.[2] People in a good mood gravitate toward intuitive styles, while people in a bad mood tend to become more deliberative.[2] The specific ways in which intuition actually influences decisions remain poorly understood. Snap judgments made possible by heuristics are sometimes identified as intuition.
Intuition can be a gutt feeling and highly dependable on the experiance of an individual possible vary according to life exposure.
Whereas Decision Making is taken during a process of evaluation of all the data after been convereted to information and considering different circumstances.
Both can be made righteuos with good attitude.
Well, many people believe this but is there any truth in it? And does it help you to makegood decisions? More recent research into decision making has concentrated on how people actually make decisions.
The classical view, based on a rational decision making model, is useful but does not fully explain how people actually make decisions. Rather, psychologists are suggesting that decisions are often made based on much more subjective criteria. These include a combination of judgements, tacit knowledge, intuition, and heuristics (simple and approximate rules or short cuts).
This article is part of our series on decision making. The first article, Types of Decision Making, introduces a range of decision making approaches. This article discusses one of these in more detail and considers the relationship between intuition and decision making, and some of the more recent thinking in that area.
Approaches to decision making can be quite diverse, ranging from classical, rationalistic, decision making processes to a less structured, intuitive, decision making style.
Rational decision making processes consist of a sequence of steps designed to rationally develop a desired solution.Intuitive decision making is almost the opposite, being more instinctive, subjective and subconscious in nature.
One of the principle assumptions of the rational decision making process is that human beings make rational decisions. However, this is not always the case! There are usually wide ranging factors which determine our decisions, many of which are not rational. This is especially so when we remember that management is about dealing with people. In addition, many situations require decisions to be made with incomplete and/or insufficent information. Often management requires quick decision making, or judgements made under pressure.
It is in this context that a more intuitive approach often develops. All except the most mechanistic of rational decisions must include some element of subjective judgement. Our decisions are based on judgements which are affected by a range of factors including our experiences, values, attitudes, and emotions. Judgement heuristic decision making uses simple rules and approximate short cuts to help us arrive at decisions. Drawing particularly on our experiences and attitudes, it does this by helping us to cut through the excessive information that can overload and delay decisions.
Whilst useful in helping us to simplify complex situations, we must also remember that the subjective nature of heuristic decision making must also introduce elements of bias. This can be illustrated in the different types of judgement heuristics. For example:
It’s interesting to relate this theory to the work of successful manager and author, Jack Welch. Hailed as “manager of the century” by Fortune, Welch describes his approach to decision making in this quote:
“Sometimes making a decision is hard not because it is unpopular, but because it comes from your gut and defies a ‘technical’ rationale. Much has been written about the mystery of gut, but it’s really just pattern recognition, isn’t it. You’ve seen something so many times you just know what’s going on this time. The facts may be incomplete or the data limited, but the situation feels very, very familiar to you.”
Welch captures the essence of intuition and decision making. In contrast to rational decision making, intuitive decisions are less structured and involve feelings and perceptions rather than analysis and facts. Welch’s approach summarizes other theoretical elements of intuition and decision making. These include:
As managers trained or educated to be rational thinkers, we may be wary of combining intuition and decision making. However, academic research into decision making theory indicates there is a sound logic in reconciling the two. This is particularly important when we remember that decision making is rarely a precise, safe, fully informed process. Though not useful in every situation, whererever there is any ambiguity or doubt in our decision making, then there may be a place for intuitive thinking.
An interesting area of development relating to intuition and decision making, is the work onsense making from organizational theorist Karl Weick. Weick’s work relates to our discussion of rational and intuitive perpsectives, particularly the inclination of managers to think rationally about decisions. This despite the fact that these decisions are based as much on what they don’t know as on what they know! In such circumstances there is much to be said for decision making informed by intuition or heuristics. Weick suggests:
“When people create maps of an unknowable, unpredictable world, they face strong temptations towards either over confident knowing or overly cautious doubt. Wisdom consists of an attitude towards one’s beliefs, values, knowledge, and information that resists these temptations through an on-going balance between knowing and doubt”.
“The essence of wisdom is in knowing that one does not know, in the appreciation that knowledge is fallible, in the balance between knowing and doubting.”
Perhaps this is only highlighting what great managers know already. As Bob Sutton suggests:
“the best leaders have the courage to act on what they know right now, and the humility to change their actions when they encounter new evidence. They advocate an ‘attitude of wisdom’. Arguing as if they are right, and listening as if they are wrong.”
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Decision making can be done based on information you gather through research, by using your intuition, or through a combination of both.
Nevertheless, your intuition will develop and capitalize upon your accumulated experiences learnt by results of your previous decision-making or information gathered. So it is a receprocal learning process, you learn from intuition and your intuition develops through your experiences.
The bottom line in the relation between intuition and decision making is that intuition can be an integral part of decision making, and later on intuition itself can capitalize upon your decision making experiences to help you making further decisions.
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