Six Years in Business - Part 5 - Making Decisions - Using Intuition

Decision-making has fascinated many disciplines for many years.  From a psychological perspective, my own interest has focused on the acknowledgement that different thought processes feed into decision-making at different times.  These processes are commonly differentiated and described as intuitive thinking and logical thinking.

As directors of Level 7 we have had to make many decisions, independently and jointly.  In the early days of setting up the business I would describe our predominant decision making style as intuitive.  This is because the situations and challenges we faced as new business owners were mostly novel.  We had little or no context experience and often needed to make decisions rapidly.  These factors lend themselves to an intuitive way of working.  Daniel Kahneman in his book, Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow describes human thinking styles as System 1 and System 2.  (You may have seen him on BBC2’s Horizon programme on 24 February explaining this – if not, it’s on iplayer until 4 March!).  System 1 is slow, deliberate, cautious and analytical and System 2 is fast, automatic and relies on associations and patterns.  So, has L7’s style changed over the years?  I don’t  think so.  Our preference is still to follow what feels right and not get weighed down with too much data and analysis.  

Intuition will never replace logic in the workplace and nor should it.  We advocate a balanced approach to any business activity but sometimes the activity can benefit from being intuition-led, for example business innovation.  Imagine the difference in outcome of a logic led discussion and an imaginative led discussion about business potential, possibilities and ideas about new markets, products and processes?  

So, what is the predominant thinking style in your organization?  Does it need to re-balance?  If so, what is your role in making this happen?  Intuition and creativity go hand-in-hand.  Creativity starts with letting the imagination run free, taking time out to explore new ways of thinking and acting, creating the right environment for this to happen and of course having fun!

http://www.fastcocreate.com/3026599/industry-pov/innovation-youre-doing-it-wrong-how-to-put-intuition-and-ideas-before-tests-and

Gill                                                                                        

Manila                                                                                                 

28 February 2014