Be Innovative, Rely More On Your Intuition

College professors tell us that the best decisions are products of analysis, reflection and careful consideration. Problem is, this approach requires time, a commodity that’s always in short supply.

Moreover, traditional scientific decision-making tends to stifle creativity, the avenue to innovative action that can produce positive effects beyond those related to the decision at hand.

Q. Seems like the pace of everything in the business world is increasing daily. In the old days I had time to ponder my moves before committing myself to a course of action. Today, as you wrote, it’s “ready, fire, aim.” I’m depending more and more on my gut feeling. Is this a trend or is this just me?

A. You’re not alone. Intuition is no longer the exclusive purview of females and oracles. The press of time and the importance of innovation have prompted entrepreneurs and managers to ever-more-frequently “go with their guts.”

A response to intuitive urges is not to be confused with “finger to the wind” guessing. Each of us is blessed with an “inner voice” that can be a big assist when we’re faced with making a decision without all of the facts we’d like to have.

Intuition is a valuable personal faculty that can produce powerful positive results in any business environment. Definitions of intuition abound: “Knowledge gained without rational thought; feeling based on past experiences buried in the subconscious; knowing by direct insight or cognition without the use of inference; the act or faculty of knowing directly.”

However we define them, these “vibes” not only help us make decisions more quickly but also enable us to conceive answers that are more creative, unique, inspired and powerful than we could ever evoke through routine analysis.

Psychologist Carl Jung calls intuition one of the four basic psychological functions, along with thinking, feeling and sensation. The payoffs can be enormous.

Appreciating the importance of intuition, companies like General Foods, Shell Oil, Phillips Petroleum, Proctor & Gamble and Digital Equipment Corp. have supported the development of intuitive skills among their managers. Tests conducted by Professor Weston H. Igor, a pioneer in the study of intuition, demonstrated that, without exception, the top managers in every organization rated significantly higher than middle or lower level managers in their ability to use intuition on the job.

The important point here is that this power is not conferred to CEOs as a rite of passage; it is a potency that, if frequently accessed by ambitious people, actually helps propel them to the top.

The power of intuition comes from deep within us. Experts tell us that much of what we know, we do not know we know. It’s stored away in the remote recesses of our subconscious.

Unfortunately, we cannot command this resource to our use at will. It appears to “bubble to the surface” spontaneously when certain circumstances are present. The trick is to create an inviting atmosphere that will attract this powerful “visitor” to our psyche.

The biggest obstacle to our productive use of intuition is our own skepticism. From childhood we are taught that “responsible” people depend upon knowledge, reason and analysis for their decisions. It’s easy to buy into this “logic.” After all, who wants to attribute the salutary results of a decision to luck? It’s much safer to minimize our personal responsibility and exposure by applying old-fashioned, tried-and-true rules, routines, and reactionary reason.

As a consequence, the “eureka” benefits of instinctive action are lost to us and the enterprises we serve. The best antidote to this wariness is success. Examples of successful application in the business world should encourage us to exploit our intuitive abilities.

Eventually, our own successes will build our confidence in our intuitive strengths. But first we must let the genie out of the bottle. Psychologists tell us that this feat depends on our ability to create circumstances that will serve to “release” our intuitive riches from the closet of our subconscious.

So, in our next article we’ll explore ways in which you can make the best use of your most underutilized personal precocity. Of course, you already knew that, didn’t you?