In LO10089 Kieth Cowan writes:
> Good intuition is about discerning
> the essence among all the confusing data and opinions, and integration is
> related to understanding the cross-functional implications of alternatives
> so that the HR and financial impacts of a manufacturing or sales
> initiative are dealt with, for example. Or the side effects of one action
> in a related area (market, product, etc...) are anticipated.
>
> The last is key since intuition is never perfect. It is having the guts to
> measure and then assessing when its time to change. Leaving an initiative
> alone when early indicators are bad is probably THE toughest act the
> executive can take. The next toughest is finally admitting it will not
> work after all the mid-course corrections fail to improve things.
And, in LO10156, Dale Emery writes:
>
> Building in feedback as part of the process can keep you from going too
> far before you realize the non-linearities in the system have taken you
> *far* from where you wanted to be. Act early and act small.
I read something a time back that researchers were trying to decypher
intuition as a biological/psychological process. Their direction at that
point was that intuition is actually a combination of experience and
generalized knowledge producing an integrated, although not easily stated,
understanding of the "world" rather than some mysterious psychic or
paranormal phenomenon.
It seems to me that much of business activity has been based on a
disregard for an intuitive approach. An "Executive Summary" understanding
of such complex and dynamic areas is used rather than actual experience
(yours or someone else's) leading to bad business decisions that are, from
the beginning, totally avoidable. Since there is an insufficient basis
for such decisions, the accompanying insecurity gets in the way. Kieth's
point about feedback is an excellent one but this can backfire if the
knowledge and understanding are not there in the first place.
To me, a key indicator of an inadequate understanding (a lack of
intuition) is a tendency to "tweak" a process ot activity because it has
deviated slightly from what was originally planned. This leads to greater
deviations in performance as each "tweak" produces an increasing reaction
to earlier performance or results.
What this amounts to is that decision-makers do not trust their own
abilities (or their staffs) and, threfore, cannot leave "it" alone and let
"it" happen.
--JC Howell <orgpsych@csra.net>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>