Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Do you know someone who seems to always make the right decision and comes up with innovative ideas? Do you wonder how they always seem to find the not-so-obvious answer to an issue? Are you one of those people and wonder why everyone can't "feel" the right course of action? It's called intuition.

Back in the days before political correctness, there used to be a thing called "women's intuition" because women seem to just "know" what is going to happen, especially where child rearing and family issues are concerned.

The power of intuition has been ignored and put aside by the human need to have a solid answer for all problems before we act. After all, if you believe in the reality of intuition then you're afraid people will think you believe there are visitors from other planets living among us ... and the Bermuda Triangle is the ancient location of Atlantis with the residual powers causing anomalies in the atmosphere. Even so, most of us still have "hunches" that frequently turn out to be right.

The military may have found the answer to intuition. Their research is discovering that a number of people have a depth of intuition stronger than others. The military has found some troops can simply "sense" danger better than others. It's what makes great commanders and pilots. Who can argue that General George Patton, through study and intuition was able to anticipate Rommel's moves?

Interestingly, they are discovering the soldiers who are best at intuitively knowing they are in danger of improvised explosive devices along the Iraqi roads have a few things in common. They have an ability to sustain intense focus for long periods of time and have the ability to pick odd shapes masked in complex backgrounds ... like a "Where's Waldo?" skill. They are very sensitive to extremely subtle changes, such as a rock that wasn't on the road yesterday. Beyond that, they have the ability to step back and observe the bigger picture. Golfers, how many times after chunking a ball into the water have you said, "I should have stepped back and taken another practice swing because something told me this wasn't going to go well." That "something" was intuition.

Can you name someone in the business world who seems to know when and where to invest? Is it just that they have had so many varied experiences creating knowledge? Experience only takes them part of the way. Many people have the same basic experience, but these people are able to almost always make the right decision; people like Warren Buffet and Donald Trump (although the Donald probably goes a bit too much on emotion sometimes).

The lesson in all of this is to listen to your intuition then step back and take a moment to evaluate and decide if you should go with it. Maybe you'll hire that account executive you otherwise would have passed on, who goes on to be your competition's best AE, or find the unique digital initiative that makes you a bundle of cash.

Have a great week and listen to that little voice in your head.