Intuition or Reason?

 

“The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery; the only real valuable thing is intuition.” - Albert Einstein

Intuition is defined as the faculty of attaining cognition “without evident rational thought and inference.”  Increasingly, this intuitive “ability to foresee” is being assessed as a valuable skill necessary to be an effective leader.  Even with a plethora of available rational data , leaders use their intuitive sense to “find the meaning in data” to complement or supplement their decision-making capability. 

Malcolm Gladwell explores intuitive thinking and decision making in his bestselling book ”Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking,” Backed by extensive research, “Blink” illustrates how people form “very quick judgments based on very little information” that are “every bit as good as decisions made cautiously and deliberately.”  The ability to do this lies in a part of our brain called the “adaptive unconscious” where a great deal of high level thinking, data and learning is quickly processed and stored.

In Primal Leadership, Daniel Goleman et. al., the author frequently credited for bringing emotional intelligence into the mainstream, refers to this process as “silent learning”   This is because neurologically, the brain constantly and unconsciously registers and stores lessons along with associated emotions as to what works and doesn’t work during experiences.  Then when a similar situation occurs, our brain unconsciously pulls information from the past and informs us through a compelling sense or feeling of either right or wrong within our gut. 

However, both Gladwell and Goleman don’t advocate for the sole reliance on adaptive or unconscious intuition.  It is better to use with other kinds of data because of the potential for “other interests and emotions and sentiments” to influence intuitive feelings.   Senge supports this notion of integrating reason and intuition as part of using every available resource to develop the discipline of “personal mastery.”   According to Senge, studies show leaders “rely heavily on their intuition,” combined with other data, to identify patterns and parallels “to other seemingly disparate situations.”  

The premise of learning and strengthening intuition with practice correlates with my own experiences.   Like most of us, I spent most of my formative years and life developing my cognitive rational abilities.  Why?  Because this is the more socially accepted and valued of the two abilities.   I routinely ignored my intuition because it conflicted with others that valued rational data and thinking.  Often the consequences or outcomes were less than desired, either to myself or the situation.  While these situations were difficult, they taught me valuable lessons that led me to consciously practice listening to my intuition.   Like all skill development, I realized the more I practiced it, the stronger and more frequent my intuition became - it self-perpetuates.  At times the strength and frequency of intuitive hits is somewhat unsettling.   The remedy is surrendering control – sitting with it without judgement or attempt to change it.  By letting it be what it is and go wherever it leads, it shows whether it is true or simply a bias acting out.  In other words, not only do intuitive abilities strengthen, but so does the ability to sort out truth from fiction.  

The inevitable by-product of this growing intuitive abilities is a growing confidence in who I am as a person.  I believe that intuitive judgment is a real andtrue rather than some mysterious power.  It is the result of the unconscious and conscious, experiencial learning, courage to follow ethicalconvictions and surrender to spiritual guidance.  Finally, I believe to solve the increasingly  complex challenges facing today’s world, our effectiveness as people and leaders requires embracing and engaging all that we are - the power and intelligence of our conscious left-brained voice of reason and our unconscious right-brained, spiritually connected intuition.  

   References 

 

1. Gladwell, Malcolm. Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2005. http://www.gladwell.com/blink/index.html
2. Goleman, Daniel, Social Intelligence, New York: Bantam Book Random House, 2006. http://www.danielgoleman.info/blog / 
3. Goleman, Daniel, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee. Primal Leadership. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2002.
4. Laseter, Tim, Matthias Hild, The Power of Plausibility Theory, Many Worlds website, www.manyworlds.com
5. Merriam Webster OnLine, http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictionary&va=intuition 
6. Royal Roads University. Lt 566 Leadership in Organization Course Notes. Victoria: Royal Roads University, 2005. http://www.royalroads.ca
7. Senge, Peter M. The Fifth Discipline; the Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. New York: Currency Doubleday, 1990. http://www.presencing.com/People/Peter.html
8. Spears, Larry C. “On Character and Servant-Leadership: Ten Characteristics of Effective, Caring Leaders.”   The Greenleaf Center for Servant-Leadership Website, http://www.greenleaf.org/leadership/read-about-it/Servant-Leadership-Articles-Book-Reviews.html 

 

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Social and Ecological Intelligence

Read Are You a Socially Intelligent Leader? for a succinct overview of the importance of social Intelligence.  For more read Social Intelligence and the Biology of Leadership by Daniel Goleman and Richard Boyatz in the September 2008 Harvard Business Review.   Visit http://www.morethansound.net./ for more from Daniel Goleman and other leaders in emerging fields that are crucial to our time about ideas that deepen our understanding of the human experience.  You can also watch Daniel Golemen discuss his book “Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships” as a part of the Authors@Google series.   

Daniel Goleman’s newest work Ecological Intelligence may seem a bit of a divergence, but it is certainly relative and critical to ours and our world’s future.  It  ”reveals the hidden environmental consequences of what we make and buy, and shows how new market forces can drive the essential changes we all must make to save our planet.”  Read exerpt from the book.  Also, find out why Time Magazine listed it as one of ’10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now’ .