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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modern day snake oil

Recently I was sent an invitation to attend a fund raising event for breast cancer featuring wildly successful author of the ‘Chicken Soup’ series, Jack Canfield.  While it is a good cause, and the opportunity to network is enticing, I am no longer a fan of motivational gurus – aka success snake oil salesmen - such as Jack Canfield.    For me, the value proposition of listening to someone who has become rich selling ‘the secret’ to getting rich and being happy easily with minimal effort is simply not significant  enough to pay $275.00 for a ticket. 

Don’t get me wrong, I respect his motivational speaking abilities and fully commend his role in spreading the message about being the best you can be.   There was a time when I was a big fan of Jack Canfield and others like him.  I bought their books, I went to see them speak and even considered shelling out $3495 for one of his success seminars.  I have spent much of my life searching for the magic answer to success, wealth and happiness from such sources.   Then I had a two crucial insights - one that many of you I imagine may say, ‘ – of course – what else is new!   

The first was that they are not they are not saying anything new.  It is the same thing they have been saying for years, just wrapped up in a new book jacket.   In truth, it is not anything new since the time of Socrates, Lao Tzu or any of the other ancient master philosophers.    The second related insight was that they weren’t telling me anything I hadn’t already learned or knew.    I am in total awe of the business and marketing savvy to build a multimillion $ enterprise on an illusion.  That illusion - anti up a good chunk of change and you will receive the magic answer – the silver bullet – to easily and effortlessly become fabulously successful and rich too.   Sometimes I wish I had the chutzpah to mass market perpetuation of the myth that health, happiness and wealth is an easy 10 step program. 

Then I think….if its that simple, how come everyone in the world isn’t fabulously healthy, wealthy and happy?  Oh yea, I forgot…actually changing and putting things in to action is always much harder than talking about it.   Furthermore, success is not totally in our control as motivational speakers need you to believe so that they can get you to buy their books and listen to them speak.   Success is much more complex than we have been led to believe.   Malcom Gladwell’s book Outliers does a good job of explaining how success is a group project predicated on the “contributions of lots of different people and lots of different circumstances” - ”culture and community and family and generation“¹ as much as their own efforts.    Oh yes, Gladwell is credible – an award winning journalist who does extensive research providing facts to back up his discovery of something new.   Him, I would pay to see.  Not so much the motivational speaker/ modern day snake oil salesmen selling success snake oil - a secret magical recipe that has no power at all.

In the end, what I now know for sure  is that the most precious thing I have is time.   Life is a temporary condition and time is a true fixed non-renewable resource.  Every moment gone can never again be recovered.  I think I will invest my time and money into action to make my own success.   I’m not totally sure what that success will trun out to be or look like given my knowledge and circumstances, but I figure I’m already a winner by not spending $3495 for Jack Canfield’s success snake oil.      

1 & 2  What is Outlier’s About, Gladwell.com,  http://www.gladwell.com/outliers/index.html