Professional Intuition. How To Improve...1. Professional Intuition
How to improve intuition in the context of organizations
DR. ANDREAS ZEUCH
cell +49.(0)160.79 38 807 | email: az@a-zeuch.de | web: www.a-zeuch.de |
integral.blog: www.psychophysik.com/integral-blog | podcast: www.dasabenteuerleben.de
2. Overview
‣ Basics: Professional Intuition
‣ Improving Intuition is no luxury
‣ Improving Intuition
‣ Individuals
‣ Organizations
‣ Bad News
‣ Good News
‣ Needing support?
© ANDREAS ZEUCH 2009
3. Basics: Professional Intuition
‣ Intuition is needed in all daily decisions. In the small
ones as well as in the „big“ strategic ones (have a look
at my paper „Essences of Decision Making“)
‣ Everybody is intuitive. Intuition is a basic human
function (because of its rooting in subliminal
perception and information processing and know-how)
‣ Intuitive decisions may be more effective and efficient
than such by rationality – especially in the context of
complexity.
‣ Intuition can lead to misjugdements because old
experiences may distort the perception of actual
situations. Expertise can become a routine-trap.
© ANDREAS ZEUCH 2009
4. Improving Intuition is no luxury
‣ Because of these basics it is no luxury to improve the
professional intuition in your company.
‣ We experience a crisis of decision-making. We all have
to learn to deal with complexity and thererfore with
daily uncertainty. Intuition is the natural given
resource to navigate in the fog of uncertainty.
© ANDREAS ZEUCH 2009
6. Improving Intuition: Individuals (1)
‣ Attitudes and beliefs
‣ Identify your own attitudes and beliefs on professional intuition and
those of your employees and leaders. Work on limiting attitudes
and beliefs such as „Intuition is a genetic disposition“.
‣ Demystify Intuition. It‘s no magic phenomenon, it can be explained
by serious scientific models.
‣ Develop trust in the deeper self and unconscious.
‣ Intuitive experiences until today
‣ Activate the memory of succesful intuitions. Make them a point of
reference.
‣ Explore the unsuccesful intuitions. What were the reasons?
© ANDREAS ZEUCH 2009
7. Improving Intuition: Individuals (2)
‣ Improving perception
‣ „Inner-World-Perception“ - everything which happens inside
yourself: Feelings, emotions, body sensations, thoughts, inner
images and maybe your inner voice.
‣ „Outer-World-Perception“ - everything which happens beyond
your skin: All you can see, hear, feal, taste and smell in your
surrounding.
‣ Exercising intuitive decision-making
‣ A great way to develop intuitive decision-making is improvisational
theatre:
‣ The trainees have to act very spontaneous without thinking, planning
and controlling.
‣ They will get immediate feedback on the quality of their decision-
making
‣ And: It‘s terrific fun!
© ANDREAS ZEUCH 2009
8. Improving Intuition: Individuals (3)
‣ Handling Intuition
‣ The most important lesson to learn: Just perceive your intuition
without judging in any direction!
‣ Learn to verify your intuition if possible (which means: if there is
enough time...). Talk with colleagues, employees, customers or
B2B-partners about your intuitive insights. Intuition is no
reflectory instinct you have to follow automatically.
‣ Learn to communicate your intuition to intuition-sceptics. There
are several possibilities of effective communication.
‣ Concrete techniques
‣ Learn and develop concrete techniques of intuitive problem-
solving
© ANDREAS ZEUCH 2009
10. Improving Intuition: Organizational Culture (1)
Develop what I call a „Constructive Culture of
Nichtwissen“ (=„Not-Knowing“, Ignorance ...)
‣ There is no complete information
‣ Stop the belief in complete information and the superiority of
rationality
‣ Epistemic Arrogance
‣ is the overestimation of knowledge and the underestimation of
uncertainty (a great term from Taleb‘s „Black Swan“ - read it!)
‣ Transform this dysfunctional mind-set in a more critical and
modest one
© ANDREAS ZEUCH 2009
11. Improving Intuition: Organizational Culture (2)
‣ Legitimation of decisions
‣ Not every decision can be justified. Stop the claim for legitimating
every decision because otherwise it will kill intuition from the very
first moment
‣ Error culture
‣ Without errors there would‘nt have been evolution. Without errors
we would`nt have Penicillin or Post-Its!
‣ Develop an intelligent culture of errors. Errors happen, they are
not made. Otherwise it would be sabotage (and you would have
some other problems...)
‣ Tolerance of uncertainty
‣ Since you and your employees have to face uncertainty more and
more the conclusion is to develop a tolerance of uncertainty.
© ANDREAS ZEUCH 2009
12. Improving Intuition: Organizational Structure
‣ Cell-Structure-Design
‣ If your organization is structured in the classical way of hierarchy,
centralization, command-and-control ... you should transform it
into a cell-structure-design. Create an
‣ Adaptive decision culture, which is based on two pillars
‣ Self-Organization (Empowerment, self-determined work...)
‣ Possibility Spaces (to benefit from errors, chances and Nichtwissen)
© ANDREAS ZEUCH 2009
14. Bad News
‣ This is no homerun.
‣ It will take effort, time and money.
‣ It‘s a fundamental transition of beliefs and mind-sets.
© ANDREAS ZEUCH 2009
15. Good News
‣ There are companies and organizations who did it.
‣ The results will be a good return on invest.
‣ The only limitations are the mind-sets.
© ANDREAS ZEUCH 2009