DEVELOPING INTUITION: BECOMING SMARTER BY THINKING LESS EUGENE SADLER-SMITH School of Management University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, UK,

GU2 7XH ERELLA SHEFY Humanager Consultants, Hod Hasharon, Israel INTRODUCTION The archetypal rational manager relies upon hard facts and figures drawn from the past upon which to conduct logical analyses and from which to make predictions and plans about the future. When the problems faced are simple and routine the necessary facts and figures are often readily available and can be drawn upon, interpreted and used in a rational manner. However, the solutions for many problems may be beyond knowledge that is explicit or immediately to hand. In this situation managers can acquire more facts and data to fuel their rational thinking processes; but this has a number of potential difficulties: firstly, the external knowledge may not be available; secondly, by accumulating more knowledge managers may inadvertently subject themselves to information overload and be afflicted by analysis paralysis; thirdly, by the time the extra knowledge needed to solve the problem is available the problem itself may have changed, disappeared or been solved by competitors. An alternative to the relentless pursuit of rationality is to be open to, seek out and apply alternative ways of thinking by drawing upon the more tacit and intuitive forms of knowing, going beyond available data, recognizing that feelings and emotions are an important form of data and making what appear to be smart guesses but which may in fact be very finely tuned tacit or intuitive judgments (Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee, 2002; Hogarth, 2001; Klein, 2003). Accepting feelings-as-data and hunch or intuition as valid forms of knowing is not to deny the value of rationality or place it and intuition in opposition to each other: both intuition and rationality have limits and each can sometimes lead to bad decisions (Burke & Miller, 1999). Intuition and rationality are at the heart of an important dynamic in managerial cognition in which both modes have the potential to balance or reinforce each other. The assumption of this paper is that decision making and problem solving may be more effective if managers are prepared to allow space for rationality and intuition to co-exist. The argument of this paper is that the development of intuitive awareness is an important but neglected area of management education and development (Taggart & Valenzi, 1990) and those managers who possess an understanding and appreciation of intuition may be better-equipped to cope with complex, dynamic and uncertain environments. The aim of this paper is to report the implementation and validation of a program that aimed to develop managers intuitive awareness. BACKGROUND Paradoxically, one way of understanding intuition is to examine what appear to be closely-related but distinct concepts - in effect examining what it is not. Unfortunately, obfuscation often results from: (1) the interchangeable use of the terms instinct, insight and

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intuition (mixing up the three Is); (2) intuition being presented as synonymous with the incubation stage of the creative process; (3) equating intuition with creativity-enhancing techniques such as lateral thinking. Intuition is not instinct: instincts are reflexive actions and instinctive behaviors that are pre-programmed into organisms to ensure survival and reproduction. For humans instinctive patterns of behavior are advantageous in a world that is simple and unchanging; however in dynamic environments such behaviors may be inadequate or even redundant. Intuition is not insight: a subtle and important difference between insight and intuition stems from the fact that when a problem is solved through the cognitive process of insight the logical relationships between the parts of a problem become clear and may be explained symbolically through words or other images (such as in the classic insight problem of the prisoner in the tower). The insight solution may occur after a period of conscious or unconscious reflection or incubation. Recent neuro-scientific research has begun to identify the brain regions implicated in so-called eureka moments (Beeman-Jung et al, 2004). Intuition is not lateral thinking: this concept was developed and popularized in the 1970s a technique for escaping from conventional ways of solving problems. Lateral thinking disrupts rigid thought patterns by introducing discontinuities, for example by means of exercises such as the random walk in which a stimulus that is unrelated to the problem is used as a means for the disruption of extant schemas and subsequent cognitive restructuring and divergent thinking patterns. Intuition is not the opposite of rationality: rationality and intuition are often depicted as opposites, however they may be interdependent to the extent that they could be combined into a third, more hybrid powerful style that incorporates the best of both (Pondy, 1983: 170): Empirical evidence for the view that these two kinds of processing are not opposites was provided by Epstein (1994) who identified two orthogonal factors (need for cognition and faith in intuition) that contribute jointly to behavior. INTUITION DEFINED A consideration of what intuition is not leaves a clearer picture of what it is: intuition is an implicit process which leads to feelings about a course of action or behavior the reasons for which are not easily verbalized and: (1) whose speed of operation is slower than instinct but faster than insight; (2) is likely to be derived from patterns in long term memory, implicit learning, emotionally significant events or universal archetypes; (3) may combine with rationality as a means for testing hypotheses; (4) is holistic, reactive and automatic; (5) is probably older, in evolutionary terms, than the rational system. INTUITION IN MANAGEMENT EDUCATION AND DEVELOPMENT Recently Kets de Vries expressed the view that Unfortunately, the right side of the brain the part responsible for more intuitive processes is not stimulated in the business school (Couto, 2004: 66). But given the academic and popular interest in intuition, along with its potential significance for many aspects of organizational life, this lack of attention is perhaps surprising. To this end we propose the term intuitive attunement to describe a process that may be used within educational and in-company programs for the planned development of intuitive awareness. Our model for intuitive attunement consisted of three elements: (1) predispositions: these are the values, motivations and self-beliefs that underpin the qualities that we seek to

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develop; (2) qualities: these are the attitudes and behaviors that are part of an intuitive awareness (for example, bodily awareness, imagination, perception, relaxation, self-worth and spontaneity); (3) keys: these are some of the techniques that we developed and used to develop the qualities that enable managers to become more attuned to their intuition. DEVELOPING INTUITION Our main aim for the program was to allow participants to experience and practice a selection of keys for intuitive attunement in the context of a traditional institutional environment and a formal and conservative management education curriculum. By intuitive attunement we are referring to developing an awareness of ones own intuitions through the use of specific techniques in a sense tuning in to the thought processes of the intuitive mind that otherwise may be drowned out by the activity of the rational mind A subsidiary aim was to develop participants understanding of the features of intuition, differences between intuition, instinct, lateral thinking, insight and rationality, and the role of intuition in management decision making and creativity. The keys are the core of the program and comprised: (1) go with your gut (spontaneity): a spontaneity exercise applied to trivial tasks; (2) stilling the mind (relaxation): a meditation exercise (3) listen to your body (bodily awareness): a focusing exercise; (4) relaxation (relaxation): a lying or sitting relaxation exercise; (5) inner journey (imagination): a guided imagery exercise; (6) sleeping on it (relaxation): an incubation exercise; (7) looking meditation (relaxation): a meditation exercise; (8) walking meditation (relaxation): a meditation exercise; (9) mindfulness (perception): an exercise in awareness; (10) befriend yourself (self worth): a loving kindness exercise; (11) morning pages (spontaneity): an exercise in spontaneous writing; (12) intuition journal: a technique for recording intuitions The final version (after pilot-testing in a number of educational and in-company programs) of the program was implemented as part of Masters level module on innovation and creativity at a university business school. Participants were aged between 28 and 52 and comprised 18 males and 14 females in two cohorts (two groups of N = 16). All participants had a first degree and at least two years managerial experience in a variety of organizations (including manufacturing, service, public administration and health care) and occupied senior management positions. The program consisted of two elements that will be referred to as Attunement Training (in-class) and Attunement Practice (out-of-class). The in-class activity was explained to participants as being analogous to the training room or gym; the out-of-class activity was analogous to the real game. (1) Attunement Training: The workshop was six-hour class consisting of traditional lecture with discussion and an experiential session to practice the various keys. (2) Attunement Practice: We aimed to facilitate the development of intuitive awareness through extended practice and reflection. The Attunement Practice consisted of a two-month period in which participants used the keys of their choice under their own direction (but with coaching available) out-of-class. In addition to practicing the use of the keys, participants were asked to do two other things: firstly, to keep a Reflective Journal in which they rated the usefulness of the keys; secondly, to compose a Personal Statement on their use of the keys discussing the overall impact (the identities of the participants were not known to the researchers): (a) Reflective Journal: the aim was to gauge usefulness ratings for each of the keys and elicit participants views on them. This was an attempt to assess the internal validity of the keys and was concerned with the extent to which the keys were effective in themselves; (b) Personal Statement: the aim was to identify the impact that the participants felt that the whole
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program (workshop and practice) had upon them. This was an attempt to assess the external validity of the keys and is concerned with the questions of whether or not the keys effected any self-reported changes beyond the program in participants workplace behaviors. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The first-named author analyzed the participants Personal Statements thematically (in terms of words, groups of words or whole phrases) through a series of readings and re-readings of the texts in order to identify broad content areas that emerged (see: Allard-Poesi, DruckerGoddard & Ehlinger, 2001: 360). A number of preliminary themes were identified; these were then validated and modified by further readings in order to isolate and refine the themes and on the basis of these re-readings participants responses were assigned to particular themes. Rather than define the themes a priori we choose, because the research is exploratory, to allow the themes to emerge from our reading of the texts. This ex post analysis revealed six themes. As a check on the validity of the analysis another researcher reviewed the themes, categorization and the assignation of responses; appropriate minor modifications were made. The themes are reported below in a sequence that explicates their inter-relationships. (1) Context: the organizational context had a significant impact upon the participants predispositions towards, or readiness for, intuition. It sometimes appeared to engender feelings of anxiety and lack of safety to the extent that this influenced participants in a number of ways: (a) by repressing the role of feelings in decision making; (b) by the use of rationality as a means of legitimizing actions. (2) Confidence: the effect of organizational context may also have influenced individuals levels of confidence in a number of aspects of their behavior. The keys were seen as having a positive effect on participants levels of confidence, especially with respect to creativity and decision making. Issues related to individuals levels of confidence appeared to be bound-up with contextual issues in work environments where norms and expectations associated with administratively-driven cultures may have the effect of repressing divergent thinking processes. An emergent theme in the texts was the view that intuition and creativity are innate and may flourish if impediments in the workplace can be lifted or overcome. The keys were perceived by a number of participants as ways in which repressive or overly rational norms may be dealt with. This was most often allied to the theme of confidence in ones innate ability to be intuitive and creative, hence the keys were seen as a means of enhancing levels of self-confidence. (3) Concentration: As senior members of their organizations as well as being post graduate students, participants in general expressed the view that there were excessive and competing demands upon their time and personal resources. A number reported difficulty in this regard, for example that during the evenings I found it difficult to put the [main] issue [of the day] out of my mind. A theme that emerged from the texts was the issue of the ability to focus and concentrate. Participants were of the view that the keys played a role in enabling them to identify, prioritize and focus upon specific issues. (4) Awareness: this emerged in two ways: awareness of self (with the related issue of confidence) and awareness of others (for example through the process of attuned awareness to the context of a meeting). An additional aspect which emerges from the identified theme is that of perspective; the texts alluded to the significance of three different standpoints: (a) seeing inside oneself (the roots of the term intuition may be traced back to the Latin intueri meaning to contemplate or look within); (b) seeing things from others point of view; (c) taking in a broader more holistic view (one participant referred to it as being spatially aware).
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(5) Serenity: a further theme to emerge was related to the dynamic between the rational and the intuitive minds. Participants were able to relate to direct experiences of the sometimes frenetic pace of mental activity. These also appeared to inter-relate to the themes of confidence and concentration. Participants texts allude to self-awareness in the specific area of mental activity (referred to as madness and racing rabble of thoughts) and of the quality of serenity and how this in turn may be connected to levels of confidence, concentration, creativity and spirituality. These issues were cogently summarized by one participant who wrote that: I will think less to become smarter. (6) Imagery: Non-verbal modes of thinking emerged from the texts in a series of short pithy observations. The texts suggest that some participants were aware of the role of visual imagery in their intuitive thinking processes. CONCLUSIONS Analysis of the texts revealed the issues of confidence, concentration, awareness and serenity; these are the more tangible and observable outcome behaviors that are underpinned by the qualities (bodily awareness, imagination, perception, relaxation, self worth and spontaneity). The additional factor not explicitly identified in the original model was the role of context. The qualities we focused on in the model and the outcomes which emerged from the analysis are mostly inner qualities of the manager, but clearly the outer environment is as important in either promoting or constraining the development of the qualities; similarly the outer environment may itself provide a stimulus for individuals to become more intuitively aware (perhaps as a reaction to the pace and stress of particular types of environments). Indeed, one of the participants noted that The real challenge would be to internalize the techniques and use them frequently and naturally [at work]. An additional feature of the environment is the extent to which it promotes the development of intuition through feedback. SUMMARY Abraham Maslow summarized the limits imposed upon us by fixed mindsets when he said that if your only tool is a hammer then you tend to see every problem in terms of nails. The limits of rationality are long established and widely acknowledged within management. Previous research suggests that intuition is probably entrenched as a natural but unconscious mode of managers thinking but which is un-acknowledged, may operate covertly and without proper training can be mishandled. The argument of this paper has not been to abandon rationality in favor of intuition; as one of our participants wrote: As wild as my intuitions are I would most certainly have to back them up analytically to substantiate [the] claims [they make]. We are proposing that the development of intuitive awareness should be accorded similar levels of attention in the management and education curriculum as is rationality. We have reported research that has attempted to innovate in the curriculum by incorporating the concept of intuitive attunement into Masters and in-company programs. The validation revealed the concept to be credible and valid in its own terms (it was well-received by participants and appeared to be achieving the aims that we set). In terms of its broader impact, although the methodological limitations of the self-report reflective journals and personal statements are acknowledged (Ramsey, 2002), the program appeared to have had perceived effects upon confidence, concentration, awareness and serenity in the areas of decision making, creativity and interpersonal functioning. It enhanced individuals confidence in their creative capacities, their

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ability to concentrate and focus upon priority issues, their awareness of themselves and others; a number of participants reported that it engendered a sense of serenity and calmness. A longerterm process (with a group and a facilitator) could result in better outcomes through more structured reflection and feedback. Having identified these areas of probable impact, further research may now be directed at a more sophisticated assessment of outcomes perhaps through more objective, non-self-report measures using experimental and longitudinal research designs and also an examination of the effects upon organizational health (for example, stress, coping and burnout). In the final analysis the process of intuitive attunement in our view opens up exciting new possibilities both for management education and development practitioners and for managers themselves to extend and expand their awareness of their untapped inner potential. REFERENCES Allard-Poesi, F., Drucker-Goddard, C. & Ehlinger, S. 2001. Analyzing representations and discourse. In R-A. Thietart (Ed), Doing management research: a comprehensive guide. London: Sage. Jung-Beeman, M. et al., 2004. Neural activity when people solve verbal problems with insight. Public Library of Science Biology, 2(4): 0415-0416 http://biology.plosjournals.org Burke, LA. & Miller, MK. 1999. Taking the mystery out of intuitive decision-making. Academy of Management Executive, 13: 91-99. Coutu, DL. 2004. Putting leaders on the couch: a conversation with Manfred FR. Kets de Vries. Harvard Business Review, January: 64-71. Epstein, S. 1994. Integration of the cognitive and the psychodynamic unconscious. American Psychologist, 49: 709-724. Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R. & McKee, A. 2002. The new leaders: transforming the art of leadership into the science of results. London: Time Warner Hogarth, RM. 2001. Educating intuition. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. Klein, G. 2003. Intuition at work. New York: Currency / Doubleday Pondy, LR. 1983. Union of rationality and intuition in management action. In Srivastva, S. (Ed.) The executive mind: new insights on managerial thought and action. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers. Ramsey, VJ. 2002. Learning journals and learning communities, Journal of Management Education, 26: 380-401. Taggart, W. & Valenzi, E. 1990. Assessing rational and intuitive styles: a human information processing metaphor. Journal of Management Studies, 27: 149-172. Note: A full version of this paper is available from: e.sadler-smith@surrey.ac.uk or from www.intuitiveintelligence.org
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