by Dr. Cecil Clements (26th February 2013)
This morning I got hung up on the word 'intuition'. So often we talk about our hunches and gut feelings, 'I don't have the words to explain it but it's just a feeling that I have.' I realized that we don't give too much importance to feelings. In our world where hard data must back up facts and that's the way forward, if we have the right inputs from people, from surveys that are done, then that enables us to move forward. But to be in a position to say, "It's just my intuition," seems to be in a grey area.
Yet, intuition is a word that I hear so often, and by well-respected people. So I thought I would spend a little time researching intuition and that's the substance of the call this morning.
The dictionary says that 'intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without inference and/or the use of reason.' The word intuition comes from the Latin word 'intueri' which is usually translated as to look inside or to comtemplate. So intuition provides us with beliefs that we cannot justify in every case. When somebody says, "I just intuitively feel," and they are asked why, they are not in a position to immediately give you the reasons. Intuition will rarely back us up with good reasons. That's why it is intuition.
Going through various articles on intuition, there were some that came down heavily against, some that were for it and I came to one point where I realized why. Intuition is very much a 'right brain activity'. It comes from our creative sense. On the other hand, analysis and logic are all 'left-brain activities'. So intuition might even come down to a personality type. Or if it's against a logical analytical type of person, that person won't agree to it because he/she is thinking from a logical point of view and therefore will not accept something that does not have analysis to underline whatever conclusions are reached. Therefore, there seems to be a clear divide between left-brain and right brain uses and the kind of people who use them.
But I noticed a very interesting statistic. In 2006, PRWeek, Burson-Marstellar CEO Survey came up with this. They said, "Business Intuition is rapidly gaining momentum in the business world. In fact, 62% of CEOs use their gut feelings when making decisions. Billionaires like Trump and Oprah have both publicly attributed their success to intuition."
62% of CEOs talk about many of their gut feelings being used in making decisions.
Albert Einstein once said, "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift."
Intuition is something that we need to see operating at times when we feel that it is something that must come to the fore. Just last week I read a book called 'Your Job Survival Guide'. In it, the authors, Gregory Shea and Robert Gunther say, "Intuition can help you not only to spot danger but also alert you to opportunity." They go on to say, "In 1969, an inventor brought a new volley ball game for review by an elderly senior executive at Parker Brothers. This grey haired man was a legend in the toy industry. The inventor and his team prattled on about the indoor volley ball game they had devised, using a 4-inch foam ball. To their irritation, the executive played, apparently distracted with a game ball as they walked through graphs and charts. Was he paying any attention? Had he finally lost it? Finally he spoke. "Forget the game. Keep the ball." The ball was the 'nerf ball', the foam ball introduced by Parker Brothers as the first official indoor ball. By the end of the first year, they had sold more than 4 million balls. Soon a host of 'Nerf' products grew out of this success. The executive could pick out the important amidst the flotsam. He had the skill to recognize patterns to make a point or two of data and derive meaning accurately."
Intuition is important. Tim Cooke says, "I've discovered it's in facing life's most important decisions, that intuition seems the most indispensible to getting it right. Intuition is something that occurs in the moment, and if you're open to it and you listen to it, it has
The potential to direct or redirect you the way that's best for you."
New York Times had an article in which they end by saying, "It's encouraging that thoughtful data scientists like Ms. Perlich and Ms. Schutt recognize the limits and shortcomings of the Big Data technology that they are building. Listening to the data is important, they say, but so is experience and intuition. After all, what is intuition at its best but large amounts of data of all kinds filtered through a human brain rather than a math model."
As I throw out these things, the picture that I keep getting is that intuition is still based on a lot of data, stuff that has happened that is churning on the back burners of our brain. They come to the fore suddenly, giving us the right things to do at the right time. At that point, we are not able to articulate it although it is probably based on sound judgment.
There was a major study done by Naresh Khatri on 'The Role of Intuition in Strategic Decision Making', which comes out of Nanyang Business School in Singapore. He says, "Intuition really involves 3 things:
So, to all of you out there this morning, I don't know where you stand, between logical hard data and facts, or whether you sometimes trust that inner instinct, that intuitive voice that says, "This is the way to go." Either way, I think it all comes down to discernment at a particular point in our lives. And we need discernment to be able to say, "Okay, even though the facts seem to point here, something tells me that I need to take the other way." and we need discernment to be able to say, "I'll go with that because that's the way I'm feeling right now." It maybe not the way to go 50-75% of the time, but maybe today that's the point where you need to say, "I think that's the road that I need to take. Something feels very right about it." History shows that a lot of people have made a lot of right decisions following something that they felt only intuitively.
My hope and prayer for you this morning is that the Almighty God would give you the discernment and the confidence to make right decisions even if they are intuitively based.
Let me pray with you. Almighty God, on each of these precious ones on this call, pour out Your blessing, pour out Your wisdom. Give discernment that as we make decisions through the day, they would be right decisions, whether they are based on hard facts or based on intuition. I pray that we would have the wisdom to be able to know which one to go with. I pray a blessing on each one. May they have a wonderful day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Resources
This morning I got hung up on the word 'intuition'. So often we talk about our hunches and gut feelings, 'I don't have the words to explain it but it's just a feeling that I have.' I realized that we don't give too much importance to feelings. In our world where hard data must back up facts and that's the way forward, if we have the right inputs from people, from surveys that are done, then that enables us to move forward. But to be in a position to say, "It's just my intuition," seems to be in a grey area.
Yet, intuition is a word that I hear so often, and by well-respected people. So I thought I would spend a little time researching intuition and that's the substance of the call this morning.
The dictionary says that 'intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without inference and/or the use of reason.' The word intuition comes from the Latin word 'intueri' which is usually translated as to look inside or to comtemplate. So intuition provides us with beliefs that we cannot justify in every case. When somebody says, "I just intuitively feel," and they are asked why, they are not in a position to immediately give you the reasons. Intuition will rarely back us up with good reasons. That's why it is intuition.
Going through various articles on intuition, there were some that came down heavily against, some that were for it and I came to one point where I realized why. Intuition is very much a 'right brain activity'. It comes from our creative sense. On the other hand, analysis and logic are all 'left-brain activities'. So intuition might even come down to a personality type. Or if it's against a logical analytical type of person, that person won't agree to it because he/she is thinking from a logical point of view and therefore will not accept something that does not have analysis to underline whatever conclusions are reached. Therefore, there seems to be a clear divide between left-brain and right brain uses and the kind of people who use them.
But I noticed a very interesting statistic. In 2006, PRWeek, Burson-Marstellar CEO Survey came up with this. They said, "Business Intuition is rapidly gaining momentum in the business world. In fact, 62% of CEOs use their gut feelings when making decisions. Billionaires like Trump and Oprah have both publicly attributed their success to intuition."
62% of CEOs talk about many of their gut feelings being used in making decisions.
Albert Einstein once said, "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift."
Intuition is something that we need to see operating at times when we feel that it is something that must come to the fore. Just last week I read a book called 'Your Job Survival Guide'. In it, the authors, Gregory Shea and Robert Gunther say, "Intuition can help you not only to spot danger but also alert you to opportunity." They go on to say, "In 1969, an inventor brought a new volley ball game for review by an elderly senior executive at Parker Brothers. This grey haired man was a legend in the toy industry. The inventor and his team prattled on about the indoor volley ball game they had devised, using a 4-inch foam ball. To their irritation, the executive played, apparently distracted with a game ball as they walked through graphs and charts. Was he paying any attention? Had he finally lost it? Finally he spoke. "Forget the game. Keep the ball." The ball was the 'nerf ball', the foam ball introduced by Parker Brothers as the first official indoor ball. By the end of the first year, they had sold more than 4 million balls. Soon a host of 'Nerf' products grew out of this success. The executive could pick out the important amidst the flotsam. He had the skill to recognize patterns to make a point or two of data and derive meaning accurately."
Intuition is important. Tim Cooke says, "I've discovered it's in facing life's most important decisions, that intuition seems the most indispensible to getting it right. Intuition is something that occurs in the moment, and if you're open to it and you listen to it, it has
The potential to direct or redirect you the way that's best for you."
New York Times had an article in which they end by saying, "It's encouraging that thoughtful data scientists like Ms. Perlich and Ms. Schutt recognize the limits and shortcomings of the Big Data technology that they are building. Listening to the data is important, they say, but so is experience and intuition. After all, what is intuition at its best but large amounts of data of all kinds filtered through a human brain rather than a math model."
As I throw out these things, the picture that I keep getting is that intuition is still based on a lot of data, stuff that has happened that is churning on the back burners of our brain. They come to the fore suddenly, giving us the right things to do at the right time. At that point, we are not able to articulate it although it is probably based on sound judgment.
There was a major study done by Naresh Khatri on 'The Role of Intuition in Strategic Decision Making', which comes out of Nanyang Business School in Singapore. He says, "Intuition really involves 3 things:
- Your judgment because judgments are made quickly in the absence of adequate information and without precedent.
- Past experiences – inputs over the years that have just been filed away.
- Gut-feeling – a growing excitement in the pit of your stomach or a burst of enthusiasm and energy.
So, to all of you out there this morning, I don't know where you stand, between logical hard data and facts, or whether you sometimes trust that inner instinct, that intuitive voice that says, "This is the way to go." Either way, I think it all comes down to discernment at a particular point in our lives. And we need discernment to be able to say, "Okay, even though the facts seem to point here, something tells me that I need to take the other way." and we need discernment to be able to say, "I'll go with that because that's the way I'm feeling right now." It maybe not the way to go 50-75% of the time, but maybe today that's the point where you need to say, "I think that's the road that I need to take. Something feels very right about it." History shows that a lot of people have made a lot of right decisions following something that they felt only intuitively.
My hope and prayer for you this morning is that the Almighty God would give you the discernment and the confidence to make right decisions even if they are intuitively based.
Let me pray with you. Almighty God, on each of these precious ones on this call, pour out Your blessing, pour out Your wisdom. Give discernment that as we make decisions through the day, they would be right decisions, whether they are based on hard facts or based on intuition. I pray that we would have the wisdom to be able to know which one to go with. I pray a blessing on each one. May they have a wonderful day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Resources
- Intuition definition, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intuition_(psychology)
- Business Intuition is rapidly gaining momentum in the business world: 62% of CEOs use their gut feelings when making decisions (2006, PRWeek/Burson-Marsteller CEO Survey). Billionaires such as Trump and Oprah both publicly attribute their success to intuition http://EzineArticles.com/493676
- Nerf ball: "Your Job Survival guide," Gregory Shea & Robert Gunther, pg118
- It's encouraging that thoughtful data scientists like Ms. Perlich and Ms. Schutt recognize the limits and shortcomings of the Big Data technology that they are building. Listening to the data is important, they say, but so is experience and intuition. After all, what is intuition at its best but large amounts of data of all kinds filtered through a human brain rather than a math model?p/ http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/30/technology/big-data-is-great-but-dont-forget-intuition.html?_r=0
- Naresh Khatri, "Role of Intuition in Strategic Decision Making," http://www3.ntu.edu.sg/nbs/sabre/working_papers/01-97.pdf
No comments:
Post a Comment