During the past fifty years I have had the opportunity to work with many brilliant people. Some have appeared to highly cerebral rather than feeling. They have been mathematicians, scientists and others who are analytical.
Many of these appear to put emotions on the back burner when tackling challenges. But some may take another approach when exploring ideas and creating models.
Such people may then use what is called strategic intuition. Digging deep into their experience, they sometimes back a hunch and set out to prove how this may work in practice.
Sometimes they do this by gathering many facts and then making reasoned judgements. Sometimes they gather then facts but then select the ones that may help them to prove the theory.
Science, for example, is supposed to be a field where people remove themselves and act in an unbiased way. But every person will bring their own values and approach to a situation.
This is bound to create a bias. Such an approach can still be okay, however, providing a person is able: a) to recognise their bias; b) to recognise the pluses and minuses of their approach.
During one workshop with top mathematicians from Cambridge I floated this idea by saying something along the following lines.
“I have a view that many brilliant people are raving intuitives who back this up with selected logic. But you are mathematicians so I guess you do not follow that approach.”
There was a short gap and then some laughter. One of the mathematicians said:
“Actually, that is what some of us do. We have a hunch and then aim to back it up with examples. Sometimes it works, sometimes we discard it. But it starts with a hunch based on the information we have gathered.”
This was obviously not a well-researched scientific example based on a large sample. But I have seen a similar pattern followed by great workers in many fields. They have gathered so much information that they able to see patterns and then aim:
To use their strategic intuition to explore a possible way forwards … To back it up with selected logic … To translate this into action, test it and deliver success.
One key point if worth underlining. Such people have vast experience and a track record of delivering the goods. They keep following the basics before they add the brilliance. They may do this by taking the following steps.
They then trust their intuition because it is trustworthy;
They trust it because it has a track record of delivering success;
They back it up with facts but then, after settling on their model, do masses of testing to make sure it works in practice.
Let’s return to your own life. Can you think of a specific activity where you follow elements of this approach? How do you follow it in your own way? What may sometimes happens as a result?
If you wish, try tackling the exercise on this theme. This invites you to complete the following sentences.
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