The Power of Intuition: How to Use Your Gut Feelings to Make Better Decisions at Work

I read this book thinking , yeah , thats just a complicated way of looking at what I do all the time ( and I thought I was being lazy , by rarely using Differential Diagnosis . ) ( I have a small veterinary clinic . ) Started work this morning ( Tuesday ) with the annoying , but unshakeable conviction it was Wednesday . Eventually thought to track back for cues and realised it was my neighbours dustbin , further up the drive than usual . Dustbins are put in street , Wednesdays for collection . Found I was now totally convinced today was Tuesday . Started mentally running through the various tales from my past with which I repeatedly bore my aquaintances . Motive was to see if I could use any of my well aired stories , to illustrate stuff to my employees . Surprised to find , in stories that I had run through many times over the years , novel and better solutions to problems I'd dealt with , suddenly occuring to me . Wow ! I am impressed .

Gary Klein schreef Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions, volgens Business & Strategy een van de beste managementboeken van de 20e eeuw. Klein werkt al vele jaren zeer succesvol met het concept intuïtie bij bedrijven en organisaties. Daarbij neemt hij bewust afstand van een magische/mystieke invulling van het begrijp, en pleit hij voor een doelgerichte synthese tussen ratio en intuïtie. Het boek Intuïtie in het werk is na de inleiding verdeeld in opbouwen, instandhouden en overbrengen van intuïtie. Het opbouwen gaat volgens het herkenningsgeoriënteerd beslissingsmodel, waarin patroonherkenning, mentale modellen en aanwijzingen in een situatie handvaten bieden. De toepassing draait om oefeningen. Klein stelt er een aantal aan je voor: de premortem exercitie, probleemdetectie, omgaan met onzekerheid, inschatten van situaties, het ruimte bieden aan gerichte creativiteit en het aanpassen van en improviseren op bestaande plannen. Het in standhouden van intuïtie draait om het kunnen overbremngen van je intentie en het anderen helpen aan een sterke intuïtie. Leercultuur, cognitieve taakanalyse, coaching geven en krijgen zijn hierbij belangrijke hulpmiddelen. Klein staat vervolgens stil bij de rol van metrieken en de invloed van informatietechnologie op het gebruik van intuïtie. Klein schrijft verhelderend, biedt allerhande casebeschrijvingen en zoekt verbinding.

Intuition is something everyone uses and the source of it is a bit mysterious. Gary Klein takes a scientific approach to it and when you should trust your intuition and in what circumstances that your intuition can be unreliable. He also discusses the art of decision making, strategies for making better decisions, and how the human mind goes through the decision making process. Real serious book on the art of decision making. Highly recommend this one.

One of the best books about decision making. Very insightful! Especially for those managers who used too much metrics ONLY for their daily works.

In Innovation at Work, Gary Klein presents the interesting premise that intuition can be a learned skill rather than an innate trait that someone either does or does not have. Citing his work with the US Marine Corps, firefighters and certain business organizations, Klein lays out his theory that intuition is something to be valued, developed and leveraged. To push his thesis, he tends to beat up on analytics and metrics in decision making - so much so that people with a strong analytical bent (like me) might dismiss the thesis as rubbish. Keeping an open mind, however, makes one see that what Klein is really advocating is a blend of intuition and analytics. In fact, a number of the tools outlined by Klein to build up intuition are somewhat analytical in nature - in effect creating a situation where one can intuitively decide something today because of "pre-analysis" that had been done in the past. Although the concepts are presented more from an anecdotal perspective than from a rigorous scientific one, Klein is able to nonetheless put forth a concept that merits attention, if for no other reason that to gain a perspective on different management styles the one must deal with on a regular basis.