"Ideas pull the trigger, but instinct loads the gun."
Don Marquis
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Instinct, "gut hunch"; same thing?
I haven't thought about either in awhile maybe because other phrases and words are in greater use. Things like creativity, innovative and/or entrepreneurial. All good and probably more current than "instinct" and it's old school cousin "gut hunch". However there is a place in management for just "feeling" something is or is not right.
Can you cultivate "instinct"? For what it's worth, Ingrid Bergman thought so:
"You must train your intuition--you must trust the small voice inside you which tell you exactly what to say, what to decide."
Decisions based on data but not without listening to that inner voice.
I haven't thought about either in awhile maybe because other phrases and words are in greater use. Things like creativity, innovative and/or entrepreneurial. All good and probably more current than "instinct" and it's old school cousin "gut hunch". However there is a place in management for just "feeling" something is or is not right.
Can you cultivate "instinct"? For what it's worth, Ingrid Bergman thought so:
"You must train your intuition--you must trust the small voice inside you which tell you exactly what to say, what to decide."
Decisions based on data but not without listening to that inner voice.
I've never been in a meeting where someone said "I just feel this is the right way to go!" Everyone tries to make it sound as though their decision is based on solid data but that is rarely the case.
ReplyDeleteit's not a surprise that fact-based decision making typically yields the best results but don't completely rule out 'gut-feel' or 'instinct' based decisions - espeically if they come from a reliable source.
ReplyDelete'gut-feel' sounds so hokey sometimes but i think another term for gut feel is simply pattern recognition. if you've been around or done something for long enough, you start to see the same trends/patterns that may assist in decision making. the danger though is making sure that you don't get overly parochial in your approach because of your past experience.
You're right Anonymous 2; we do "auto pilot" make many decisions because we know what worked in the past will in the future.
ReplyDeleteHowever as you also point out the danger in doing that without any reflection is that we could institutionalize bad behavior. Sort of like repeating bad mechanics in a golf swing.
All this relates to the post quoting Drucker regarding the need to ask the right questions (http://tinyurl.com/6bel36)