Intuitive techniques allow you to tap into your unconsciousness and find the ideas that you already have. To solve a problem, you have to believe that you already have the answer in your unconscious.
Michael Michalko, in his book, “Thinkertoys,” explains how Intuitive techniques show you how to take advantage of your right brain’s capability to perceive insights all at once from your unconscious. The following discussion is based on his study of intuition and problem-solving.
Using intuition means paying attention to your feelings and knowing their accuracy and how well you apply your intuition to your problem. Here are some examples of using intuition.
“George Washington solved his most difficult problems during the revolutionary war with intuition. He would instruct his orderlies not to let anyone disturb him while he relaxed and intuited decisions.’ Another example is Conrad Hilton, who is bidding for the Stevens Hotel in Chicago. He offered the number and won the world’s largest hotel by $200.”
Successful managers often use intuition. Present an intuitive manager with a company’s financial report, and s/he will accurately assess the firm’s strengths, weaknesses, and future. Present the same manager with a personal problem, and s/he will evaluate the situation and intuit the solution and possible courses of action.
Five ways managers use intuition
Harvard business professor Daniel Isenberg studied 16 senior managers in major corporations. He spent days observing them as they work, interviewing them, and having them perform various exercises designed to figure out what made them successful.
He identified five different ways successful managers use intuition to:
1 Help them sense when a problem exists
2 Rapidly perform well-learned behavioral patterns
3 Synthesize isolated bits of data and experience into an integrated picture
4 Check on the results of rational analysis. They search until they match their gut feeling and their intellect.
5. Bypass in-depth analysis and come up with a quick solution. Charles Merrill of Merrill Lynch once said that he was right 60% of the time if he made decisions fast. If he took time, analyzed the situation, and decided carefully, he would be right 70% of the time. However, that extra 10% was seldom worth the time.
Intuitive people develop superior insight that enables them to perceive whole situations in sudden leaps of logic. John Mihalasky and a Douglas Dean at the new year New Jersey Institute of Technology discovered that 80% of CEOs whose is profits doubled over five years had above-average intuitive powers.
The blueprint for achieving intuition
The two basic principles of intuition are: it must be developed and should be incorporated with reason.
1 It must be developed. Strive to be aware of your intuition daily. When do they occur? How do they feel? Practice your skills by making guesses before a situation is thoroughly analyzed.
To condition your mind, ask yourself some “yes” and “no” questions to which you already know the answers. Observe how you get the answers. You may see a yes or no. NO matter how your answer comes; concentrate on getting future answers in the same way.
Do the same with choices. Start by thinking about a choice you have already made, and imagine the options you had when you made a choice. If you think of the choice you have already made, observe the word, phrase, image, or symbol that represents that choice. Remember how you got the answer, and focus on getting future answers in the same way. Pratice making a few simple choices you haven’t made before.
2 combine intuition with reason. In an interview, Jonas Salk, the scientist to discover the polio vaccine: “I’m saying we should trust her intuition. I believe that the principles of the universe are revealed to us through intuition. And I think that if we combine our intuition with our reason, we can respond in an evolutionary sound way to our problems. Affective, creative conceptualization requires that one incorporate reason and logic as well as intuition and feeling.”
The exercises on the following pages will re-introduce you to your intuitive senses.
Problem-solving
Professor George Turin, of the University of California at Berkeley, states that the components of solving problems with intuition are:
1 The ability to know how to attack a problem without knowing how you know.
2 The ability to relate a problem in one field to seemingly different problems in unrelated areas. The ability to see links, connections, and relationships between ideas and objects.
3 The ability to recognize the crux of the problem.
4 The ability to see in advance a general solution to the problem.
5 The ability to identify solutions because they feel right. The ability to focus on what may be rather than what is.
Experts at the intuitive problem-solving approach can rarely provide an accurate account of how they obtained their answers and may be unclear on what aspect of the problem they focused on before the insight.
Brainwriting
Brainwriting is a way to solve problems using intuition. Find a quiet spot and relax. Write out your particular challenge and concentrate on it for a few minutes.
Write down some pertinent questions about your challenge: What is in my best interest? What should I do? Are there other alternatives? Which alternative is preferred? And so on. And wait for the answer.
It may come as a voice in your mind, or you may seem to be communicating with someone else. Try to write down your answers as they come. Don’t analyze or think. Write whatever occurs to you. Keep asking questions, and keep writing the responses until the responses stop. Finally, read and review what you have written. The answer to your challenge may be there.
Summary
Strive to be aware of your intuition daily. Think about choices you have made and observe how you recognized the answer. Try making some simple choices you haven’t made before.
Practice will help you when you don’t have the time to do a deep analysis and make a quick decision and accept the consequences.
