Intuition at Work: Why Developing Your Gut Instincts Will Make You Better at What You Do

Rating:
Summary: A useful perspective on thought processes / decision making
Review: 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.