MANAGEMENT SCHOOL days have been some of the most productive in terms of establishing a strong foundation to my corporate learning journey. From expectation and relationship management to team-building and issues management, I saw a foundation being cemented for a quality corporate life — more often than not extending to the social life.
From the classrooms of India’s premier B-school to the cubicles of some of the world’s leading corporate houses has been a welcome progress in this journey. The financial services industry has especially offered me insights that cannot be obtained even from the best-designed curriculum.
One such insight that has continued to challenge the engineer in me is “intuition”. It has baffled me at times when I have felt the rightness of proceeding with a project well before the project study reports seep in. When the project becomes a roaring success not just amidst the walls of the corporate house but by setting an industry standard, I have been left to wonder if it was the accuracy of the analytics or the intuition that foretold its future that has been behind the acceptance of the project.
Many a time I have had my intuition being endorsed by analysis and these are definitely not challenging times. There have been instances when they counter each other — in that case, which of these does one rely upon while making corporate decisions?
Theoretically, intuitive management is defined as a management style that relies more on the sixth sense than on analytical reasoning. Scientifically as well, it has been established that intuition appeals to the right side of the brain, while analysis leans to the left.
However, I would not equate intuition to “gut feel” or the sixth sense. I have seen that intuition is an interesting combination of experience, expertise and gut. And hence, is definitely much larger than gut feel or the sixth sense.
Both experience and expertise largely contribute to the working of our gut feel.
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However, we may have all realised that no two people with the same experience and knowledge levels need agree on a particular matter. This goes to prove that there is an element of the “unknown”, which could be a combination of personal attributes and background.
As we move higher up the corporate ladder, most of our decisions impact the performance of the business directly. There is hence a larger sense of responsibility in us then than earlier. Responsibility not just to the business, but to the people it involves. Hence, we may be inclined to proven analysis to base our decisions on.
However, while managing issues, we may have seen ourselves making the right moves, and most of the time out of an intuitive sense rather than analysis. This need-based intuitive decision-making gives us the confidence to rely on this inner strength more often than just during days of issues management.
But are we ruling out the benefits of analytical business management? Not at all! It is the process of transforming data analysis to business insight which is intuition.
Nitin Chopra graduated from IIM, Ahmedabad