Five techniques to develop your intuition at work
2 December 2013
Read by 1911 persons
Heartbreak, insomnia, a little voice... Doubt takes hold of you or conversely, certainty is there. The decision is made in a quarter of a second. Your intuition has spoken! It is important to cultivate it and listen to it, recommends Nathalie Bergeron-Duval, sophrologist and business consultant.
Intuitive thought is a powerful aid in decision-making. It is based on feeling, a superficial scan of the situation by the brain. A process called "prefrontal mental mode" by neuroscience. However, many managers stifle their first impressions in favor of logic. Yet, it is often beneficial to let your thinking take irrational detours before deciding. You gain in perspicacity. Five exercises to train.
1. Spatial displacement: changing the angle of view
Place yourself in a corner of the room, with your problem in mind, and say aloud: "I think this, I feel that". Move 50 centimeters and do the same. Proceed in this way in 4 or 5 different places. Each time, one of the people within you expresses themselves, with their emotions, their instinctive reactions. You verbalize various courses of action. And according to the intuitive mode, one will take precedence (or combine) over the other.
Useful for: any type of decision
Exercise conditions. Alone at your desk. Relax with breaths between each position.
2. "Mindfulness": letting go through the 5 senses
Sitting or standing, relax while remaining aware of your body and the external environment. 1/ Soak up the place. 2/ Make mental contact with all parts of your body from head to toe, visualizing the volume, feeling the temperature... 3/ Think about your worries and question your anatomy, from bottom to top: "what do my feet have to say?", ..., "what does my heart have to say?", ..., "what does my head have to say?". You touch different registers of thought, close to dreams, and an option should emerge.
Useful for: any type of decision. It was in a state of absolute relaxation, immersed in his bathtub, that Archimedes found his famous theorem with this cry "Eureka!"
Exercise conditions. Alone in the office or in a public place (transport, park...), eyes open or closed, with calm breathing prolonging the exhalation time (count 4 inhalation times for 8 exhalation times). No more than 15 minutes.
3. Photolanguage: escaping through images
Arrange on a desk or on the floor photos cut out from magazines representing people, landscapes, abstract figures... Without thinking, take the three that attract you the most. Think about your dilemmas. And ask yourself the question: how do I feel? In which direction do I want to go? Welcome everything that comes: physical sensations, emotions, ideas. Transported elsewhere, you connect your deep motivation.
Useful for: guiding a career, a commercial policy, a project. Like that accountant unhappy in her job who instinctively chose the cliché of a dented door but with a hole letting light penetrate. Yes, she could push it with a shoulder. She knew she was ready to move.
Exercise conditions. In a quiet room, in pairs or in a large group; start without prejudices. No more than 5 minutes.
4. The Chinese portrait: establishing analogies
Ask yourself: "If I were..." or "if it were..." a monument, an animal... Example: "if I were a cat, I would be..." Keep three characteristics: independent, affectionate, reactive. Make similarities between the feline and your management style. How does this speak of your difficulties with so-and-so? The click will emerge on what is wrong and the solution. Because you have favored the association of ideas between two universes that a priori have nothing in common and found unexpected links.
Useful for: unlocking tensions in the team, getting out of technical dead ends.
Exercise conditions. Alone or with others (peers, collaborators), no more than 5 to 10 minutes to avoid any methodical reasoning.
5. The incongruous object: sharpening your perception
Less "abstract" than the Chinese portrait. Grab an unusual object, unrelated to your profession: a figurine rather than a pen. Look at it, weigh it. What are its qualities (soft, hard, flexible...), what is its scent, etc. Activate the 5 senses. Let the sensations wander. Bring them closer to your hesitations. You will feel through your body the right resolution: yes, it is pleasant, you can lead this project/ no, the discomfort is present... Intuitions to be validated by more Cartesian arguments.
Useful for: any type of decision
Exercise conditions: Alone at the office, during a break.
Marie-Madeleine Sève.
Lentreprise.lexpress.fr
Posted online on December 2, 2013.
Intuitive thought is a powerful aid in decision-making. It is based on feeling, a superficial scan of the situation by the brain. A process called "prefrontal mental mode" by neuroscience. However, many managers stifle their first impressions in favor of logic. Yet, it is often beneficial to let your thinking take irrational detours before deciding. You gain in perspicacity. Five exercises to train.
1. Spatial displacement: changing the angle of view
Place yourself in a corner of the room, with your problem in mind, and say aloud: "I think this, I feel that". Move 50 centimeters and do the same. Proceed in this way in 4 or 5 different places. Each time, one of the people within you expresses themselves, with their emotions, their instinctive reactions. You verbalize various courses of action. And according to the intuitive mode, one will take precedence (or combine) over the other.
Useful for: any type of decision
Exercise conditions. Alone at your desk. Relax with breaths between each position.
2. "Mindfulness": letting go through the 5 senses
Sitting or standing, relax while remaining aware of your body and the external environment. 1/ Soak up the place. 2/ Make mental contact with all parts of your body from head to toe, visualizing the volume, feeling the temperature... 3/ Think about your worries and question your anatomy, from bottom to top: "what do my feet have to say?", ..., "what does my heart have to say?", ..., "what does my head have to say?". You touch different registers of thought, close to dreams, and an option should emerge.
Useful for: any type of decision. It was in a state of absolute relaxation, immersed in his bathtub, that Archimedes found his famous theorem with this cry "Eureka!"
Exercise conditions. Alone in the office or in a public place (transport, park...), eyes open or closed, with calm breathing prolonging the exhalation time (count 4 inhalation times for 8 exhalation times). No more than 15 minutes.
3. Photolanguage: escaping through images
Arrange on a desk or on the floor photos cut out from magazines representing people, landscapes, abstract figures... Without thinking, take the three that attract you the most. Think about your dilemmas. And ask yourself the question: how do I feel? In which direction do I want to go? Welcome everything that comes: physical sensations, emotions, ideas. Transported elsewhere, you connect your deep motivation.
Useful for: guiding a career, a commercial policy, a project. Like that accountant unhappy in her job who instinctively chose the cliché of a dented door but with a hole letting light penetrate. Yes, she could push it with a shoulder. She knew she was ready to move.
Exercise conditions. In a quiet room, in pairs or in a large group; start without prejudices. No more than 5 minutes.
4. The Chinese portrait: establishing analogies
Ask yourself: "If I were..." or "if it were..." a monument, an animal... Example: "if I were a cat, I would be..." Keep three characteristics: independent, affectionate, reactive. Make similarities between the feline and your management style. How does this speak of your difficulties with so-and-so? The click will emerge on what is wrong and the solution. Because you have favored the association of ideas between two universes that a priori have nothing in common and found unexpected links.
Useful for: unlocking tensions in the team, getting out of technical dead ends.
Exercise conditions. Alone or with others (peers, collaborators), no more than 5 to 10 minutes to avoid any methodical reasoning.
5. The incongruous object: sharpening your perception
Less "abstract" than the Chinese portrait. Grab an unusual object, unrelated to your profession: a figurine rather than a pen. Look at it, weigh it. What are its qualities (soft, hard, flexible...), what is its scent, etc. Activate the 5 senses. Let the sensations wander. Bring them closer to your hesitations. You will feel through your body the right resolution: yes, it is pleasant, you can lead this project/ no, the discomfort is present... Intuitions to be validated by more Cartesian arguments.
Useful for: any type of decision
Exercise conditions: Alone at the office, during a break.
Marie-Madeleine Sève.
Lentreprise.lexpress.fr
Posted online on December 2, 2013.
