Management: Using your intuition at work.
28 February 2014
Read by 2238 persons
Of course, business is a priori a rational world. However, intuition plays a key role, whether it is to innovate or to grasp the most complex situations. Provided you dare to listen to it, but also to verify it. Decryption.
“If we don't use our intuition at work, what more do we bring than a computer?” asks Anne Tricault-Carpe, trainer in personality and human relations. It is essential to add a part of inspiration and creativity to rational, cerebral intelligence. Inspiration is based on intuitions.”
The problem with intuition is that it is by definition irrational. It's a thought that comes from nowhere, and we're quite incapable of explaining the logical process. “I often hear my clients say: 'I should have listened to my intuition', remarks Jean Pagès, executive coach and founder of the French Institute of Appreciative Inquiry (1), when the non-consideration of their intuition has put them in difficulty.” But how to dare to use in a company an inner conviction that cannot be demonstrated?
A current notion
It can first be considered as a starting point, a working hypothesis. Haven't the greatest scientific discoveries been the result of intuitions that researchers then applied themselves to demonstrating? “Intuition is simply a starting point that leads to reflection. It's up to you to reflect: which path to follow, in which area to advance to verify that this intuition can materialize?” asks Anne Tricault-Carpe. In marketing, market studies are precisely used to validate the intuitions of product managers.
“Behind intuition, there is an accelerated psychic process that provides answers to questions without one being able to decipher how this answer was constructed, explains Jean Pagès. It is therefore particularly adapted to today's professional reality, complex, multifactorial and accelerated, and which requires accelerated processing of information from several sources.”
Impressions to validate
It is often in a relationship that intuition manifests itself: “Him, I feel good about him. That one, I don't feel good about him at all.” “In a recruitment process, intuition makes it possible to go beyond the objective criteria contained in the candidate's CV,” analyzes Jean Pagès. It allows, for example, to gather elements on personality, the ability to integrate or not into the internal culture of the company or the team. Again, intuition is a starting point, a warning. “It's up to you to ask yourself: what makes me say that?” advises Anne Tricault-Carpe. And to confront your intuition with other colleagues, or to see the candidate again to delve into certain points with him.
But to use your intuition, you must still allow it the space to express itself. It is a matter of paying attention to that little inner voice that has things to tell us. By daring to listen to it, without practicing self-censorship as soon as you feel something arise in you that is outside the framework, even if this inner feeling unsettles you because it is not rational. “There are intuitions that impose themselves on us, like an imperative. Others are finer, more tenuous, but which come back in an insistent way until we pay attention to them,” illustrates Anne Tricault-Carpe.
Freeing oneself from constraints
“Name your intuitions, if necessary write them down, suggests the trainer. Better: go and discuss it with someone who is open and benevolent. Talking about it will allow you to clarify the contours of your intuition, but also to dare to expose it to an outside look.” You can also practice on a small scale, by listening to and trusting your intuitions in situations without much at stake. For example; how do you choose a dish at a restaurant? How do you decide to spend your free time? In general, all training focused on emotional intelligence and self-confidence are fertile ground for the development of intuition.
Because it is difficult to feel intuitions if one does not have a minimum of self-confidence. If one believes that only those high up in the hierarchy can have good ideas; if one refuses to go beyond the pure logic of a situation; or if one locks oneself into a universe of constraints and remains stuck on details. “One of the factors that can favor the emergence of intuitions is to look at the potential of a situation rather than the constraints that surround it. The analysis of constraints confines, estimates Jean Pagès. I also notice that intuitive people tend to simplify things. They don't get bogged down in details, but go to the essentials.”
(1) Change management method, based on a participatory and positive exploration of the company's strengths and potential, imported from the United States.
Pourseformer.fr
Posted online February 28, 2014.
“If we don't use our intuition at work, what more do we bring than a computer?” asks Anne Tricault-Carpe, trainer in personality and human relations. It is essential to add a part of inspiration and creativity to rational, cerebral intelligence. Inspiration is based on intuitions.”
The problem with intuition is that it is by definition irrational. It's a thought that comes from nowhere, and we're quite incapable of explaining the logical process. “I often hear my clients say: 'I should have listened to my intuition', remarks Jean Pagès, executive coach and founder of the French Institute of Appreciative Inquiry (1), when the non-consideration of their intuition has put them in difficulty.” But how to dare to use in a company an inner conviction that cannot be demonstrated?
A current notion
It can first be considered as a starting point, a working hypothesis. Haven't the greatest scientific discoveries been the result of intuitions that researchers then applied themselves to demonstrating? “Intuition is simply a starting point that leads to reflection. It's up to you to reflect: which path to follow, in which area to advance to verify that this intuition can materialize?” asks Anne Tricault-Carpe. In marketing, market studies are precisely used to validate the intuitions of product managers.
“Behind intuition, there is an accelerated psychic process that provides answers to questions without one being able to decipher how this answer was constructed, explains Jean Pagès. It is therefore particularly adapted to today's professional reality, complex, multifactorial and accelerated, and which requires accelerated processing of information from several sources.”
Impressions to validate
It is often in a relationship that intuition manifests itself: “Him, I feel good about him. That one, I don't feel good about him at all.” “In a recruitment process, intuition makes it possible to go beyond the objective criteria contained in the candidate's CV,” analyzes Jean Pagès. It allows, for example, to gather elements on personality, the ability to integrate or not into the internal culture of the company or the team. Again, intuition is a starting point, a warning. “It's up to you to ask yourself: what makes me say that?” advises Anne Tricault-Carpe. And to confront your intuition with other colleagues, or to see the candidate again to delve into certain points with him.
But to use your intuition, you must still allow it the space to express itself. It is a matter of paying attention to that little inner voice that has things to tell us. By daring to listen to it, without practicing self-censorship as soon as you feel something arise in you that is outside the framework, even if this inner feeling unsettles you because it is not rational. “There are intuitions that impose themselves on us, like an imperative. Others are finer, more tenuous, but which come back in an insistent way until we pay attention to them,” illustrates Anne Tricault-Carpe.
Freeing oneself from constraints
“Name your intuitions, if necessary write them down, suggests the trainer. Better: go and discuss it with someone who is open and benevolent. Talking about it will allow you to clarify the contours of your intuition, but also to dare to expose it to an outside look.” You can also practice on a small scale, by listening to and trusting your intuitions in situations without much at stake. For example; how do you choose a dish at a restaurant? How do you decide to spend your free time? In general, all training focused on emotional intelligence and self-confidence are fertile ground for the development of intuition.
Because it is difficult to feel intuitions if one does not have a minimum of self-confidence. If one believes that only those high up in the hierarchy can have good ideas; if one refuses to go beyond the pure logic of a situation; or if one locks oneself into a universe of constraints and remains stuck on details. “One of the factors that can favor the emergence of intuitions is to look at the potential of a situation rather than the constraints that surround it. The analysis of constraints confines, estimates Jean Pagès. I also notice that intuitive people tend to simplify things. They don't get bogged down in details, but go to the essentials.”
(1) Change management method, based on a participatory and positive exploration of the company's strengths and potential, imported from the United States.
Pourseformer.fr
Posted online February 28, 2014.
