2.2 Recognising intuition

Intuition involves knowing what to do when there are no rules or instructions that tell you what to do, which can sometimes be the case when you are attempting to find creative solutions. While systems and processes in which artificial intelligence mimics the role played by experts may be invaluable in certain circumstances, when they must leap from what programmes and algorithms predict to something previously unimagined they are less so. Intuition may allow humans to make these logical leaps.

Many managers may be happy to admit – in private, at least – that they rely on their intuition to make strategic decisions about where to go and how to get there. When these things have been decided, it may be easier to find supporting evidence. If you look hard and select carefully, the evidence for your evidence-based decision might be incontrovertible. As the author Robert A. Heinlein pointed out: ‘[A hu]man is not a rational animal; he is a rationalizing animal’ (Heinlein, 2000).