054: Wise strategy: Using intuition

In this episode, I talk about the importance of incorporating intuition into your decision-making. I explore the idea of bringing your gut instincts and emotional intuition to the table as well as your rational, conscious thinking when forming a strategic approach.Firstly, I discuss the value of building intuition into strategy: you know your school community and environment better than most, and it's this knowledge that will help guide your decision-making. Secondly, I talk about intuition as a 'gut' or emotive feeling, and how it is rooted in our experiences and knowledge that we have amassed over time. It is often this subconscious knowledge that is most effective within complex or time-sensitive scenarios.I then explore the disadvantages of solely relying on intuition, as you risk missing the opportunity to use data and patterns that perhaps your intuition hasn't acknowledged. Additionally, some of your assumptions may be biased or out-of-date. Finally, I discuss some fascinating academic research on intuition and how it can be added into the decision mix. I explore ideas from Ap Dijksterhuis, who suggests that we can use unconscious thinking to develop our intuition. There is no one-size-fits-all approach, but if you can, create the space for intuitiveness to emerge within your decision-making culture.Episode highlightsWhat do we mean by intuition? (05:15)Disadvantages of relying on intuition (08:29)Academic research (09:33)References and ResourcesLucidity Accelerator Programme'The beautiful powers of unconscious thought' By Ap Dijksterhuis 'M&As get another assist: when CEOs add intuition to the decision mix' by Hannu Kuusela, Siiri Koivumäki, and Mika Yrjölä, Journal of Business Strategy (2019) Catch up on previous episodes at www.consultjuliet.co.uk/podcast Download your copy of the free eBook ‘The Strategic Independent School Leader’ at www.consultjuliet.co.uk/ebookThank you so much for listening to The Independent School Podcast. I would be grateful if you could spare a couple of minutes to send me some feedback here. This helps me make the podcast as helpful as possible to listeners. Thank you!