A "Gut Feeling" or Intelligence?
The Power of Intuition
Malcolm Gladwell's Blink has been out for over a decade now, but it remains an engaging look at how we make decisions seemingly in the "blink of an eye."
Intuition is defined as the "ability to understand something immediately without the need for conscious reasoning." In reality, intuition is the product of a lifetime of experiences and knowledge. You intuitively know that sitting on a ledge or railing is risky - a toddler does not. You intuitively know that rolling your current car loan in to your next car loan can't be a sound financial strategy - a young college graduate with his / her heart set on a flashy new car does not. Gerd Gigerenzer, a German social psychologist, calls this "the intelligence of the unconscious," (also the name of his most recent book.)
In some ways intuition flies in the face of what we've been taught in school for 12+ years - look at the facts, weigh the options, choose wisely and deliberately. Decision making is often thought of as a "well reasoned" approach. Gigerenzer says that in many instances this is over-analysis and too slow. Gladwell says the trick to intuition is not to amass information but instead to discard it; essentially, to know when more information does not help the decision-making process.
There are many processes which are based on a "gut feeling" - scientific research, homicide investigations, and stock picking to name a few. Are these professionals making irrational decisions? No. They have honed their years of experience and knowledge to the point where they instinctively know the path to pursue.
According to Gladwell, just as we are able to teach ourselves to think logically and deliberately, so too we can teach ourselves to make better snap decisions. So how do we develop this split-second intelligence? Well, like most ways in which we teach thinking, it isn't easy and it isn't quick.
One way is to ask people to analyze and verbalize their learning after an event. What went well? What went poorly? Could you have changed the outcome? What variables played a role? Is there a way to make them less variable in the future? And more. Asking people to consciously process what they have learned is very helpful in developing intuition. As people become more adept at this processing, they can begin to contemplate these questions in parallel (rather than sequentially) or in-the-moment, rather than after the fact.
One reason to teach intuitive thinking is the highly complex world in which we live, today. It is impossible to consider all the information or options before us. Things are changing all the time, there are often contradictions and ambiguity. Having experience to guide us helps us make better decisions in the "blink of an eye."
Albert Einstein said, "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift."
We can help your people develop their gifts. Give us a call to find out how or learn more here.
Incentivize your training - a great model
On September 29 a concert was held in New York City's Central Park to bring awareness to worldwide issues such as disease, poverty and lack of drinking water.
The concert was free and 60,000 people attended BUT they had to earn the right to attend. First, they had to register at a website. Then, they had to earn points to get in to a lottery to be awarded the free tickets. They earned points by watching various videos on the issues above and / or then forwarding those important messages to their friends via Facebook or Twitter.
What a GREAT model for making your training viral! Especially when you are constrained by having to disseminate your learning through asynchronous methods (in other words, people will engage in the learning on their own time and schedule). Why not have prizes or awards for completing the training and certain tasks along the way?
If you'd like to read more about the concert, click here
Your "smart phone" will make you dumber
Have you ever obligingly followed your GPS even though you were pretty sure it was steering you wrong (pun intended)? Have you ever followed your GPS to a location and, shortly thereafter, when you had to return, you realized you needed the GPS to do it?
While having the technology to save us time and save us from mistakes is wonderful, it also "saves us" from having to think. The more we don't have to think, the less capable we become of it.
Here is a simple experiment: pretend you are teaching how to tell time, on a clock. to a 7 year old. We have become so used to digital displays of time - on our microwave, cable box, telephone and car dash - that it is a struggle to explain how the hands and the numbers on a dial indicate the time. And that is just one, very simple, example.
More and more in our professional journals we see articles about mobile technology. With every person (practically) in possession of a smart phone or tablet, the field of training is increasingly obsessed with ways to "push" information and answers to the learner, rather than teaching people how to think, investigate, reason or create an answer on their own.
Smart devices may save us time in the short term, but in the long run, they will hobble our learners' ability to actually learn.
In 20 years, trainers (that's us) will be MORE than necessary
We are always worrying about whether our profession will continue , what with the advent of e-Learning, m-Learning, social networking and the like. Well, don’t fret! The McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) predicts the follow trends, as the global labor force approaches 3.5 billion in 2030. Based on current trends in population, education, and labor demand, the report projects that by 2020 the global economy could face the following hurdles:
38 million to 40 million fewer workers with tertiary education (college or postgraduate degrees) than employers will need, or 13 percent of the demand for such workers
45 million too few workers with secondary education in developing economies, or 15 percent of the demand for such workers
90 million to 95 million more low-skill workers (those without college training in advanced economies or without even secondary education in developing economies) than employers will need, or 11 percent oversupply of such workers
What does that mean for us? It means we will continue to have to train people who enter the workforce. They will need to come prepared. We will need to build curriculum and not just classes. We will need to build or revive our “corporate university” ideas, but start the learning at a much more elementary level.
It means, perhaps, that we have to broaden our focus from “training” to “education” to understand where our learners are coming from.
You can read the whole report here: http://tinyurl.com/cxyraq2 Fascinating, sobering…