Intuition at Work: Why Developing Your Gut Instincts Will Make You Better at What You Do [Hardcover]

In Innovation at Work, Gary Klein presents the interesting premise that intuition can be a learned skill rather than an innate trait that someone either does or does not have. Citing his work with the US Marine Corps, firefighters and certain business organizations, Klein lays out his theory that intuition is something to be valued, developed and leveraged. To push his thesis, he tends to beat up on analytics and metrics in decision making - so much so that people with a strong analytical bent (like me) might dismiss the thesis as rubbish. Keeping an open mind, however, makes one see that what Klein is really advocating is a blend of intuition and analytics. In fact, a number of the tools outlined by Klein to build up intuition are somewhat analytical in nature - in effect creating a situation where one can intuitively decide something today because of "pre-analysis" that had been done in the past. Although the concepts are presented more from an anecdotal perspective than from a rigorous scientific one, Klein is able to nonetheless put forth a concept that merits attention, if for no other reason that to gain a perspective on different management styles the one must deal with on a regular basis.

This is a great follow-up to Gary Klein's previous work "Sources of Power". Where "Sources" is more about how intuition is used and his theories about it, "Intuition at Work" is more a practical guide on how to apply the theory and its implications.

Gary tries to demystify "intuition" by stating his defintion of intuition as experience put into practice. Through this defintion, Gary tries to answer the question, how does one become expert in their craft/profession through their cumulative experience, and how do they apply that experience. He gives many examples of this.

Through out the book, Gary is driving the point that intuition is a developed sense through the honing of experience into recognizable patterns for future use. This pattern recognition capability differentiates the novice or journeyman from the truly expert; examples given are the experiences of the neonatal intensive care nurses (those who can sense a problem before other nurses or the measurement equipment, the experience of the marine NCO who can sense the order of battle from subtle signs that the team leader in the middle of the exercise is totally missing. The individual usually has no idea how he/she goes about pattern recognition, hence the mystical connotation of intuition.

Deeper in the book, he gives practical advise on how the individual can develop their own expertise, and how to structure training /development experiences to foster the growth of the intuitive decision making. There is also an excellent chapter on coaching.

Though he very much bashes the analytical approach, he keeps resorting back to it to prove certain points. There is an execellent chapter on the short comings on purely quantitative measures for management, and how they need to be integrated with knowledge of the process of the measures (where they come from, and their reliability). In 6 Sigma this is called Measure System Analysis (MSA, gauge R&R being a component of it).

From a 6 sigma perspective, I think this approach is entirely compatible (not withstanding the author's negative position on analytical decision making), but they are mutually support and not mutually exclusive. The basic idea on intuitive decision making is that there are times and situations that are either time dependant(heat of battle) or at a strategic level (data points in many directions) where data will fall short.

In the heat of battle is not the time for a 6 sigma design of experiments. However, the DOE (or other analysis) is very appropriate to expand the process knowledge and drive better future decisions based on sound current experience.

The author does cover training methods and allowing the student to make mistakes that expand their knowledge based and mental models. It is in providing sound mental models that I think the analytic will shine in providing correct mental models.

Since the author was focused on supporting the importance of the intuitive approach, there was little mention of the limitiations of the aproach. Experience in 6 Sigma teaches that the teams hunches often are proven wrong with the data. I suspect this is due to limitations of their mental models and the rigorousness in which the mental models are developed and tested. A good book that covers some of this is Peter Senge's "The Fifth Discipline".

A key issue that Senge writes about is that many times there are time delays from and action to true response. The time delay is not always apparent. The person then developes a mental model of an action and apparent response that is then flawed. I think this tends to, among other reasons, lead to crisis management/band-aid approach to fixing problems as opposd to true corrective action. How many times has a manager or supervisor "fixed" a problem, only to have it crop up a week, month, or 6 months later.

I highly recommend this book, especially for trainers, 6 sigma practioners, and managers.

Intuition is something everyone uses and the source of it is a bit mysterious. Gary Klein takes a scientific approach to it and when you should trust your intuition and in what circumstances that your intuition can be unreliable. He also discusses the art of decision making, strategies for making better decisions, and how the human mind goes through the decision making process. Real serious book on the art of decision making. Highly recommend this one.

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