Intuitive management or logical management?

An intuitive manager must first learn to be a logical manager.

Over the years much has been made of the right-brain/left-brain dichotomy, identified by Barnard a long time ago – in 1936.  Intuitive vs logical dominant brain halves, feminine vs masculine ways of thinking, artistic or systematic minds are some of the terms that are still used in populist literature to describe ways in which our brains operate.

The evidence for this romantic extrapolation however, is NOT supported by physiological research. Our brains work through forming new linkages as a result of new experiences.

Is there such a thing as intuition?

If so, what is it?

How are our decisions made? 

Herbert A. Simon (1916-2001) was Richard King Mellon University Professor of computer’ science and psychology at Carnegie-Mellon University. A Nobel Laureate, Simon studied decision-making and problem-solving processes using computers to simulate human thinking. My thoughts expressed in this blog are derived from his work.

How can experts, such as chess Grandmasters or outstanding company managers, make nearly instantaneous decisions?

Research involving the game of chess shows that good moves usually come to a chess Grandmaster’s mind after just a few seconds’ consideration of the board. The remainder of the time (up to half an hour) in the game is generally spent verifying that a move that appears plausible does not have a hidden weakness.  

This same kind of behaviour also occurs in other professional domains (medicine, engineering, management  etc) where intuitive judgments are quickly made but are then subjected to tests of various kinds before they are actually implemented.

The Grandmaster’s knowledge, acquired by long experience, is of the kinds of patterns and clusters of pieces that occur on chessboards in the course of games. These patterns are called chunks of information.

Associated with each pattern in his or her memory is information about the significance of that pattern – what dangers it holds, and what offensive or defensive moves it suggests. Recognising the pattern at once brings to the expert’s mind memories of moves that may be appropriate to the situation. It is this recognition that enables the professional to play very strong chess at a rapid rate. Previous learning, that has stored the patterns and the information associated with them in memory, makes this performance possible. 

Estimates have been made of the number of chunks that the Grandmaster must be able to recognise. These estimates fall in the neighbourhood of 50,000. ls this a large number? Perhaps not.

The natural language vocabularies of college graduates have been estimated to be in the range of 50,000 to 200,000 words, nearly the same range as the chess expert’s vocabularies of patterns of pieces. Moreover, when we recognise a word, we also get access to information in our memories about the meaning of the word and to other information associated with it as well.

So our ability to speak and understand language has the same intuitive or judgmental flavour as the Grandmaster’s ability to play chess rapidly.  How long does it take to learn language?  In a small child this process is rapid – takes two years on the average.  In adults – who are less focused on the task – it may take considerably longer. This is also known as EXPERIENCE, an essential tool in the arsenal of the expert.

An expert – in chemistry, medicine, art, chess, language – has in his or her memory a large amount of knowledge, gained from training and experience and organised in terms of recognisable chunks and associated information. This enables his or her to arrive at problem solutions rapidly and intuitively without being able to report how they attained the result.

So we have seen that intuition is not a process that operates independently of analysis; rather, the two processes are essential complementary components of effective decision making systems.

It is wrong to say that “analytic” and “intuitive” styles of management are opposites.

Intuition and judgment – at least good judgment – are simply analyses frozen into habit, and available for rapid response through recognition. Every manager needs to be able to analyse problems systematically.

Every manager needs to be able to respond to situations rapidly; this skill requires the cultivation of intuition and judgment over many years of experience and training. The effective manager does not have the luxury of choosing between “analytic” and “intuitive” approaches to problems. Managing well means having command of the whole range of skills and applying them, as they become appropriate.