Listen to this articleWhy do some people seemingly overflow with brilliant insights? What is the secret of successful leaders? If you are looking forward to becoming a business titan or excelling in your field of expertise, there’s one skill you need to master: intuition. Your “gut feeling” is the ability to know something by instinct and spot the hidden connections.
Steve Jobs famously noted, “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.”
William Duggan, the author of Strategic Intuition, writes that strategic intuition consists of a wide combination of factors, including deep knowledge of the subject matter, understanding of the historical context, and the ability to place disparate facts together and assemble them into a whole. In short, strategic intuition solves a mystery by masterfully connecting unrelated pieces of information into one single answer.
Throughout the ages, military, political, artistic, and creative leaders have relied on a superior type of intelligence to formulate their plans and innovations. From Alexander the Great toDa Vinci, Newton, Napoleon, and Einstein. These visionary leaders and intellectuals discovered pieces of precious information and combined them in singular ways to create something new.
Strategic vs. Standard Intuition
It’s believed that almost all human beings are intuitive. According to brain science, there are three different kinds of intuition: ordinary, expert, and strategy. Ordinary intuition is that “gut feeling” you feel once in a while. Expert intuition is the ability to instantly recognize something familiar, a snap judgment. Strategic intuition is very different from these two. It’s not a vague or momentary sensation. But rather, it’s a clear thought.
It may be that you are dealing with a complicated problem. This problem has been wandering in your mind for weeks. Then, one night you get a flash of insight that can solve this challenge. This is strategic intuition. It has to do with experience and the recognition of connections. To succeed in the modern world, you need a fair share of creative thinking and innovative thinking. Strategic intuition is an essential part of both of these things.
It takes hard work
Timing is another factor that sets strategic intuition apart from ordinary and expert intuition. Strategic intuition doesn’t happen in the blink of an eye, it takes time. What’s more, it may often come at strange times like in the middle of the night or while you’re busy with an unrelated task. It often comes when breaking one’s standard routine. So it pays to try something new from time to time.
Strategic intuition always produces what Matthew May, the author of The Elegant Solution, calls “the singular and deceptively simple idea with huge impact that lies beyond the enormous complexity of the challenging business problems we all face in our companies.”
Related: Are Flow States the Key to Optimal Performance?
I’ve studied my field, how do I improve my intuition?
You already know what strategic intuition is and how it works. Now, you may be wondering what can you do to develop it. The first thing to know is that, like any other skill you possess, you are born without intuition and you begin to learn it and master it with time. And, in order to become a master, you should work every day on it.
Meditating, engaging in creative hobbies, taking a walk around nature, trusting yourself, and paying attention to your senses are some activities that can help you develop and strengthen your intuition. Synctuition offers guided meditation and three-dimensional sounds to stimulate your intuitive mind. All you need is 25 minutes of your time, a smart device, and a headphone set.
Discover more and tap into your intuition today!
