{"id":3708,"date":"2021-05-25T11:57:47","date_gmt":"2021-05-25T09:57:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/when-should-i-follow-my-gut\/"},"modified":"2024-05-13T12:12:32","modified_gmt":"2024-05-13T10:12:32","slug":"when-should-i-follow-my-gut","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/when-should-i-follow-my-gut\/","title":{"rendered":"When should I follow my gut?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Which is better: following your brain, or following your gut? It depends on the circumstances, right? For business owners some moments are about what feels like the right thing to do, and for some we need to know the right thing to do.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But how can we tell the difference between these moments? And what can we do to get the most from both our analytical and intuitive strengths?<\/span><\/p>\n

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Intuitive ideas
<\/b>Wyseminds\u2019 founder Julie Perkins knows that struggle well. When she was head of Specsavers Netherlands she wanted to donate a small amount of money to local charities for every pair of glasses sold. \u201cIt was this gut feeling,\u201d she says, \u201cI knew we wanted to be seen for the locally-owned businesses we are, and that the choice of which charity or community cause should belong to our customers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But she was worried about justifying the decision to others. \u201cIt\u2019s not going to instantly increase our sales figures 10% is it.\u201d Her first attempts to gather supporting-evidence seemed to prefer information that already favoured her idea (something called confirmation bias) which only added more stress to the decision. So she began looking for reasons, rationale, and analysis that would persuade others, which inevitably focused on compelling business reasons that could convince the team that this was the right move. What began as an impulse to connect her businesses to their local communities was turning into a marketing gimmick, and she began to feel her idea straining under the pressure of analysis.<\/span><\/p>\n

Complexity
<\/b>This experience is a familiar one – when we have a feeling of the right thing to do but our plan doesn\u2019t survive first contact with reality, or we anticipate that it won\u2019t work and we talk ourselves out of it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The problem comes when the aspirational message meets the real world. That\u2019s because the simple advice to \u2018follow your gut\u2019 overlooks the complex world we live in. If we were to live in isolation, where our actions had no consequences for other people, and the world was passive and didn\u2019t bite back, then running on instinct would be perfectly sufficient. But we don\u2019t live in that world – and business owners facing complex strategic challenges need more than platitudes to make the best decisions at the moment.<\/span><\/p>\n

So if you need to decide what\u2019s right for your business, and you have a feeling about what the right thing to do is\u2026 do you listen to that feeling? Do you use your gut? Or your brain?<\/span><\/p>\n

Faulty wiring
<\/b>The phenomena of intuition is fascinating. For more than 20 years <\/span>Cheryl Strauss Einhorn<\/span><\/a>, CEO of <\/span>Decisive<\/span><\/i>, has studied how to make better decisions. She says \u201cIt\u2019s great to rely on your instincts when picking a breakfast cereal. But for larger, high-stakes decisions, when we rely on our gut, we are relying upon bias and faulty memory.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

What we think of as \u2018gut feel\u2019, \u2018instinct\u2019 or \u2018intuition\u2019 are actually just shortcuts in the mind\u2019s operating system – they are ways our brain has evolved to handle the huge number of actions and processes it must do at any one moment. The instinctive preferences we feel \u2018in-the-moment\u2019 are a product of our previous experiences combined with our biology that has evolved over time that is geared toward survival and life-and-death decisions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately for us though, this system is not equipped to handle the sorts of decisions that entrepreneurs regularly need to take. Einhorn, and other experts like Nobel laureate <\/span>Daniel Kahneman<\/span><\/a>, emphasise that while sometimes intuition can work to our advantage (it can be quite handy for keeping us out of dangerous situations), in the world of business and modern civilisation it just is not up to the task.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, that\u2019s our answer, we should just trust our analytical brain, right? Well our rational brains may be better skilled, but they just can\u2019t handle the workload. There is just too much information, too many variables, and homo sapiens\u2019 internal systems were never equipped to handle it. Unfortunately, humans have a habit of not making decisions in cases of uncertainty – and in a world where data and evidence are expanding exponentially, can we ever be sure we\u2019ve got enough data to make the right decision?<\/span><\/p>\n

The \u201cright\u201d data
<\/b>There is a principle, often attributed to Einstein (though there is no evidence he ever said it), that if you have only one hour to save the world you should spend 55 minutes defining the problem and only five minutes finding the solution<\/span>.<\/span> The trick to getting the best from your analytical skills therefore is to know what question you\u2019re asking.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLooking back, I had another option\u201d, Julie confesses about her desire to support local charities, \u201cI just couldn\u2019t see it at the time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEvidence and data are essential to help us make the right moves, but I should have begun by connecting it to our purpose – the reason why it felt like the right thing to do in the first place. It felt right because it connected so perfectly with our values as a company – locally-owned and community-centred businesses. Trying to measure it against other criteria was what made it so much harder to pursue.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This is one of the lessons that informed the <\/span>Powerball<\/span><\/a> – Wyseminds\u2019 tool to help entrepreneurs grow purpose-led businesses. It\u2019s something to use when you\u2019ve got an idea, or a feeling, of the right thing to do and you want to test how aligned it is with the key drivers for purpose-led growth. It also helps you stay focused on what\u2019s important for your business, and not be distracted by the analysis that is solving a different problem.<\/span><\/p>\n

No one is an island
<\/b>Of course the principle extends beyond any one tool; the way out of the intuition vs analytical trap is to remember that even entrepreneurs don\u2019t have to make decisions alone. You can not only ask your team, but also consult with experts, gather data and evidence to open-mindedly explore answers to the right questions, or use established models to help you find a good balance between what you feel is right and what you know is right.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most people are self-aware enough to know that the distinctions between intuition and analysis are false. We are made up of all the different parts of us, and the information and perspectives coming from our heads, our hearts, and our guts are not right or wrong, they are just information. And like other sources of information, they must be evaluated on their reliability, their biases, and their merits – not on how comfortable or justified it makes us feel.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Reliable external information, the perspectives of experts and those around us, and models like the Powerball can help us determine whether the moment is right to follow our intuition, our intelligence, or another path we can\u2019t imagine alone.<\/span><\/p>\n

To receive your own bespoke growth guide and begin your growth journey, take the Wyseway growth evaluation<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"Richard Doughty<\/b><\/p>\n

Richard is a policy and communications consultant, supporting NGOs and socially-conscious organisations internationally. He was the chair of the <\/span>Commission on the Leadership & Direction of Civil Society<\/span><\/i>, and worked as a lobbyist and campaigner in the justice, education, and charity sectors. Now based in the Netherlands, he is the founder of <\/span>Doughty Consultancy<\/span><\/i> and provides consultancy and training in persuasion, communication skills, and policy development.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Find out more about Richard’s experience<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

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