Go with your gut feeling, it will never let you down

What role does your intuition play in your decisions?

“Gut,” is what Carnival CEO, Micky Arison, responded when interviewed on how he arrived at one of the most important business decisions of his career, which resulted in the windfall after his acquisition of Princess Cruises.

Scientists have revealed, through several studies, that 95 per cent of the brain activity that goes beyond our conscious awareness influences most of our actions, decisions, behaviour, and emotions. This implies that 95-99 per cent of thinking is based on the programming of the subconscious mind.

The only real valuable thing is intuition, said Albert Einstein.

I call my intuition my inner red light. I cannot explain it, but it literally flashes inside my head when I should stay away from certain types of people or situations. In addition, my stomach goes into knots and my core feels violated.

And the absolutely strongest sixth sense I have is when my body literally refuses to go where it does not belong.

I am sure you are wondering if trusting your gut is a legitimate leadership tool? Is this not courting disaster, since it is so unpredictable?

For the first time ever, as published in the Journal of Psychological Science, researchers have actually figured out how to measure the effectiveness of intuition. In fact, they concluded that deploying their method, people can use their intuition to make faster, more accurate, and more confident decisions.

In a series of experiments to determine whether people were using their intuition to guide them, small groups of about 20 college students were shown black-andwhite images of dots moving around on one half of a computer screen. The researchers asked the students to decide whether the dots were generally moving to the left or to the right. As the participants made this decision, on the other side of the computer screen, they saw a bright, flashing square of colour.

The researchers embedded at times an image into the colorful square that was designed to trigger an emotional response from the participants — a puppy or a baby, for instance, to trigger a positive response and a gun or a snake to trigger a negative one. The participants had no clue they were being shown these images, because they flashed by at speeds too fast for them to be consciously perceived. The images were meant to simulate the type of information involved in intuition, i.e. brief, emotional, and perceived unconsciously.

The results showed that when the participants were shown positive subliminal images, they were not only more accurate in determining which way the dots were moving, but they also responded more quickly and reported feeling more confident in their choice.

The experiments also suggested that the participants became better at using their intuition over time, i.e. just as people can become more comfortable making decisions when they apply logic and reasoning, they may also become more adept at trusting their intuition when they use it more frequently.

The study concluded that information that is subconsciously perceived in the brain will help with decision-making if that information holds some value or extra evidence beyond what people already have in their conscious mind.

This, of course, begs the question — when, then, should we not trust our gut?

You have to understand, when we rely on our intuition we are leaving the realm of evidence-based decision-making. And it does appear that experience is one differentiator in whether your gut is correct or not. Intuition is, after all, part of your intelligence. When your brain stores bits of all your life experiences in file folders, that nagging feeling is information from one of those dusty file folders trying to get through.

Consistent deployment of intuition requires deep introspection, i.e. understanding of self, since in essence you are offsetting your domain knowledge with emotions. There is, however, a sweet spot where your “gut feeling” has a higher chance of success, i.e. both domain knowledge and self-knowledge are high.

Regardless of whether you are a male or female, you can create an environment that enhances your sixth sense. The brain obviously sees connections of which we are not consciously aware. We simply need to give our entire body the chance to assemble its reactions to people and information, i.e. allow for that AHA moment.

So don’t be afraid to give the mind room to wander and dig up anything it needs from your old back files. The brain continues to work, even in your downtime. Intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next, said Jonas Salk, American medical researcher.

With time and practise you will trust that little voice in the back of your mind that says don’t trust them, or do the deal, or RUN! You will know it is not a passing subconscious whim, but a directed message, and you will simply and boldly trust your gut.

Regardless of whether you are a male or female, you can create an environment that enhances your sixth sense. The brain sees connections of which we are not consciously aware.