Intuition

Overloaded schedules, an endless stream of reports to complete, rigid processes to follow, closed-ended questions, fear of failure, fear of disappointing, conflicting expectations...

In short, the daily life of many leaders and executives isn’t exactly the ideal environment to let intuition thrive.

And yet, creativity—so essential for untangling complex situations (whether technical, organizational, or human)—and the ability to innovate rely heavily on our capacity to access and express our intuition.

The good news: sometimes, all it takes is a small step to the side to unlock it.

• A few hours in a different setting (geographic and/or organizational)

• The use of visual representations

• Naive and open-ended questions—like those a child might ask

• Introducing a new piece of information or a fresh perspective

• A paradoxical approach (e.g., “If we wanted to fail, how would we go about it?”)

• And of course, a healthy dose of humor—with no fear of looking silly!​