Being intuitive helps employees anticipate small changes and do things differently
Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from ting! A Surprising Way to Listen to Intuition and Do Business Better, a new book by Arupa Tesolin.
As they sat down together, Hermilla asked Tony to talk about some of the things he wanted to focus on in his career and position. He talked at length about how clients who used to take up a lot of his time weren’t calling as much and when he called them, they weren’t really communicating. Despite this, he continued to persist and maintain a friendly rapport with them. He just didn’t feel he was getting anywhere. Hermilla asked him about the other account managers and what the sales results were. Tony replied that they were down slightly overall, but his performance was consistent.
“What does your intuition say about this?” he asked her generously. “I’d really like to know because, frankly, I just don’t see the linkages here.”
“Hmmm,” she said. “They aren’t always easy to see. But let’s consider how intuition used to happen in early mankind.”
“Well,” Tony remarked, “from what I understand it was a kind of visceral instinctive sense that they used to warn them of danger or predators in their environment.”
“That’s right,” affirmed Hermilla. “What happened when they got it wrong?”
“I guess they either got good at it or they died. The threats were severe enough that they didn’t get second chances.”
“Yup, and the gene pool didn’t carry their errors too far. But it’s a lot different now. Most of the dangers we face, aside from an abrupt accident or something that’s mortally obvious, don’t kill us right away. Instead they work bit by bit, over time, by turning up the stress level, until we find some warning sign of heart disease or other illness. Similarly, if we make mistakes in life through improper handling of money or relationships, they don’t all break down at once, but over time, until one day we find ourselves buried in debt or suffering a relationship breakdown. In the workplace or in business the same thing happens. If we make small mistakes, they may go unnoticed. But over time they add up to a performance breach that becomes a self-limiting career, a job loss, the loss of an important client or contract or even, when it involves many people, the death of a whole organization or part of it.”
“So,” Tony interjected, “are you saying that being more intuitive will help us to anticipate these small changes so we can make decisions to go forward in different directions?”
“Yes, absolutely. How many projects have you seen go bad, because they were already bad in the early stages, not deeply thought through enough?”
“Lots,” he replied.
“What did you learn from these experiences?”
Tony laughed. “Mostly to avoid getting involved in another one or avoid the risk of working with that same project manager again.”
“So, how did this contribute to the whole organization or team or what they learned from it?”
“Negative impact,” Tony answered.
“Right. And the overall impact of this is repeated many times. Each time the organization fails in a small way, it impacts the individual motivations of everyone involved in it. It’s a descending spiral that starts off slowly and ambiguously.”
She continued, “These days, we all want quick answers and simple solutions. As the world grows more complex, our intellect struggles to try to find them, but can’t, because it’s too slow. Meanwhile, all the media, images and ideas we’re exposed to tend to starve off our quieter intuitive knowing. We get stressed trying to figure it all out.
“Early man relied on a primitive kind of brain, also called the amphibious or reptilian brain. But this ‘turtle brain’ can’t handle complexity because the control centre for finding intuitive solutions has migrated further up our brain stem, where higher intelligence, reasoning and learning skills reside. And having all that stress muddles up the signals.”
Tony interjected, “So we need to learn more about intuition so we can be more perceptive about the early warning signs of a wrong direction or approach.”
“Yes, logic, analysis and all our streamlined operations protocols rarely give us this information early enough. Intuition does, but we all need to become better listeners of the ways intuition speaks to us.”
Arupa Tesolin is the founder of Mississauga, Ont.-based training firm Intuita. For more information, visit www.intuita.com.
As they sat down together, Hermilla asked Tony to talk about some of the things he wanted to focus on in his career and position. He talked at length about how clients who used to take up a lot of his time weren’t calling as much and when he called them, they weren’t really communicating. Despite this, he continued to persist and maintain a friendly rapport with them. He just didn’t feel he was getting anywhere. Hermilla asked him about the other account managers and what the sales results were. Tony replied that they were down slightly overall, but his performance was consistent.
“What does your intuition say about this?” he asked her generously. “I’d really like to know because, frankly, I just don’t see the linkages here.”
“Hmmm,” she said. “They aren’t always easy to see. But let’s consider how intuition used to happen in early mankind.”
“Well,” Tony remarked, “from what I understand it was a kind of visceral instinctive sense that they used to warn them of danger or predators in their environment.”
“That’s right,” affirmed Hermilla. “What happened when they got it wrong?”
“I guess they either got good at it or they died. The threats were severe enough that they didn’t get second chances.”
“Yup, and the gene pool didn’t carry their errors too far. But it’s a lot different now. Most of the dangers we face, aside from an abrupt accident or something that’s mortally obvious, don’t kill us right away. Instead they work bit by bit, over time, by turning up the stress level, until we find some warning sign of heart disease or other illness. Similarly, if we make mistakes in life through improper handling of money or relationships, they don’t all break down at once, but over time, until one day we find ourselves buried in debt or suffering a relationship breakdown. In the workplace or in business the same thing happens. If we make small mistakes, they may go unnoticed. But over time they add up to a performance breach that becomes a self-limiting career, a job loss, the loss of an important client or contract or even, when it involves many people, the death of a whole organization or part of it.”
“So,” Tony interjected, “are you saying that being more intuitive will help us to anticipate these small changes so we can make decisions to go forward in different directions?”
“Yes, absolutely. How many projects have you seen go bad, because they were already bad in the early stages, not deeply thought through enough?”
“Lots,” he replied.
“What did you learn from these experiences?”
Tony laughed. “Mostly to avoid getting involved in another one or avoid the risk of working with that same project manager again.”
“So, how did this contribute to the whole organization or team or what they learned from it?”
“Negative impact,” Tony answered.
“Right. And the overall impact of this is repeated many times. Each time the organization fails in a small way, it impacts the individual motivations of everyone involved in it. It’s a descending spiral that starts off slowly and ambiguously.”
She continued, “These days, we all want quick answers and simple solutions. As the world grows more complex, our intellect struggles to try to find them, but can’t, because it’s too slow. Meanwhile, all the media, images and ideas we’re exposed to tend to starve off our quieter intuitive knowing. We get stressed trying to figure it all out.
“Early man relied on a primitive kind of brain, also called the amphibious or reptilian brain. But this ‘turtle brain’ can’t handle complexity because the control centre for finding intuitive solutions has migrated further up our brain stem, where higher intelligence, reasoning and learning skills reside. And having all that stress muddles up the signals.”
Tony interjected, “So we need to learn more about intuition so we can be more perceptive about the early warning signs of a wrong direction or approach.”
“Yes, logic, analysis and all our streamlined operations protocols rarely give us this information early enough. Intuition does, but we all need to become better listeners of the ways intuition speaks to us.”
Arupa Tesolin is the founder of Mississauga, Ont.-based training firm Intuita. For more information, visit www.intuita.com.
