“There is no logical way to the discovery of these elemental laws. There is only the way of intuition, which is helped by a feeling for the order lying behind the appearance. “ 

—Albert Einstein

Where is Science Going, Introduction (1932)

In 2011 the now late Nobel laureate, Daniel Kahneman published Thinking Fast & Slow, which distilled his vast and highly-regarded body of research encompassing systematic thinking, behavioral decision-making, intuition and heuristics (which means kind of mental “rules of thumb”). In it Kahneman described a two system model of mind and decision-making. 

For Kahneman System 1 was fast, intuitive, emotional and instinctive, whereas System 2 was slower, more analytical and deliberate. We humans are designed to conserve energy, and seeing that System 2 was way more energy hungry than System 1, his proposition was that we would often default to instinct and heuristics to save gas. Equally, in the more urgent of our life circumstances, intuitive systems importantly save time.

During our evolution, that clear band of logical linear thinking kept things simple as we avoided predators, hunted for food, and looked for shelter.  But even this logic was always ultimately informed by the powerhouse of the larger consciousness operating under the hood. Anyone who hunts or knows a hunter understands that their skills mostly lies in their intuitive senses far more than their logical ones.

To Kahneman, the downside of this intuitive system is that it is ineffably prone to error. We harbor cognitive biases, we can be subject to the effect known as to priming and we’re also prone to simple old Pollyanna-ish optimism and overconfidence. Considering all of this coming from such an eminent mind, it would seem that any attempt to consider intuition as a source for good decision-making might seem to have stumbled right here at the first hurdle.

But perhaps we might not want to jump the gun!

Our culture has mostly lost its connection to this wise underlying resource, favoring a top-down approach in our education system, and therefore in our workplace.  What is needed is a way to enhance the dialogue between both these two levels in us – to have each one complimenting and assisting the other.

Process-Oriented Leadership training is designed to enable all participants, whether they’re simply leaders of their own self system, or of a workforce of thousands, to be able to access, integrate and work with their 95% and significantly upgrade their impact in life and as a leader. Our skills and tools have evolved from decades of research into the area as they have from our own decades of facilitating leaders, teams and participants in our programs to evolve themselves into a whole new and upgraded way of functioning and thinking. 

It’s clear that the rules are being shredded these days by disruptive technologies such as AI. In order to meet these new and challenging environments we need new and better tools. Process-Oriented Coaching and Leadership Training are those essential tools for this future, and they providing the crucial and powerful edge needed to navigate this rapidly changing world with nimbleness, flexibility, and innovative responses. The ability to work with this 95% is the key to that crucial and powerful edge.