5 Ways to Use Intuition in Your Training Session

NOTICE: The following article by Arupa Tesolin, Intuita copyright 2002 is protected by international copyright in all forms.

Take advantage of uncertain times in today’s business environment to increase intuitive skills. Intuitive intelligence as a novel and creative approach to obtain solutions not normally achieved through logic and fact. Having a more intuitive workforce can add high value for the company by anticipating solutions at early stages of problem identification, improving client satisfaction and even increasing workforce retention.

The secret for you as a trainer is to know when and how to introduce this kind of thinking in a relevant way.

The simple definition of intuitive intelligence is “knowledge that arrives spontaneously, beyond any known information or apparent thought process”. The polar opposite is intellectual knowledge, born in fact and logic. In a fully functioning person both processes operate fluidly and seamlessly. However traditional organizations have operated with a bias against intuition, except for very senior executives, certain talented individuals, entrepreneurs or creative departments like marketing. Contemporary organizations, laden with analysts and information often fail in using solely reason-based approaches.

Intuitive approaches are ideal add-ins for “people-based” training sessions such as communication, customer service, negotiation skills, and team-building interventions.

It is vitally important that you know your organizational culture; it’s readiness, tolerances, and comfort levels. One thing you should know is that intuitive perceptions usually reveal the true situation at a deeply personal level, it doesn’t deceive. So, if the culture is open and truly values people it will be easy. But if self-deception is a survival skill in your organization, think twice.

It helps that you have the strength and confidence to lead something a little different.

Knowing whom to train is also important. This type of training is best suited for decision makers — knowledge workers, people with influence, client service personnel, professionals, managers and executives. Typically workers with higher education are those who benefit most, also those whose job functions involve interacting with people and making decisions.

Keep the exercises relevant and applicable to the business environment where possible. The real value of intuitive intelligence is it’s potential for revealing significant paths and solutions. Keeping the training at a certain “capability level” for staff is important.

I’ve learned some interesting things along the way with our training program which is a core intuitive skills training using proprietary methods to tap insight. The first is that having a corporate dialogue on intuition is a real icebreaker. You can often audibly and tangibly feel the relief that people have in being able to talk about intuitive intelligence in a business setting.

Invariably I am always asked the same question about gender differences with intuitive capability, that women are naturally intuitive and men less so. What I have found is that both women and men are able to use the our processes equally well, but males in a corporate setting are more vocal about their delight in being able to use a “system” that works effectively to tap intuitive insight. Many users of both genders comment on the soundness of the method. I am inclined to believe that intuitive skill is a human attribute, not a gender attribute, but that also by conditioning men and women have applied and used it to different ends in accordance with societal roles.

One of our current challenges in business is to start building value for the use of intuitive intelligence as a skill. We have long become habituated to other ways of thinking, ways that typically close down intuition. New habits and extending our capabilities are a contemporary requirement. Once we do this we can see new applications.

Pure “Intuitive Skills” modules are best suited as curriculum content for leadership development, management, innovation, team-building and problem-solving courses. These can be taught easily in 1/2 day or full day. For individual development there is a positive correlation with performance. Once skills are established, the facilitation of intuitive scenarios is strongly useful in the vision stage of strategic planning.

Here are five ways you can bring intuition into your training sessions:

1. INTUITION SMARTIES WARM-UP
   Use this at the beginning of a training session as a fun way to loosen people up for some tougher work later. A version on the old favorite. Pass the smarties and ask each person to find a partner and “intuitively” guess things about them that they wouldn’t know otherwise, one for each smartie. They can actually write them down quietly before sharing them with each other. Later you can ask them how “close” their revealings were to being true.
2. INTUITIVE PROBLEM-SOLVING EXERCISE
   Ask each person to contemplate an irresolvable current business problem that they would like intuitive insight on. Then ask them to imagine they already know the solution. Have them focus on this intently for 1-2 minutes. After that ask them to let all thoughts go and simply write down a free flow of solutions without assessment or critical review of any kind. When they are finished engage a small group dialogue, or in pairs, about the difference in perspective between approaches they’ve tried and this approach.
3. INTUITIVE FACILITATION
   Most skilled facilitators would agree that intuitive perception plays a large role in their abilities. But when there is so much going on in the room how do you easily stop and check in with yourself so you aren’t overwhelmed with all the data and other people’s feelings? An easy way to do this, even while standing up in front of a room is to just “hear” your heart beat for a few moments, get calm and even, and then continue to be present for the group. Your ocean of calmness will refresh any atmosphere and you will effectively prevent trainer burnout.
4. INTUITION SOCIAL “EXPERIMENT”
   This is a good reality training experiment for intact teams/work groups. All must agree before proceeding. For one week, everyone attempts to solve problems intuitively (of course doing the usual work but when needs for solutions present, these are arrived at intuitively, either individually or at meetings). At the end of the week at a pre-agreed meeting the team meets and debriefs as follows: how the experiment worked, what happened, what was risky, what was not, how they felt about it, what results were achieved, the value of the results, both short-term and long-term, and what new learning can be built into their work processes

My corporate Intuition Workshops are available here.