How do you normally go about non-trivial decisions?

Even if you prefer to take time to do your homework and systematically clarify and prioritize all gains or costs, you can still face many grey areas, when pure logic by itself does not arrive at one convincing conclusion.

It could be that your criteria for analysis are difficult to formulate unambiguously. You have gaps or conflicts in your data. Circumstances may be changing too fast to give you enough time to systematically sort out all the data. What do you do then?

In such situations you will probably turn to your “gut feeling”, also known as your inner voice or intuition. When it comes to poorly structured problems like and ambiguities, your decision making effectiveness is determined mostly by your ability to use your intuition.

In contrast to logical reasoning process, which occurs mostly in your conscious mind, your intuition works at the subconscious level. The intuition grasps your decision making situation as a whole, processing different pieces of information in parallel. It somehow connects the inner pattern of your new situation with various subconscious pieces of your previous experiences. Then one moment you will receive the conclusion of that inner work as an intuitive message, a message communicated in the language of your subtler feelings.

While intuition is an indispensable tool in business decision-making, there are still traps you can fall into if you are not careful.

One trap is using intuitive approach as an excuse not to do your homework. Did you ingest all the key facts? At least those that you can get in cost- and time-effective ways. While intuition will help you work around many gaps and ambiguities, even your inner voice can be misled if too many of your facts are wrong or missing.

To effectively collect and organize all the relevant data, try to start with a systematic analysis in writing. As much as you can, capture on paper the ideas on the main options and the criteria for evaluating your choices. Write down the key facts and factors you need to keep in mind.

Another dangerous trap is confusing your inner voice with the background noise of your current emotional state. Whenever you need to make an important decision, pay particular attention to your overall mood. If you are stressed or in a bad mood, your true inner voice will be distorted or lost in the background of your strong negative feelings. A similar effect may happen with strong positive feelings. Are you also carrying a baggage of suppressed feelings that biases your judgement?

Finally, the reliability and effectiveness of your intuition also depends on how much you let it develop. The more experiences you go through and the more attention you give to the intuitive messages in each case, the better "gut feeling" guidance you will get.

Sergey Dudiy, Ph.D., is a personal effectiveness writer and web entrepreneur, creator of Time-Management-Guide.com, a web resource dedicated to building a stronger foundation for your success, one skill at a time, from managing time and setting goals to making decisions and building teams.

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