Importance of Intuition in Decision Making
a) Discuss the importance of intuition in decision making? Be practical as possible and make use of your own examples.
What is intuition? Intuition is the ability to understand something immediately without the need for conscious reasoning. It is to receive input and ideas without knowing exactly how and where you got them from. Examples where intuition can play an important role in making decisions are: choosing a life partner, selecting the right car to buy, evaluation of a job, deciding how to dress for today, etc.
I think that intuition plays a significant role in decision making as we cannot only rely on our logical or conscious thoughts when making a decision. Intuition can make you a much more effective decision maker as you draw on not only your rational thoughts, but also on your “gut”. You acquire this from years of experience of being exposed to various situations and trying various solutions for them.
The following situations amongst others would be ideal to exercise intuitive decision making:
• When fast decision making and a rapid response is required – there is no time to conduct a rational analysis in order to derive at the response
• When the problem is poorly structured
• Where there is no precedent to fall back on
• Where you have to deal with incomplete or conflicting information
An example would be a nurse who is working in the casualty ward on a Friday evening. A nurse would need to make rational decisions on how to treat a patient with a stab wound, but would use her intuition when the patient starts reacting differently. She would draw on her experience and how she dealt with similar situations in the past, in order to make the right decision.
Intuition may not always be correct in all circumstances. You might not have fully considered all the alternatives and thus miss the better solution to the problem. Your prejudices might make you overrule the facts, for example you might not hire the best qualified person
What is intuition? Intuition is the ability to understand something immediately without the need for conscious reasoning. It is to receive input and ideas without knowing exactly how and where you got them from. Examples where intuition can play an important role in making decisions are: choosing a life partner, selecting the right car to buy, evaluation of a job, deciding how to dress for today, etc.
I think that intuition plays a significant role in decision making as we cannot only rely on our logical or conscious thoughts when making a decision. Intuition can make you a much more effective decision maker as you draw on not only your rational thoughts, but also on your “gut”. You acquire this from years of experience of being exposed to various situations and trying various solutions for them.
The following situations amongst others would be ideal to exercise intuitive decision making:
• When fast decision making and a rapid response is required – there is no time to conduct a rational analysis in order to derive at the response
• When the problem is poorly structured
• Where there is no precedent to fall back on
• Where you have to deal with incomplete or conflicting information
An example would be a nurse who is working in the casualty ward on a Friday evening. A nurse would need to make rational decisions on how to treat a patient with a stab wound, but would use her intuition when the patient starts reacting differently. She would draw on her experience and how she dealt with similar situations in the past, in order to make the right decision.
Intuition may not always be correct in all circumstances. You might not have fully considered all the alternatives and thus miss the better solution to the problem. Your prejudices might make you overrule the facts, for example you might not hire the best qualified person