Intuition: learning without awareness

Synopsis: [You might view the earlier post “Intuition: comfort with ambiguity” before this.] The insight is quick, bypassing logic. The survival of the species through adversity proves its effectiveness.

Intuition allows a direct cognitive understanding and operates at many levels - physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.

Immediate knowledge

It’s a far superior source of knowing than logical reason – and far more rapid. The insight bypasses analytic logic.

Intuition is defined as:

Immediate knowledge, as in perception or consciousness, distinguished from "mediate" knowledge, as in logical reasoning.

For example, we know that black is not white, or that a square peg won’t fit a round hole. But we can’t explain how we know so we call it a hunch, a gut feeling, or even luck.

Best practice?

Following ‘best practice’ became important in organizational life to preserve continuity and sameness. But global change has turned the world into a village increasing the heterogeneity that people now have to work with.

Society and the business organization need to relate to diverse people, in constituent demographic groups and customers. Among differences of age, culture, religion, and nationality, ‘tunnel’ vision and single-file progressions appear not to work too well.

It then becomes difficult to determine whether the erstwhile best practice can be relied on in new circumstances.

Adaptive behaviour

Theorists argue that instinctual reasoning was the only available daily intelligence that helped people in ancient times deal with the unknown.

In the uncertain circumstances they lived in, responses had to be instantaneous. Too many predators were about and there was no time to ponder laboriously over logical choice. They needed to correctly interpret sounds and movements to be able to survive.

Distilled knowledge

Experiential learning made unconditioned reflexes conditioned behaviour. These behaviour patterns, free of hesitation and doubt, eventually stored in memory as adaptive instincts.

In time they distilled as our intuition. The rapid route of thinking activates stored procedural knowledge, and quite unconsciously, we’re able to perform.

Feeling for order

Intuition is the “root” of all discoveries. Many noted scientists and Nobel Prize winners acknowledge knowing the answers before, working out the problems later. Said Einstein:

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

Intuition has a more global role to play in social intelligence, because people are far more unpredictable than things. It’s said that it takes less intelligence to land a man on the moon than it does to resolve the conflict of a married couple!

The learning

The ability to intuit is now considered innate. It represents our learning without awareness. Centred on person or thing, the ‘picture’ is built from elements obtained from generalized explorations on a wide horizon.

This real form of knowledge is critical for effective decision-making. It works through our emotions to provide the crucial understanding. The survival of species proves its effectiveness.

Comments/opinions anyone??

Intuition: comfort with ambiguity

Synopsis: Intuitive thinking has been considered relationship-based, ‘female type’ thinking. Women may be more adept at multitasking, looking beyond the obvious and in managing a variety of situations.


With discovery of two hemispheres in the brain in the twentieth century, functional dualism was theorized along gender lines.

The dual modes

The logic mode of the left hemisphere was perceived as the rational ‘masculine’ consciousness, task-based and academically brilliant.

The insight mode of the right hemisphere was looked upon as the intuitive ‘feminine’ consciousness that is relationship-based.

Feminine competency?

Insight bases on divergent thinking and inductive logic. But whether intuition (or rationality) is intrinsic to gender is still debated.

For example, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was mediocre academically. Yet he possessed "a zigzag lightning of the brain" that was universally admired.

Again, Indian littérateur Rabindranath Tagore went on to be a Nobel laureate, and two sovereign countries, India and Bangladesh have adopted his compositions as their national anthems. He created a university although he himself avoided formal schooling.

The non-rational way

Intuition or instinct isn’t irrational, but rather a non-rational, holistic way of thinking that forms the big picture from only a few dots.

The involvement with home, family and social connections could make women more adept at looking beyond the obvious, multitasking and managing a variety of situations at the same time.

So they appear more comfortable with ambiguity, better at decoding emotional messages, in nonverbal sensitivity, and in communicative verbal skills.

Stress responses

Unknown variables raise new levels of incompetence in people and performance falters. The resultant stress can cause unthinking responses, like:

• Panic is thinking too little, losing touch with situation and context and operating by some remote instinct to simply survive.
• Choking is thinking too much, losing touch with instinct and becoming tentative, approaching the job like a beginner, second-guessing oneself.
  

Stress conditions generally include emotional outpourings of fear and anger. They do also lead to irrational behaviours.

Hence ‘emotions’ have become connotatively associated - although it’s more accurate to equate ‘stress’ with ‘irrational’.

Systemic discomfort

Rationalism faces uncertainty in handling unknown variables. In interpersonal issues, motivation, and teamwork conflicts arise, producing hesitation, vacillation and emotional stress. The process of adaptation requires new learning.

But stress confuses the mind and shuts off reasoning. The decisional strategies adopted are reactive and only to alleviate the systemic discomfort.

People forced to think on their feet in uncertain circumstances might gamble on certain solutions working for them. Or they may become too overwhelmed by situation and context to make informed choices. They may also avoid taking a decision altogether by procrastinating or passing the buck.

Intuition rediscovered

An effective decision then seems a lucky strike. In a world of rapid change, multitasking and social skills have become keys requisite of ability because resources, including time, are now limited.

In its quest for the competitive edge, enterprise latched onto social intelligence as key in the global interactive process. Intuition, the “feminine” side of mind, has thus been rediscovered.

Cont’d 2…learning without awareness

Rationalism: problems with change

Synopsis: [You might view the earlier post “Rationalism: the base on reason” before this.] The focus became active, even aggressive control of the environment. However, as the globalization of business transcended international boundaries, serious inadequacies of the traditional ‘masculine’ leadership began to show up.

Rationalism meant that other (disruptive) influences had to be prevented from invading logical reasoning. Behaviourally, there was resistance to change, hence the focus on active, even aggressive control.

Sharpening the mind

The cone of consciousness trained the mind to think deeply about one thing at a time, avoiding all ‘interference’ that intuition might provide. The attempt was to separate fantasy from reality.

To sharpen the mind, anything to do with ‘instinct’ was thus consciously, consistently blocked out of the thinking process.

Techno-intelligence

The index of intelligence then was based on mathematics and verbal language. This assumption still holds in academic circles it originated in.

The orderly, systematized, familiar world – as closed systems – has been instrumental in advancements of science and technology.

The use of tools, the development of language helped people to adapt to the environment and act upon it.

The idea soon became that the environment too was controllable, and subject to man’s will. The goal was set of mastering the universe for a secure, stable and predictable ambience.

One-tracked excellence

Oral and written traditions alone would allow the transfer of information. The belief became that one-tracked pursuit of excellence leads to superior intelligence and thereby superior decision-making and problem solving.

Rationality was meant to have been as effective in corporate circles as it was in the academics, and within limits of social homogeneity, it can be so for sometime.

Effects of time

However, problems arise with time.

As the globalization of business transcends international boundaries, the dependence on rationality in transnational mergers and acquisitions ends in disaster.

Time ensures that nothing ever remains the same. Every society also sees change evolving at various different levels, including education and work for women and minorities, and rising diversity in society and the workplace.

Inadequacies

Thence, against serious environmental challenges, inadequacies of the traditional ‘masculine’ leadership begin to show up.

Under the rule of rationality, social development doesn’t keep pace with the advancements of technology. Consistently logical, speech-promoted intelligence fails in diverse social interactions. In unfamiliar situation and context, one-tracked thinking, decision-making and problem solving proves ineffective.

By the turn of the millennium it became clear that rational analytical thinking moves ponderously, and arrives too late for a 24-hour global marketplace.

Comments/opinions anyone??

Rationalism: the base on reason

Synopsis: By the seventeenth century BC, the mind of man ruled over matter, which otherwise operated by emotions and instincts. Women were viewed as predisposed to this “irrational”, i.e., emotions, instincts, and fancies.


The word 'rational' has been used to describe numerous theories, especially those concerned with truth, reason and knowledge, including those religious and philosophical.

Consistent logic

Rationality refers to a particular way of thinking.

It has been defined as:

The quality of being consistent with or based on logic; the belief or principle that actions and opinions should be based on reason rather than on emotion or religion; the kind of thinking we would all want to do, if we were aware of our own best interests, in order to achieve our goals.

Dominating life

In the fifth and sixth centuries BC, Greek philosophers decided that more than the gods, the mind of man dominated life.

By the seventeenth century, the idea of dualism was adopted, where mind and body were perceived as split horizontally, separate and independent of each other.

Rationality became the key feature separating humans from animals, and the way to go to achieve life goals.

Mind, accounting for thought naturally ruled over matter, which otherwise operated by emotions and instincts.

The irrational

Anything empirically unexplainable, unverifiable, was attributed to luck or blessings of the gods. Instincts or intuition was considered irrational and concerned with mere physical survival progressively alien to man's regulated world.

Deductive reasoning through analyses of accumulated data gradually became the canon of cognitive ability – “rationalism” in the dominant image of man.

Connotations

Hence, man was said to be rational.

But women, concentrated on child-raising and family life and generally kept away from other more "cerebral" activities, were viewed as predisposed to this “irrational”, i.e., emotions, instincts, and fancies, seen as evolutionary vestiges.

The words thus imbibed connotative associations with gender.

Cont’d 2…problems with change

Effective decisions: the cutting edge

Synopsis: [You might view the earlier post “ Effective decisions: the intelligent ability” before this.] Thinking, when assisted by emotions, leads to better choosing. The intuitive mind, with its innate ‘trigger’ of emotion, makes the tough choices come right.


People tend to distrust emotions believing them to be irrational outpourings that create stress and disrupt proceedings.

Better judgement

But, being unemotional and at the other end of the continuum, is just as disruptive.

In fact, among the many crucial cross-cultural associations, mergers and acquisitions that happened over the last decade or so, at least two-thirds turned out failures.

Not because financial or logical analyses were off the mark, but as a matter of ignorance about culture and emotion. Thinking, when assisted by emotions, leads to better judgement. Passion (another word for emotion) introduces the cutting edge to cognition.



Generalizing

How do emotions really act? First, they help to identify things, generalizing understanding between different centres of the brain.

Experiments with the “split brain” (separated left and right brain hemispheres) showed that even subtle shades of emotion generated in the right hemisphere by a stimulus known only to it, can get across to help the isolated left hemisphere ‘guess’ the nature of what it could be.

Reduce overload

Researchers at the University of Waterloo explained that positive and negative emotions actually reduce the pressure of information overload in complex social situations.

Emotions signal what one really cares about. Pleasure or excitement about a particular action proves that its possible outcomes are genuinely important.

Negative emotions also help to narrow down alternatives in option selections. Action processes associated with strong negative emotional feelings will be rejected at the outset, reducing the burden of computation.

The emotional base ensures that the decisions and their goals are inherently significant.

Speed scans


Thence, in our decision-making processes, emotions slash the:

• number of alternatives evaluated
• time taken for considering each.
  

In uncertain or threatening situations in our evolutionary past, speed scans or quick environmental surveys ensured survival. Our intuitive mind carries the ability forward to the present day.

The intuitive trigger

Our intuition is thus critical to our decisions in adapting to unknown or unfamiliar situations and contexts.

The quick grasp of a problem and its implications by this rapid route of thinking helps us understand and assess issues, decide between options and then act upon the right selection.

The intuitive mind, with its innate ‘trigger’ of emotion, helps make the tough choices come right.

Comments/Opinions Anyone??

Effective decisions: the intelligent ability

Synopsis: The common assumption is that important decisions need the most rationality. But being stuck on ‘logic’ doesn’t guarantee the best choice.


Decisions, important or unimportant, are made throughout the day. The common assumption is that the more important they are, the most rationality is need.

So smart, so dumb

But ‘common assumption’ may be wrong. Psychologists noticed that an academically brilliant politician persistently made whopping errors in functional social relations.

How could somebody so smart be so dumb? Their answer – his ‘intelligence’ lacked the requisite emotional quotient for effective social interactions.

Another intelligence

In other words, being stuck on logic doesn’t guarantee the best choice. Astute decision-making must include ‘intelligence’ of another kind – emotional.

This is defined as the ability to:

• perceive, appraise and express emotions accurately
• access and generate feelings to facilitate cognitive activities
• understand emotion-relevant concepts and use emotion-relevant language
• manage one's own emotions
• manage emotions of others
  

And in the process one promotes growth, wellbeing, and functional social relations between self and others. This, the highly intelligent individual was quite unable to do, and hence his political career sank.

Findings of choice

Researchers at the University of Amsterdam went so far as to hypothesize that routine issues need conscious thought, but those that are vital don’t.

The hypothesis was confirmed in four studies, in the laboratory and also among actual shoppers, on simple and complex consumer purchase choices.

From their experimental findings, the researchers concluded that:

Simple choices…indeed produce better results after conscious thought, but choices in complex matters … should be left to unconscious thought.

Go with gut

That is, quite in reverse to common assumption, unimportant decisions (such as between different towels or different sets of oven mitts) can be thought about rationally.

But important decisions (such as between different houses or different cars) need the assistance of emotions, and inputs from the intuitive mind.

Bottom line – for effective decision-making, it’s better to tune in to gut feelings.

Cont’d 2…the cutting edge

Connecting: the emotional wellbeing

Summary: [You might review the earlier post “Connecting: the routine associations” before this.] But they are comparatively less able to transform customer relationships to investments. Multinational concerns are cashing in.


Companies providing unstinted support are most likely to impress customers positively.

Focus on rapport

In India, foreign/multinationals cash in on this customer ‘connection’ eluding the nationalized Banks.

Especially with the retiree customer groups, the focus is on rapport. Their specialist relationship managers take charge of personalized interactions.

Critical moments

Purchase decisions relate to certain moments of truth. In customer view, these are instances of swift service and satisfactory problem solutions. For example, in prompt help with credit card repayments, holds on cheques, investment and tax advices, answers on loans and so on.

Customers grow to appreciate and reward the company. These critical moments can spark over 85 percent of customers committing to assets investments or more product purchases, as research findings in retail banking have shown.

Emotional wellbeing

Priyanka, employed with a multinational concern, says:

Initially it takes time for both of us to get used to each other. And only after a while, with effective relationship building, it takes off.

Emotional wellbeing of the customer needs to be central to the service offered. Before buying further services, every customer tends to review expectations.

Encouraging customers

Feeling that their needs are being met at critical moments (and not the company or its representative’s at their expense), customers feel encouraged to relate further with the system.

Wary or skeptical customer attitudes can be changed to positive associations with brand – it just needs effort, and perseverance to expand the role.

Extended family

Priyanka, a relationship manager, explains –

Our main aim is to first deepen the routine relationships, and then to introduce them to various other products of the bank. For instance, I take care of their finances, their banking services, investment advices, and also maintain their portfolios, whatever they are.

What sort of success results? They become a part of the extended ‘family’.

Revenue contributors

Relationship managers, as the frontline people in touch with customers, are actually the main contributors who bring in the revenue for the Bank.

Priyanka says –

This is also a new concept for customers. They feel the privilege of having a dedicated Relationship Manager for all their banking needs, and respond wonderfully.

Clearly, the emotional connection is enough to transform the ‘routine’ to ‘unique’ relationships.

Guardians

Becoming guardians of customer wellbeing has paid off handsomely for the multinational concerns.

If nationalized sector members are to catch up they need to change big time their mindset on processes, and attitudes towards the regular, retiree customers.
As the research also showed, following negative experiences, up to 70 percent customers may turn away to other institutions.

Comments/opinions anyone??

Connecting: the routine associations

Summary: Nationalized Banks in India have a massive customer base. Yet relatively, their success with expanding the relationship isn’t comparable.


Nationalized Banks in India have vast networks spread throughout the country.

The network

In the metropolises they have hundreds of branches, e.g., 1016 in Delhi, 985 in Mumbai, 726 in Kolkata, and so on, besides catering to smaller cities, towns and far-flung rural areas.

Obviously, their customer complements are massive. Multinational Banks that have branches in tens at most, like say, 15 in Kolkata, and nothing in rural areas, can hardly compete with their numbers.

Mandatory association

The bulk of customers in the nationalized banking service are governmental employees/pensioners regularly receiving remittances into their accounts.

The association is mandatory ruled by legislative and bureaucratic norms.

New initiatives

Improving the quality of goods and services is generally perceived key to generating business. Many companies invest heavily in quality improvements and loyalty programmes.

But success with the new initiatives is mixed, rather than hugely successful.

The cost of retaining current customers is actually less than getting new ones.

Yet, despite their superior numbers, the success of the nationalized organizations in expanding relationships with their customers isn’t quite comparable to their multinational rivals.

Focus offline?

When the outcomes of higher sales and a healthier bottomline don’t naturally follow, perhaps the focus for generating business is offline.

Fact is, for relationships to become significant in the social context, emotional attachments are needed.

In the corporate world similarly, success (or failure) with customers depends on the nature of connections built with them.

The humdrum routine

Nationalized Banks appear to undervalue their massive base of accounts - e.g., of the retirees. So impersonal transactions can hardly do the trick for them.

Because these routine processes are basically humdrum, behaviour and attitudes of the organizational employees may, in fact, become noticeably negative towards the ageing public.

Many of those in direct contact with these regulars, thus rarely distinguish themselves in customer experience.

Diminishing the brand

Rather than nurture the interface, they appear to deliberately delay transactional processes or give customers the bureaucratic runaround should they approach with a problem or loan request.

The customers complain that the frontline people just couldn’t care less about what happens to them or to their money. Staff tend look upon the tasks they perform as unpleasant chores forced upon them or as charity to the public.

The mutual vibes of resentment have consequences – clearly diminishing brand relationships.

Investing out

Revenue opportunities for the institutions may evaporate because many in the banking industry operate by entrenched mindsets.

Customers feeling neglected or patronized, appreciate none of the service they receive. The accounts are kept open only to receive governmental remittances – that is, for the routine transactions only.

And at opportune moments, they move assets, investments and confidence votes out to other places, generally to the multinational corporations.

As a result, the nationalized industry fails to secure large investments from their own mandatory customer base.

Cont’d 2…the emotional wellbeing

Old habits die hard

Summary: Corporations in India use technology in relationship management. But the Indian customer psyche may be turned off by ‘faceless’ initiatives.


Multinational corporations in India, like Banks, are using technology in customer relationship management. It’s meant to connect with customers.

Call lists

The frontline sales staff manage these links through ’phone calls. They have access to customer databases to do so. The call lists are identical, so each pitches zealously to the same customers to ‘develop’ the relationship.

But, because of the increasing overheads, there’s pressure for ROI, and the sole objective of calling is to increase profitability through new technology.

Pitching sales?

Customers, however, are unimpressed. They evaluate service. For example, as one relates –

Bank’s credit card people constantly bombard me with unwanted loan offers… I called them for help with a relatively small credit limit enhancement on my card, but was told to ‘first apply for a loan’… Soon enough they came up with the ‘prize’ of an upgrade to twenty times the original credit value! These tricks are offensive. My account is decades old, but perhaps I should now switch Banks.

Aggressive

‘Foot-in-the-door’ sales tactics have always been used to manipulate customer needs aggressively.

These old marketing habits remain. The difference is their being tied-in with the new use of technology - telemarketing.

Squeezing brand

Research says that 80 percent of the business comes from existing customers. The credit card business is (or should be) a value-added scheme built on the longer-term association.

‘Selling’ shouldn’t become browbeating, but often does. The company thus appears to be squeezing the brand relationship – the cornerstone of their success.

Emotional needs

Relationships in collectivistic societies like India are built on strong emotional elements.

Many customers are unappreciative of unwanted calls. Few also among the frontline salespeople making the calls are adept at telephonic conversations.

They generally lack both learning and experience in putting the customers’ emotional needs ahead of their own (and the company’s) agenda.

Human contact

The telemarketing process could well erode customer loyalty. Impersonal technology is uncomfortable for a people used to face-to-face human contact.

From customer viewpoint, interactions with the individual employees matter, to earn loyalty and trust for the company.

Buyer decisions

Companies in the Indian cultural context, should be concerned about how these interactions could affect buyer decisions.

Their own market image may be affected, since the average customer doesn’t differentiate between the individual employee and the institution.

Besides, since consumers today tend to think over their choices, these practices may just transform relationships to worse instead of better.

Social sensitivity

Impersonal technology-driven initiatives may thus backfire in the social context. If aggressive and insensitive, they eventually weaken the source of selling itself.

The ability to handle sensitive social cognitive processes seldom comes naturally. That means sales personnel pushed into customer relationship management need to learn how to handle the interface effectively.

From the business viewpoint, it’s crucial for frontline staff to develop their own social sensitivity and emotional intelligence before they tackle the onerous task of dealing with customer sentiments.

Comments/opinions anyone??

Costs: coping with ambiguity

Summary: [You might care to view the post “Costs: beyond preventive power” before this.] The job in the complex new global reality may well have become ambiguous, limitless and stressful. Balancing between various challenges isn’t easy.

Ultimately the company’s total performance is important. So knowing what and how of business processes isn’t with intent to interfere with them.

Short and long terms

This means understanding the contributions of various functions, business units, business managers, suppliers and so on. Their individual strengths and weaknesses have to be identified, and current performance explained.

The objective is to improve the collective performance. For instance, in the short-term, influencing efforts to create accountability, and stimulate better performance in specific units or departments.

Or they could also facilitate developing a long-term strategy for the company’s future survival, through the changing of processes or systems.

A well-functioning unit

With the hard facts at their fingertips, finance people are able to argue the point in current and day-to-day business needs, as well as facilitate the activity of the management think-tank in enterprise-wide or future initiatives.

This needs nurturing an atmosphere of mutual respect and trust. Active listening helps, besides a personal relationship built with each of the company’s department and business unit heads.

It also means recruiting and managing a highly skilled backup staff to analyze and collate data collected from the length and breadth of the system to produce meaningful information.

So Finance must be a well-functioning unit getting accurate data feeds in all situations, organizational forms or IT processes. Their credibility depends on it.

Limitless ambiguity

Some Heads of finance of earlier times appeared to be glued to an armchair out on the back porch, not to be disturbed!

Not any more. Their job in the complex new global reality of mergers, acquisitions, and regulatory scrutiny of conduct and compliance, may well have become ambiguous and limitless.

Keeping balance

Experienced CFOs have some advice on coping with on-the-job stress –

• Spend time to gain trust and credibility
• Prioritize consistently
• Listen before you act

Keeping a balance between the various challenges is not at all easy. On the job stress is mounting – a turnover of about 13 percent for Fortune 500 companies showed in 2006.

Adapt and perform

We begin to empathize with the human element! For people immersed in the numbers and unused to being pleasant and friendly, perhaps the best way to cope is to first find a mentor - and learn the art of communicating freely.

It’s a lonely job, they say. But if the company is to adapt and perform in the face of challenges, so must its key people.

Comments/opinions anyone??