Managerial intuition

Jan Řezáč

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19.11.24

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reading for 6 minutes

At the top there is a man alone, and besides, he blows there. At least that's the mantra of many business owners and CEOs. It doesn't have to be that way. At least not always.

Meeting room.

View of Prague.

We are talking about working with one of the directors of the company. The organization will make strategic decisions that will affect their next decade. It can help the whole company. He can bury her, too.

Conclusion of discussions a few days later? The decision will be made by the owner. Alone. Based on your intuition. Just like he always did.

Intuition is everything

People name intuitive decisions differently.

Feeling. I feel this way.

Common sense. That's clear.

Subconscious. I need to get some sleep on it.

Then they decide. And somehow they rationalize it back to themselves.

I dare say that The majority of entrepreneurs decide only and only intuitively. Most of the time, that's enough. At the same time, it is a self-affirming cycle.

Intuition has made a lot of money for successful entrepreneurs. And when she didn't earn them, they jarred and moved on. I'm good. It works for me. I can walk in it.

That is, unless their decision has buried them at some point. We ignore the cemeteries of the unsuccessful. Although there are a lot of them.

Generations of entrepreneurs know that that's just how the game is played. Are you lucky? It's super. You're not lucky? Another one, please. Someone talks about their happiness. Another writes books. It's not just about happiness. He talks about his unique entrepreneurial acumen.

Back to intuition. She's established. Sometimes it works. At the same time, it does not always work.

For example, when the market changes drastically. The internet is coming. Covid. AL. Consolidation of big players. Legislation. Generational change. Real estate crisis. War. When entering a whole new market.

And you still have to decide what to do next.

Intuition is not everything

Strategic decisions are significant and challenging. Significant in that they have an impact on your success, or failure. Challenging in that you can decide one way or the other... and both directions can work! You can only recognize good strategic decisions in retrospect.

Let's take a look at the strategic cycle that we teach at Strategic thinking.

We enter the cycle 4 sources of information.

1 ️ ⃣ Intuition. The voice in our head. We've talked about that before.

2 ️ ⃣ It's data. Metrics about our company. Market figures. Very few organizations systematically work with numbers. Very few organizations systematically learn which numbers are important to them because they make money through them. Money makes up about 5% of useful metrics.

3 ️ ⃣ Customer Research. Deep understanding of customers. We bring to the table what people say and how they behave. Maybe if we show them a new concept. Or we talk to them in a structured and methodical way.

4 ️ ⃣ Frameworks. Structures that make us see the world differently than before. He will emphasize something. Suppresses something. It brings new perspectives, ideas, and therefore results... than if you work without them.

Neither type of input is more important, more interesting, more accurate, more substantial than the others. They show a different part of your situation. You have intuition. For data, research and frameworks need competence. Intuitive interpretation of numbers or customer conversations will distort your view rather than actually help you.

Based on inputs, you will navigate the situation and make strategic decisions. In VUCA environment you don't want to make decisions entirely by yourself and without opposition. So you need a good strategy brother... facilitation leadership.

“I've spent millions of dollars on bad strategic decisions. I was in love with my ideas. I was in Tom himself. It was enough. “
— Jan Řezáč

Facilitation Leadership means you are mastering the strategy to disassemble constructively with a group of colleagues. They will oppose you and improve your view of the world. With appropriate frameworks, it takes a couple of hours.

You collect inputs. You orient yourself in the situation. You make a decision. And that's where the strategic work ends. Goals, plans and actions are already a pure operation... that must not end with us doing something. It has to end with we will gain new input for future strategic decisions. We close the cycle. We learn from successes and from what didn't work out.

At the top there is a man alone, and besides, he blows there. It doesn't have to be that way. And when making strategic decisions that affect the future of your decades-built organization... it shouldn't even be that way.

“The dirty little secret of the strategy industry is that it has no theory about how a strategy is created. “
-- Gary Hamel

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