“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”
– Albert Einstein
Blatant quote-steal from The Monday Morning Memo by one of the best Keepers of The Gift, Roy H. Williams. Subscribe today if you’re a marketer. You can thank me later. And you will.
Now, where was I? Ah, the gift or the servant?
Einstein’s been dead for over 75 years, so he said that a long danged time ago. And the scary part is, he’d be even more correct if he said it today!
We hear it in every Board Room and on every Zoom call: “What do the data say?” To a great degree, in keeping with the rational mind being a servant, faithful or not, the data will often say what we want the data to say. It’s called cognitive bias, and it’s our tendency to say, “Well, hell, Margo! That’ll never work! No one has ever done that before.” We’d still be land-locked pedal-pushers if Orville and Wilbur would have honored the servant over the gift.
Humans are prone to resisting change even when our intuitive mind is hollerin’ at us to “turn that way!” (How often do you randomly take a different route to the grocery store?)
“But, Steve, it’s “safer” to follow the pack…”
Except for when it’s not. If the bridge is washed out on the usual route to the grocery store, we ought to take a different route, find a different store, or somehow otherwise figure out how to put food in the fridge.
Especially if the data is dated! (Didya like that one?)
We live in a five-year-old neighborhood. Life360 still tells us we’ve arrived home when we’re about a quarter-mile from where the development starts, or almost a half-mile from Heston House. Life360 is an example of a data-driven solution. Did I mention the neighborhood is five years old? “But, Steve, the more-than-five-year-old-data says we must be home!” The servant is neither right nor faithful in that example, but it’s what we may get if we rely solely on data-driven solutions. Said differently if it were up to the data, I’d be unpacking the groceries in the middle of a five-lane road with a 50 MPH speed-limit, because the data says “You’re home!”
If signs are pointing us to something we think feels wrong, or away from something we think might be a better way, let’s channel our inner Orv and Will and check things out. Let’s point ourselves into the wind and see if maybe we can take flight!
Unless, of course, we’re perfectly happy here — right here — forever — in which case we can “safely” and rationally settle.
I am not suggesting that intuition and rationality are mutually exclusive. Instead, why not commit to honoring the sacred gift as a means of directing the faithful servant.
PS (As a dad of mobile kids with autos, I love me some Life360, or, as the kids call it, “The Parent Stalker App!”)
#instincts #intuition #leadership #b2bsales #sales #differencemaking #dailydifference
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