Informationinitiatives

When people learn how they have effectively used intuition in the past, captured insight from the information they have, they become more effective at harnessing this attribute for future decisions, leading changes and harnessing innovations.

There are all sorts of thoughts or ideas which are all happening in the sphere of influence of an individual human or groups of humans, or humans interacting with knowledge of the past, or connecting with the universe. Insightful leaders and professionals today are able to understand the subjectivity and objectivity of information they have, apply analysis and intuition accordingly, to capture the hindsight and shape foresight, to position and lead themselves, teams, or the organizations via periodical review, objective assessment, and interdisciplinary logical reasoning to increase effectiveness & efficiency, harness innovation, flexibility.

Objectivity vs. subjectivity: As now with the abundance of information, the world has become hyper-complex, uncertain and ambiguous. One’s perception matters, but often subjective. Because people have a different knowledge base and cognitive understanding to perceive and express; cognitive gaps are inevitable. Also, because many people avoid reality and put their own perception of it in its place. Some of the reality is indeed subjective. Your perception affects how you are going to respond to “what happened.” How can you become more objective in making fair judgment or sound decisions?

An individual’s perception is his/her personal reality, and this reality is transient. It’s important to consciously limit the influence of our own biases. To be objective, we must step out of what one is trying to understand, to capture the holistic picture, otherwise, your false perception perhaps clouds the view of objective reality. A part of objectivity includes self-criticism and the ability to be open and flexible to new ways of thinking. That means you will always see the two sides of a coin, listen to the stories from different perspectives; and understand things via interdisciplinary perspectives.

Analysis vs. Intuition: The purpose of human decision making is to frame the right questions and validate the assumptions. Both analysis and the right dose or intuition count. Analytics can give you the best answer to the right question oftentime. Intuition is one element for our unconscious process which is created out of one’s distilled experiences; it is often used when there is a high level of uncertainty. We need to be provoked to make our intuition work, sometimes it is a thought-provoking question, other times, it is a triggered event.

We need to use both - our rational, logical mind and also our intuitive minds - “gut-feeling.” We should clearly rely on analysis of data, and equally as importantly, remember that even our subjective experience has value too. Gut feeling is important, but it needs to be supported by good logic/quality data. Analytics has no value until they inform decisions, optimizing processes, directly or indirectly related to long-term prosperity.

Foresight vs. Hindsight: Past is important as it provides invaluable lessons for us to learn. But the future is what we should focus on and advance ourselves and human societies. You may not be able to foresee specific instances of futures, but you can imagine general classes and positions to take advantage of, shape, mitigate what is then occurring. What happened yesterday will not be a perfect image of today or tomorrow. If hindsight is more data oriented, then foresight is shaped via the right mix of past analysis and intuitive gut feelings leading to a certain degree of wisdom.

Technically speaking, while information gleaned from historical data can be factored into any decision, the "wisdom" in the decision process incorporates the decision maker's tolerance for risk for the foresight. Breakthrough ideas always are logical - in hindsight, but they are rarely logical in foresight. Collective wisdom can make the difference. Those forethoughtful minds collectively feel the horizon in which you are able to make reliable predictions coming closer, shortening or quickening.

Insight is the most wanted and abstracted knowledge to gain an in-depth understanding of a specific cause and effect in a specific context. Information confluence means breaking down functional silos or geographical borders, streamline data flow, analyze quality information, generate differentiated value, When people learn how they have effectively used intuition in the past, captured insight from the information they have, they become more effective at harnessing this attribute for future decisions, leading changes and harnessing innovations.

Posted in: Big Data,Decision Making,Information/Data Management