Observational intuition: Making sense of what is staring at us

One does not need to be a genius to make sense of trends and events and capitalize on them to come out better at the end. Instead, if one can observe, understand, and apply intuition, opportunities will reveal themselves.

- ANAND SIVARAMAN

Have you ever had the feeling of being confounded by a clearly observable pattern that is seemingly inexplicable? While the reason is hiding in plain sight right in front of us, it suddenly all falls together with a simple explanation. As individuals, we are intuitively reactive and prepare better for well defined, near term events. Preparing proactively for slowly emerging trends like the consequences of connected markets and digital transformation requires observational intuition that most perceive subconsciously, but few act upon. Observational Intuition can be defined as the process of actively engaging and applying intuition to all the observable, latent information that is otherwise consumed passively to continually create new opportunities.

These clearly observable events can have beneficial or catastrophic consequences for markets, companies and employees depending on their ability to visualize, contextualize, aggregate and make timely decisions on available, self-evident information. Without that ability, celebrated CEOs (think General Electric or Yahoo) who were considered geniuses have seen their strategies collapse, businesses fail and “lifer” employees become irrelevant.