Training Intuition: Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

This chapter informs the important debate by examining the conceptual work on educating, training and enhancing intuition in laboratory and field settings to identify the most promising methods of intuition development and to suggest future research directions. It identifies educational and training methods with a focus on the ‘brain’ (i.e., the cognitive aspects) and the ‘body’ (i.e., the affective, interoceptive, sensory, somatic and visceral aspects) that show the most promise and suggest designs for future study that have the greatest potential to move the field forward. Every person experiences intuition differently—for example, while some people are sensitive to cognitive feelings, others are more sensitive to bodily feelings. Coaches can also remind managers that they need to have a healthy scepticism towards, as well as an informed awareness of, the use of intuition in decision-making and problem-solving. Intuition is important for decision-making and has the potential to both help and hinder our judgements.