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Intuition and Apple and project teams

Intuition and Apple and project teams

07 Oct 2011

This comment is on an article that appeared in yesterday's Guardian, "Why do some people really hate Apple?"

In addition to the ideas expressed in the article, I believe there may be another reason for a dislike of Apple which is do with intuition.

 

Intuition can be thought of as a very rapid, unconscious integration of our experiences which we use as the basis for making a decision.  Afterwards we cannot always explain why we reached a particular conclusion.

Apple software has often been thought to be intuitive - you don't need a manual to work out what to do. Steve Jobs told the graduates at Stanford University in 2005 "have the courage to follow your heart and intuition".

About 30% of us innately prefer intuited information - others find difficulty in trusting their intuition. Rational decision making is usually taught on the basis of available sensed information. Intuition is thought too risky.  Many dislike acting on the basis of a hunch.

Apple's slogan of 1997 "Think different" can be thought to have an underlying concept of trusting intuition; This sounds too dangerous for some people, too threatening.

Why is this relevant to project management - it explains why some people do not get on with others in a project team.  Some go further.  They say an ability to use intuition is very important for a successful and balanced project team.  See our article on "How NASA builds teams for more detail".