Head or gut? Why not both?

I have noticed something of a pattern in people I’ve worked with. When their work requires them to focus purely on facts, disregarding things like emotion, gut feel, and intuition, they can become quite unhappy (and unproductive) humans.

I just googled “data driven organisation”. All the results I saw in my (quick) search were unquestioningly in favour of building this creature. Lots of advice on how to do it, and plenty of major organisations writing in proud and glowing terms about how data driven they are.

It’s become a truism in business that being data driven is a great thing.

I wonder if that’s necessarily so.

Of course, having good data and using it to inform your decisions is positive. I’d prefer to work in, or do business with, a data driven organisation over an “anti data organisation”.

But that previous sentence highlights the false binary that is operating here. We’ve become so unquestioningly in favour of being “data driven” that we’ve come to assume that if you’re not data driven, you’re anti-facts.

I’m pro-facts, for the record.

It’s hardly news that emotions play an important role in decision making. So why are we creating a culture where they are deliberately sidelined?

There’s a big middle ground we’re missing here.

We humans use emotion, gut feel and intuition to make excellent (and bad) decisions all the time. It seems odd to me to stick blindly with data, overruling inconvenient feelings and non-numerical insights that might be guiding us towards a different, perhaps better, choice.

Let’s be data informed, sure, but let’s also take into account all the data we humans have that hasn’t been, or can’t be, measured in numbers. These people (at a data analytics company) describe the difference between being data driven and data informed well.

I have worked with clients to help them clarify for themselves the advantages and disadvantages of head and gut so they can mindfully make decisions that combine the best of both. It’s rewarding to see them begin to light up and flourish as they realise they are “allowed” to pay attention to their emotional cues.

What do you think? And how do you feel about that?

Take care of yourself and others,

Madeleine

I work with clients from executive leadership teams to the front line, helping them to make clearer decisions about what they want, and adapt faster and more easily to change and transition. I use deep purpose as a key to unlock powerful thriving in work and life.

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