Deciding With Collective Intelligence

“I consider all the data and input, and ultimately, make the decision with my gut.” This insightful sentiment was shared by a business leader during a recent strategic workshop I was running.

I suspect you’ve heard or experienced similar notions. While data, input from various reliable sources, and counsel from trusted colleagues and advisors matter, we frequently make decisions from our gut.

But what’s really happening here?

Albert Einstein said, “The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”

Intuition, as I understand it, is the collective intelligence of the unconscious — a guidance system that tells us what is and isn’t important. These intuitive gut instincts guide our purchase decisions, relationships, partnerships, and many of our most crucial life decisions.

Our intuition, however, is less about knowing the right decision and more about knowing what input and information are important to making the right decision. It’s a form of intelligence that guides us through complexity.

There are times when corporate mandates are employed to produce a particular outcome, like in innovation and strategic planning processes. But these group-think approaches can sometimes cause rational thinking to go in the wrong direction. It’s during these times that gnawing feeling in your gut can save you from a bad decision.

I speak from experience here. The more brands I help build, the more companies I serve, the more research I do, the more teams I work with, the better my intuition gets. I’m frequently guided by hunches and “gut instinct” through the complex yet-to-be-shaped brands and cultures I help to form or evolve.

In the world of brands and marketing, we orchestrate a confluence of elements — intellectual, emotional, visual, verbal, and belief-driven — to create an experience or set of experiences designed to make an impact or impression.

When a brand is shaped beautifully, it creates an intuitive feel. It creates an understanding or knowing without instruction or explanation. A product design, website, brand story, or new product that’s intuitive needs no explanation. Like your leadership decisions, customers make intuitive decisions when the brand experience is intuitive.

I’ve seen intelligent people and good leaders listen to those feelings. The most brilliant among us, those that make big innovative and intellectual leaps, can’t do this without using the brilliance of intuition. Those that honor the “sacred gift” that Einstein referred to, tend to be the ones that we celebrate for breaking new ground and achieve what few dare to. Maybe that’s you…today.

My questions for you and your team are:

How can you give yourself (and your team) greater permission to listen to your gut?
How can you create space inside your organization where intuition plays a larger role when big decisions are being considered?
How can you encourage the team around you to see beyond the data and move beyond group-think?
How can you make your brand more intuitive to your prospects, so your marketing team has to do less explaining and convincing?

Your Abundant Good Life
An Author 3-Way conversation

How can I live a life of meaning
AND a life of abundance
AND do meaningful work?

So many people today are grappling with this set of seemingly conflicting questions and how to make choices that create a life of wholeness, fulfillment, connection, and abundance.

These are particularly potent questions for entrepreneurs, business leaders, makers, and creatives.

My two guests, Leisa Peterson and Jonathan Fields, have spent a lifetime exploring and answering these questions — and helping others realize the maker path of their version of an abundant good life.

Leisa is the author of The Mindful Millionaire and founder of Wealth Clinic. Her mission is to help people elevate their financial consciousness, remove money blocks, and restore a healthy and abundant relationship to money and wealth. She’s also the host of the Mindful Millionaire and the Art of Abundance podcasts.

Jonathan is the best-selling author of four books, including “SPARKED,” “How to Live a Good Life,” and “Uncertainty.” Known as the ‘Good Life Guy,’ he hosts the wildly successful Good Life Project podcast. Jonathan has founded several companies with a focus on maximizing human potential. His most recent company is Spark Endeavors, where he is the chief architect and driving force behind the world’s first purpose, engagement, and flow archetypes–the Sparketypes®.

This conversation will be hosted by, yours truly, Steven Morris, CEO of Matter Consulting — brand and culture building expert, advisor, author, and artist. His most recent book, “The Beautiful Business,” encourages entrepreneurs to create an integrated business entity that melds brand, culture, and business strategy.

Join us for a soul-filling conversation about realizing a life of meaning, doing purposeful work, and living the good life of abundance.

The conversation will be live via Zoom and recorded for future viewing for those who register.

If you want a more trusting team, a culture of belonging or a magnetic brand that attracts more of the right customers, I can help. If you'd like to explore if working together makes sense, drop me a line.

Let’s Talk >