Customer Reviews

Strategic Intuition: The Creative Spark in Human Achievement

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've been looking for a book that answers the question "How do I go from my SWOT analysis (a chart that puts on one page strengths, weaknesses, external opportunities and threats) to a plan that really works?" Most of the books I've read recommend that a manager work up their analysis and then use it to write their plan. But I've noticed that going from analysis to an awesome game-winning plan is extremely hard to do, and is something I and my managers do with less success than I would like.

This book addresses my very specific but important question by describing what the right person needs to do to set the right conditions to have the right flash of insight, and how our usual planning techniques actually go against this natural process. Duggan makes a clear and non-technical argument and, for what it's worth, seems to match my experience.

The few shortcomings of the book, in my mind, are that it is difficult to clearly apply this approach to an organizational setting. His one example using the GE "What Works" matrix is a bit thin and without clear results, making me wonder why he could not find a better example with real results, and why GE ultimately discontinued the method. Secondly, this book does not help someone become more able to have flashes of insight. Setting the right conditions is great, but it is no guarantee of brilliance. Perhaps this would be a question for his next book.

Overall, I loved this book because it gave a solid framework for an important and longstanding question I've had, but I only gave 4 stars because of the shortcomings mentioned above.

I teach strategy in graduate business school and have done so for over twenty years. I routinely judge strategy books to be without much practical use. This book takes an entirely different approach from most others and is thoroughly successful. Rather than simply tell stories or provide backward looking analytical tools, Prof. Duggan takes you inside great strategy decisions and shows how they were made. The first one he details is amazing, but it takes several before you really understand what it is all about. The more the better, as each example shows the thoughtful reader yet another way the concepts work. A must read for anyone who wants to work on making better decisions, rather than just analyzing those from the past. This book has the potential to change the way we think about strategic decisions. Many students who have read it have reported to me they are unable to put it down.

There is much to be said for eliminating waste throughout an enterprise without transforming it completely, at all levels and in all areas. In this volume, however, William Duggan introduces what he characterizes as a "modern discipline" that holds out the promise to decision-makers of allowing them the organizational equivalent of "having their cake and eating it too." Easier said than done? Of course. But indeed possible.

The key, Duggan suggests, is to establish and then nourish an environment within which there are continuous flashes of insight: "Suddenly it hits you. It all comes together in your mind. You connect the dots. It can be one big `Aha!' or a series of smaller ones that together show you the way ahead. The fog clears and you see what to do. It seems so obvious. A moment before you had no idea. Now you do." This in essence is strategic in tuition.

Years ago, Oliver Wendell Holmes observed, "I don't care a fig for simplicity on this side of complexity but I would give my life for simplicity on the other side of complexity." With extraordinary skill and uncommon eloquence, Duggan offers in this book what strikes me as being intuition on the other side of complexity. He draws upon a wealth of recent research in neuroscience that explains how and why these enlightened (no pun intended) flashes of insights occur. Duggan doesn't stop there. He adds that by pulling together various sources (e.g. Asian philosophy, classical military strategy, business strategy, the history of science, and the more recent field of cognitive psychology), "we are able to arrive at a modern discipline that puts flashes of insight at the center of a philosophy of action across all fields of human endeavor."

Its name is strategic intuition. "It is very different from ordinary intuition, like vague hunches or gut instinct. Ordinary intuition is a form of emotion: feeling, not thinking. Strategic intuition is the opposite: It's thinking, not feeling. A flash of insight cuts through the fog of your mind with a clear, shining thought. You might feel elated right after, but the thought itself is sharp in your mind. That's why it excites you: at last you see clearly what to do." Strategic intuition is also different from snap judgments (i.e. expert intuition such as Malcolm Gladwell discusses in his book, Blink), hence the importance of developing the discipline needed to recognize when a given situation is new. In that event, "disconnect the old dots, to let new ones connect on their own." It is this term, "discipline," that differentiates it from all other forms of intuition.

Readers will appreciate Duggan's brilliant explanation of how and why "a modern discipline," strategic intuition, can activate "flashes of insight" in a results-driven organization across various professions. I was especially interested in his discussion of intelligent memory (Pages 34-35 and 58-60), the differences between Carl Von Clauswitz's concept of strategic intuition and Baron Antoine Jomini's concept of strategic planning (Pages 60-64), the characteristics of two forms of reasoning, associative system and rule-based system (See Table 4.1 on Page 48), the "what-works matrix" (Pages 133, 135-140, and 157), reverse brainstorming (Pages 150-151 and 157), and use of Robin Hogarth's professional scripts, as opposed to case studies, when teaching students how strategic intuition works (Page 168-170.

Although this is by no means an "easy read," it is to William Duggan's great credit that he organizes and presents his material with uncommon clarity and eloquence. When concluding his book, he observes, "Progress in human affairs comes through opportunity, when someone sees it, seizes it, and turns it into reality." Strategic intuition thus consists of three separate but related components: recognition, initiative, and achievement. They await those who are both willing and able to complete a journey to As to "the other side of complexity" to which I referred earlier. Only there will creative sparks guide and inform breakthrough achievements with high-impact.

Those who share my high regard for this brilliant book are urged to check out Dean Spitzer's Transforming Performance Measurement and Enterprise Architecture as Strategy co-authored by Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, and David Robertson.

I've heard Prof. Duggan give talks on this book twice in the past year or so, and I've also studied the book in detail (It is a very popular course in the Columbia B-School curriculum as well). I think it provides a great high-level overview of the creative process, something that is admittedly difficult to get our arms around. By exploring examples from military history to the art world to the formation of world-changing companies, Duggan keeps us enthralled while offering a different approach for tackling our own creative challenges. I thoroughly enjoyed it!

This work debunks the idea that people are limited as to their artistic or strategic ability determined by some unsubstantiated decision as to the influence by a hemisphere of the brain. This allows one to be outstanding in any disciple and free to be who they really are.

Management professor William Duggan has written a book that's rare in several ways. First, his clear writing makes complex concepts accessible. Even more importantly, Duggan synthesizes perspectives from an array of traditions to explain how to change the way you understand and use strategic thinking. He convincingly argues that most books on strategy and strategic planning are wrong, and then he presents an alternative approach that builds on modern neuroscience and historian Thomas Kuhn's theories of scientific revolution. Duggan illustrates his concepts by discussing innovators in several fields. He combines scholarship with candor to provide specific steps for developing your intuition and using it strategically. The book isn't perfect - the discussion of education is a bit too brief and the conclusion is rushed - but it is highly useful. getAbstract recommends it to leaders who are responsible for planning, and to anyone interested in innovation.

Awesome book! Anyone in a leadership position should read it. As a leadership consultant I refer to it in coaching and recommend it to clients. The insight the author provides is great for leaders who are in strategic planning roles.

Buy it - you won't be disappointed.

This book along with good to great have been two of the best books I read in business. This offers a new insight they don`t teach in business schools
Enjoy it

I first learned about professor Duggan through another professor, for whom I had a lot of respect. Professor Duggan came highly recommended by my professor, so naturally, I picked up his book.

I have to say I was disappointed by the book. It might have to do with the high expectation I was having when I started the read. I read about 40% of the book and could not finish it. While the book is not bad by any means, it simply is NOT a critical read when you have other things to do or books to read. It is more a book for vacation rather than a book to change your career.

So, don't expect you'd learn something breath taking thru this book. It is recreational.

Length:: 7:02 Mins

Drew Christensen's review was made as part of a critical review assignment for the Fall 2008 Honors Colloquium on Creative Destruction at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, taught by Art Diamond. (The course syllabus stated that part of the critical review assignment consisted of the making of a video recording of the review, and the posting of the review to Amazon.)