Gut Based Decisions

In previous articles, we have explained the sequential process to make decisions, as well as focused on one of them pertaining to Herbert Simon (intelligence, design, choice). We have also explained the Garbage Can Model, on which no known or clear process consistently followed. Now, when the decision-maker is about to make the decision, they ought to rely on evidence coming from data. Alternatively, some follow their gut.

Human intuition appears to be an alternative to laborious fact-finding and analysis as a decision-making technique. Decision-makers are becoming more confident that they can just trust their gut when faced with difficult decisions.

Intuition is tricky because the term itself is a little bit ambiguous. Its definition is flexible and can be used to indicate practically anything, from common sense to sound professional judgment. But most people concur that intuition is the process by which the brain interprets and draws conclusions about occurrences without using conscious reasoning.

There are benefits and drawbacks to using intuition while making decisions. Although it saves time, it also exposes us to harmful preconceptions. For instance, we place undue importance on data that supports our presumptions. Additionally, we allow the initial information we acquire to skew how we interpret future information. Accordingly, we therefore recommend a data-driven decision approach.

Decision-makers now have far more choices than ever and more big data to analyze, but there is less time to do it! In the end it is humans who make decisions, but data science can help us a lot.

Our answer to the question “How do you analyze more in less time?”, is therefore: with the help of data science!