S2E2: Quantitative Data vs. Intuition in Business

Season 2 Episode 2. 

Empowerhouse Coaching presents, Creative Mindsets for Business, a podcast where Entrepreneurs, Business Leaders, and their teams learn how to cultivate creativity together so they can accelerate growth, and scale to success.

In this episode, your master coach, Amanda Escobedo, discusses Quantitative Data vs. Intuition in Business:

• She reviews Quantitative Data in US Business Culture
• She reviews some key differences between US and Japanese Businesses Culture
• She shares the 5 truths to your intuition
• And she provides you with  2 mindset practices you can start doing today to cultivate your intuition

If you find this podcast valuable, give the gift of sharing information and share this podcast with 3 people in your network that would benefit from this episode. 

For anyone that shares this podcast and tags @empowerhouse_coaching on IG, you’ll be entered to win a Free 30 Minute Coaching with Amanda Escobedo. All you have to do is come to the call with 1 thing that is stressing you out (business or personal), and Amanda will help you take the stressor off your plate. 

Amanda is also giving away reflective writing prompts to help you cultivate your creativity. To download, visit www.empowerhousecoaching.co/mastermind. Scroll to the bottom of the page to access.

Transcript

Empowerhouse Coaching presents, Creative Mindsets for Business, a podcast where Entrepreneurs, Business Leaders, and their teams learn how to cultivate creativity together so they can accelerate growth, and scale to success.

My name is Amanda Escobedo, I’m your host, creative mindset master coach, and the founder of Empowerhouse Coaching.  

If you’re joining me for the first time today, I want to give you a warm welcome. Thank you so much for being here. I’m confident that you’ll learn something, and I hope to provide you with a breakthrough or personal insight. 

For those of you who have been following my work, welcome back. 

In today’s episode, we’re going to be discussing Quantitative Data vs. Intuition in Business 

To support our discussion on this topic, I’ll be reviewing:

• Quantitative Data in US business culture
• I’ll  share some key differences between US and Japanese Businesses culture
• I’m going to share 5 truths about your intuition
• And I’m going to provide you with  2 mindset practices you can start doing today to cultivate your intuition

That said, let’s dive right into our topic and talk about US Business culture. 

US businesses are very heavy in the use of analytics  and the use of database approaches to drive decisions.

Many MBA programs, like Stanford University as an example, are very analytical and emphasize quantitative data. 

And this approach or emphasis on analytics has proven to be very successful for US business.

But let me take you back to 1980 for a minute..

During this time, business practices amongst different cultures and countries were looked into more seriously. This research allowed for US businesses to see what we might be doing wrong, or what we might be missing in our business practices.

MBA programs, like Stanford as an example, were looked at in more detail, and it was found that there was too much emphasis on data and analytics. The criticism with the MBA program was that a lot of its graduates were not long term thinkers, they tend to be more risk averse, they didn’t  like or struggled with abstract thinking, they were more problem solvers ,applying techniques like a technician, as a opposed to being or operating as new pathfinder. 

After studying Japanese Business Cultures, who produced outstanding business practices, what was found in their business practices was more engagement in the right brain or creative side of things. Japanese Business Leaders as an example engaged in Shinto ceremonies and zen practices like meditation before business meetings or engaging in business decisions. And it’s believed that these practices are what  advanced their decision making capabilities.  Even at the production level, employees were provided with space to be creative and contribute to solutions.

Now don’t get me wrong, practices like meditation are happening in our culture, and people in the US are doing very creative things. Even during an economic downturn as an example, Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs were developing new and innovative high tech systems or technology, and they were able to grow them very quickly. And their process of doing exhibited very creative traits. 

And a culture, innovation and creativity is starting to be integrated into our businesses. 

• Stanford University, now offers Creative courses for business 
• Big tech companies like a Google offered bunker inspired meditation chambers at their Bay Area office to inspire creativity. 
• And some of the most successful leaders integrate intuition into their decision making process.  Paul Cook, as an example, the founder and CEO of Raychem Corporation, a fortune 500 company. There was a time when Rachem was a top company in a previous decade of earnings growth - and that was all internal earnings, with no acquisitions. 
• Paul Cook was brought in as a Speaker for the Creativity in Business Course at Stanford, and during his talk, an MBA student asked, do you ever make decisions on intuition? And he said I ALWAYS do. He then shared that he used to be really into making decisions on data, but then he had  2-3 errors, or terrible business decisions which were based on analytics. When he reflected, he recognized if he would have gone with his intuition, he would have been correct. 

I share all that to say, you can find Creativity in US businesses today, but the practice of cultivating creativity together, in a team setting,, is not the norm, it’s done more on an individual basis,  and creativity is still doormat for many organizations in our culture, because again, there has been so much success with data based approaches. 

But imagine a world that uses both analytics and intuition as a business tool? 

Imagine a world that emphasized action rather than creating the most perfect plan?

Imagine the possibilities!

Now I keep talking about intuition and how it should be used as a tool to make decisions, but what the heck is it? 

Well, if you listened to my last episode, you learned intuition is one of the 5 essences which make our creative base. 

Stanford University assumes everyone is creative, and when you pay attention to our own creativity, we bring it out. 

Stanford also assumes that everyone is born with the five qualities of essence, which make up your creative base: intuition, will, joy, strength, and compassion. So you’re born with intuition.

If you think of children, they are highly intuitive. They know when they need to eat, sleep, poop. 

But as we grow into adults, so many of us eat past full, work past stress, date people which aren’t good for us, we’re on our phones catching up on social media even though we are exhausted. To help explain the disconnect between intuition as a child and intuition as adults, let’s review the 5 truths about your intuition. 

• #1 - Intuition requires focus to develop. Now, even though we are all born with intuition, science has shows that if you do not cultivate it, you won’t be able to access it. Which explains why some of us are so not attuned with ourselves.
• But the good news is, if you have issues trusting yourself, and making decisions at work, or even in your personal life, you can actually cultivate your intuition, pull out the answers you already know. As business leaders, one of our greatest responsibilities is to make decisions in a dynamic world. And yes, pull out the numbers, do your analytics, but at some point, you have to go with your gut feeling.  Tiffany Carter says, trusting your gut, your intuition is the best business tool you've got
• Truth # 2 Your intuition complements reason 
• Truth #3 Your intuition is unemotional. So many of us make decisions out of fear….even though your gut might be going left, and the data is going right, you might choose right because even if the data fails you, you can blame it on the data instead of yourself
• BUUUUT, what’s important for you to know about your intuition is truth #4. Your Intuition is mistake free!
• And truth #5 Your intuition demands action. But not right away. 
• Just because you get present with your truth doesn't mean you fire someone after you realize they aren't the right fit for the company, as an example.
• What it does mean is cultivating the courage to walk in your truth..and doing it in an intentional, strategic, and conscious way that aligns with where you’re trying to go. 
• Overall, your intuition is really just getting present to your truth that is living inside of you. The truth may be, as I mentioned: 
  • You hired the wrong person, 
  • The company has outgrown some of its talent, 
  • The truth might be you’re a people pleaser that over commits and you’re losing credibility with your team everytime you undeliver. 
  • The truth might be that your employee isn't underperforming, you’re actually just under communicating or failing to share your expectations. 
• Many define intuition as a recognition of the decision you already have within you. But I would like to invite you to exchange the word decision for choice or experience instead. 
• Life is made up of experiences, and you have the right to choose an experience that resonates with you. And if you don’t like it, you have the right to choose again. 
• When you hire an employee, they may be right for that position for a period of time, and if it doesn’t work out after some time has passed, that's ok, you can make a new choice for the company. 
• Another example might be that you started your business with your best friend, and as time has passed, this isn’t the experience you want anymore…your partnership is no longer serving the company, and both of you agree allow one or the other to buy each other out. 
• What most people get stuck on in the world is trying to make the most perfect decision, or there is a fear of making the wrong decision, so they stall, push off the decision making process, or do not take action at all. . 
• he only certainty in the world is impermanence 
• Additionally, the reality is, there are a million ways to get you where you’re trying to go, not just one. 
• And if you just replace the word decision with choice or experience, you’ve just changed the game and you will feel so empowered, because choice and experience gives you the power to choose again if you want to!

Now that we know what intuition is, how do we cultivate intuition? 

There are many ways to cultivate your intuition, but today I want to talk about powerful and penetrating questions. 

The two types of questions I want to share with you today

1. Open Questions,
2. And, Yes or No

Let’s start off with open questions. 

Asking deep and powerful questions unlock your intuition. 

If you’ve ever journaled or done some reflective writing,  you might have witnessed your own intuition come through in this practice. 

For example, if you start asking questions like….

Where am I being inauthentic in my leadership?

Where am I blocking myself?

Where am I self sabotaging?

What would a breakthrough look like?

How will I know I’m getting the result I’m looking for? What would I see, hear, feel?

What should I do next?

These type of open questions get you clear on what you want, you’re getting to know what’s blocking you, and you’re uncovering the next step that will propel you forward

These types of questions are Open and Penetrating. 

And what makes them open is the fact that they are selfless, energizing, daring, inspiring, they’re unbiased, they hold no assumptions, but new possibilities, they're outrageous, and totally naive. 

Whereas closed questions are asked by your ego, they’re lazy, or safe, dull.

They’re full of assumptions, old baggage, they’re jaded. 

For example, some closed questions you might have previously asked yourself or heard someone else ask themselves was: 

Why am I so dumb?

Why does this always happen to me?

Why can’t I figure this out?

These types of questions have a dullness to them,  jaded tone, they hold assumptions

Closed questions like these make you feel bad and keep you stuck. They aren’t giving you a new path to move forward. 

OPEN questions on the other hand are curious,  they challenge the status quo/rock the boat

they’re dumb, and full of wonder. 

Now, when you’re working on accessing your intuition by asking open questions, I want to warn you that you may not get an answer right away…You may need to sit on on the question for a bit. 

Ask yourself your question or questions, and then walk away..incubate….

Go vacuum, go do something relaxing…be open to HOW the answer shows up for you and when it shows up for you. 

Your answer may show up in your dream, it may show up when you’re on a walk, it may show up during a conversation with another person. 

As an example of what that looked like for me, when I started my coaching business, I had acquired a couple of mindset certifications, I started coaching…

But coaching isn’t just coaching, I’m running a business. And there were so many things I didnt know how to do, as it relates to building a website, sales, etc.

But I was super resourceful, reading a ton of articles, joining a lot of free webinars, watching youtube videos on things I wasn’t familiar with etc.

But I hit a point where I could feel I was ready for my next investment. My intuition told me I was ready, but I didn't know what that looked like. 

So I asked the question to the universe, God, whoever would answer me..I said I know i’m ready for my next investment, but what is it? 

Within a month, I got an email from the mindset school I graduated from…offering graduates to join a free stanford university mindset course for 8 weeks,!…

I joined the class, and while I was going through the course, the trainer shared that the course came in 3 formats - Adult, Childrens, and corporations. And they shared that we could get certified in the course. 

And for me, I knew I wanted to work with corporations, but I didn't know how to get my foot in the door. When I was connecting with companies, it felt like some of the decision makers were receiving my work as a little too wu wu for the company, and more like an employee fun perk.

But this course I was just introduced to came from Stanford, and companies looooove when you say stanford…And, it has been a course since 1979. And so many well known innovators are huge fans, supporters, and speakers of the course when it was taught at Stanford like Steve Jobs, Philip Knight, Charles Schwabbs just name a few!

Additionally, this course has already had proven esults in big name companies like Pepsi, FB, Anhaiser Busch, etc.

I say all that to share that I didn't do an analysis on how much this certification course would cost me, how much time it would take me to get certified, I didn't ask anyone for feedback on what I should, I didn't do a bunch of reading up on the course….all I can say is, the minute I knew this was a Stanford Course that had a corporate piece to it, my intuition told me this was my next investment , so I signed up!

And here I am today, teaching you the tools from this course and I’ve been working with Entrepreneurs and corporations since.

Now, your second tool I'm going to share with you today, in addition to Open and Curious questions, is technique  call, Yes or no!

So, when I teach this Stanford Course to my students or corporate teams, there’s an exercise we do together – I ask the student to play a game with me. 

I pick a student and ask him/her to share something they’re sitting on and need to make a decision with. And it can literally be anything

• Maybe it’s a questions of whether you  go back to school
• Or where you you go on vacation…Italy or Jamaica
• Or  whether you have pizza or a salad for lunch

Generally, when we’re trying to make a choice for ourselves, we start to have a conversation in our head…

If I do this, then this will happen, 

If I do that… this will happen 

I might miss out on this, I might get behind on that, I might regret this, I might lose time doing that, this person might think or get hurt if I do this 

And I don't know if I should be doing that. 

We go back and forth, 

We’re playing a game of table tennis in our head..

We might even go out in the world and ask 45 million people what I should do, and then we come back with 45 million different answers and feel even more confused.

We DRIVE ourselves crazy.

Now, to help the students, we flip a coin, and we let the coin make the decision for us. 

Heads yes, and tales no.

Some of them have a moment of freak out, and I say, its just a game, play along, and then they relax.

So one student as an example was determining on whether they they go back to school, 

We decided heads no - do not go back to school, Tales is yes - go back to school. 

And then we flip the coin. 

And when we flipped the coin,  it landed on a heads - do not go back to school 

But the game didn't end there, I gave the student an option, you can keep this answer, or we can do best out of three, and this student in particular said flip again, best out of three.. 

So we did! After flipped, what I shared was, the game isn’t about the coin and what the coin has decided for us. 

What I want to know is why you chose to flip again…

What does your choice to  flip again say about what you already know?

The coin landed on heads, and gave you an answer of no, you could have kept that answer, but you chose to flip again…

This particular student said, I was hoping it would say go back to school.

And There it is! The they want to go back to school. 

So I give  challenges to all of my students - for a week - they are challenged to make decisions all with just the answer yes or no!

To drop the stories, drop the reasons, and just answer yes, or no!

What this looks like is….

“A colleague might ask you, do you want to be included on X meeting…”

And you’re normal response would be, well if I’m not in that meeting, I might miss X..

But if I join, that’s less time to get Y done, which is due tomorrow…

But if I don’t join the meeting, blah blah…

But, then you remember, I can only answer yes or no…and ask yourself, do I want to be included in the meeting, yes or no. 

And you make a decision, and you commit!

Maybe it’s something a little more simpler…Your coworker, or your partner says, hey I’m going to starbucks, do you want anything? 

And then you stay to say, uoo a mocha frappuccino sounds amazing, 

But I’m trying to do good…I’m on a  diet..

But I’ve been good this whole month, what's one  drink…

And then you remember,  do I want something from starbucks or not…Yes or NO.

And you just answer. 

This is perfect for technique and perfect for business decisions…and my executive clients have been able to be so much more effective through this technique. 

What of my favorite acronyms I use with myself is 

YAK, you always know. 

You have all the answers inside of you just need to formulate the question to get to your truth.

What I do to reinforce my intuition is always accurate is in the back of my journal, I wrote out YAK. "Y" " A"" K” you always know.  

And every time you hear that little voice inside my head telling me  "Do this or don't do that” AND I don’t listen to it. And then time passes and I realize that your voice was right and knew what it was talking about, I write it down in my journal under YAK.  When you have five things, 10 things 15 things, written in the back of that journal, a list of all the things that you heard your own intuition tell you, but you ignored, you start to look at the page like, " Oh my gosh".  I do know what I am talking about. And it will empower you; really empower you to listen to that voice. Because it is never wrong. It is mistake free. 

So those are you 2 tools that you can start practicing today to cultivate your intuition….

Asking yourself Open and curious questions

And, Yes or No. 

Now, if you feel like you might struggle with the open questions…you aren’t sure what to aks yourself, don’t worry, I’ve got you covered. Because I’m sharing 4 different reflective writing prompts that come from Stanford. These prompts are full of open questions that will help you access your own insights and intuition. They’re a perfect tool to help you get unstuck, navigate through interpersonal conflicts, and help you access your future, wiser self for answers. 

To download these open questions, reflective writing prompts, go to www.empowerhousecoaching.co/mastermind. When you scroll to the bottom of the page, you’ll be able to download the clarity and insight questions there. 

Also, when you’re accessing this page, you’ll see I’m going to be launching a mastermind soon for Entrepreneurs. 

More information to come, but this will be a 12 month masterminding group, that will incorporate mindset curriculum, structured calls that provide you with feedback, and a mix of core teachings, and 121/private coaching sessions with me  to discuss your unique business experiences and issues, and personal stressors that may be blocking your creativity and momentum, and then we’ll unlock your solutions. 

Being a founder can be a lonely and challenging journey since you don’t have a boss or any true peers to bounce ideas off of, talk through your pain points, challenge your point of view so you can see things from different angles, or even celebrate your wins. 

This community of Entrepreneur leaders will do just that for you. Your peers will give to you without any expectation of what the will receive, they will be curious students open to your feedback, new learnings, and new ways of thinking and doing. Together, we will help to bring your mission and vision into fruition. 

There is science for growth and part of that equation is surrounding yourself with excellence. More to come on this program so stay tuned. 

To recap, what we reviewed in today’s episode were: 

• Quantitative Data in US business culture
• I’ll  share some key differences between US and Japanese Businesses culture
• I’m going to share 5 truths about your intuition
• And I’m going to provide you with  2 mindset practices you can start doing today to cultivate your intuition

Before I let you go, I want to leave you with a closing quote by Clarissa Pinkola Estes…

"Practice listening to your intuition, your inner voice; ask questions; be curious; see what you see; hear what you hear; and then act upon what you know to be true. These intuitive powers were given to your soul at birth.“

If you found this podcast valuable, give the gift of sharing information and share this podcast with 3 people in your network that would benefit from this episode. 

For anyone that shares this podcast and tags me on IG - empowerhouse_coaching, you’ll be entered to win a Free 30 Minute Coaching on the Fly session with me. All you have to do is come to the call with 1 thing that is stressing you out, it can be related business or personal. 

I have a super skill that allows me to get to the root of the issue fairly quickly. I will help to identify what's in your control vs. what isn't, and we will uncover empowered actions that will allow you to take the stressor off your plate. 

Alright folks, I’m Amanda Escobedo, and you’ve been listening to Creativity in Business,  

If you haven’t yet, go to apple podcast, or where you get your podcast, subscribe and review this podcast.

Your review will help others come across this resource and leverage their creativity in business. 

Join me next time in another conversation about the creative spirit, human potential, accelerated growth, and ultimate impact. 

Thank you for listening.