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Strategic Intuition: The Creative Spark in Human Achievement Page 3 (17 of 208)
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3
Flash versus Blink
rough sketches of how fl ashes of insight work, especially the
Bhagavad Gita from India (400 B.C.), Sun Tzu’s The Art of War
from China (450 B.C.), and Miyamoto Musashi’s Book of Five
Rings from Japan (1645).2 These works apply Hindu, Tao, and
Zen Buddhist philosophy to the problem of military strategy. The
formal science of strategy begins with classical European military
texts, especially On War by Carl von Clausewitz (1832), and here
too fl 3 ashes of insight reign.
The European version of strategy spread from the military to
business in the late nineteenth century and then to government,
nonprofi t agencies, and professions at large in the twentieth cen-
tury. Wal-Mart has a strategy, your state department of health has
a strategy, the Girl Scouts have a strategy, and so do doctors and
lawyers and every other modern profession. But as strategic ideas
spread from the military, fl ashes of insight were lost in transla-
tion. The leading ideas in strategy today leave them out com-
pletely. For example, in the 1980s Michael Porter’s competitive
strategy became the reigning paradigm in business. It tells you
how to analyze your own strategy in light of your industry and
your competitors. But it does not tell you how to come up with
a strategic idea: that’s a creative step Porter leaves out. Strategic
intuition, in contrast, puts the strategic idea itself at the center of
strategy. That makes it the fi eld of rst major breakthrough in the fi
strategy in over twenty years.
The purpose of this book is to show how the discipline of
strategic intuition works. In the fi rst half of the book we study
the theory of strategic intuition in its original forms: the history
of science, neuroscience, cognitive psychology, European mili-
tary strategy, and Asian philosophy. In the second half we learn
how to apply strategic intuition in business, in social programs,
in professions of all kinds, and in education. Along the way we
overturn conventional wisdom about strategic planning, the sci-
entifi c method, creativity, imagination, rational decision making,
teamwork, leadership, innovation, brainstorming, and the divide
between the “hard” and “soft” skills of science and art.
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