Our company lives in the realm of survival, so I see a lot of similarities as well – especially as it relates to being prepared. The recession has made us all assess our level of preparation. You must think on your feet, but have the resources to draw from in an emergency situation.

It does feel though like maybe we’re talking about two different cultural characteristics: risk-taking and personal instinct.

When I talk about executive decision making based on instinct, I mean more of the “trust my gut” type of decision.

What you were talking about sounded more like an organization that has made room for organizational risk-taking. Definitely some overlap between the two, but maybe two distinct characteristics?

Good conversation.

Firstly, I can’t take the credit for writing this piece ( although I will for choosing to publish it… ) – it was written by my new friend Rob Horlock (you can see Rob’s work about efficiency in the workplace at http://www.ef-ef.co.uk/).

Nevertheless, you hit upon my fave point in Rob’s article – working above payscale. This takes courage and confidence, and it doesn’t always pay off, but this isn’t a reason not to do it. Everyone should feel they can choose to empower themself to do this. It involves Assuming Authority when you haven’t been asked to. It also involves building the belief that you can always progress from your current level if you’re prepared to put the effort in and take a chance.

Thanks for commenting against Asif’s point (hi Asif!). Belief in your assertion will be reinforced (or not) from experience. I’ve worked for organizations that make decisions frequently from instinct. And then again I’ve worked for other organizations that are highly ordered and rational, using instinct to only seed a decision. I enjoy the more instinctive environments – they’re much more fun – but only when they allow room for risk and mistakes to happen. When heavy penalties follow a mistake borne of an instinctive decision, instinct is soon quashed! The highly ordered organizations (which tend to be the bigger organizations) are dull by comparison.

Thanks Dave!!

Great post, as always. I especially like that most of the suggestions speak to personal excellence, which I am a fan of. Working “above your payscale” is a wonderful way of phrasing it. It’s not guarantee, but consistently going above and beyond is the hallmark of a great employee (read: an employee that stays employed).

@Asif – you have a valid point, and I would suggest that organizations may have more instinct than we give them credit for. They are run by humans after all, and I’ve been party to a number of executive decisions that have been made just as much by instinct than facts.