Strategic Decisions: When to Trust Your Gut - McKinsey Quarterly

Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman and psychologist Gary Klein debate the power and
perils of intuition for senior executives.

For two scholars representing opposing schools of thought, Daniel Kahneman and Gary Klein find a surprising amount of common ground.

Kahneman, a psychologist, won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2002 for prospect theory, which helps explain the sometimes counterintuitive choices people make under uncertainty. Klein, a senior scientist at MacroCognition, has focused on the power of intuition to support good decision making in high-pressure environments, such as firefighting and intensive-care units.

In a September 2009 American Psychology article titled “Conditions for intuitive expertise: A failure to disagree,” Kahneman and Klein debated the circumstances in which intuition would yield good decision
making. In this interview with Olivier Sibony, a director in McKinsey’s Brussels office, and Dan Lovallo, a professor at the University of Sydney and an adviser to McKinsey, Kahneman and Klein explore the power and perils of intuition for senior executives.

Download and read the full interview here.