Many managers claim to have “seat of the pants” intuition when it comes to project management. In your view, does this kind of intuition actually exist? Can you think of examples to support your views?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

According to Webster's dictionary, “intuition” is defined as the “immediate knowing or learning of something without the conscious use of reasoning.” In a relatively simple project, a manager might develop a “feel” for how things are going, especially if this is a project that has been performed before. In a complex project with hundreds or thousands of tasks, however, it is hard to imagine using intuition instead of a rational management process. Even so, some people do seem to have an uncanny ability to sense that something might be wrong and investigate, when others might not react. In such cases, what is the intuition? Is it project management intuition or, more likely, intuition about how people are behaving? This might be an interesting topic to discuss in class.