Inspirational Intuition – A new Managerial Approach to Operationalize a Success Factor for Inventions

Intuitive competence is an important human characteristic. This article discusses the importance of human intuition in the context of creating new knowledge. In particular, inspirational intuition plays an important role. In contrast, to Daniel Kahneman's fast, intuitive, and routine decision making in terms of a "System 1" (Kahneman 2011, pp. 19 ff.), inspirational intuition is shown to be a slow, incubational, and illuminative force. As a new "System 3", it forms an important core human capability to enable unprecedented knowledge with the help of original intuitions. The scientific paper shows the development of a helpful questionnaire to quantify inspirational intuition. This managerial approach captures individual differences in the potential of inspirational knowledge imagination and helps the management better realize and operationalize this intuitive competence in the competition of best ideas.