No "guts" no story

Everywhere I turn the business grist mill is churning out story and book specifically and generally about "the gut." Look here and here and here for example (although not here). The number of articles, essays, and blog items that deal with "gut" or "instinct" relative to business is overwhelming. Questions:

Is it fashion?

Is it because the methodologies that gurus would otherwise be prescribing are not working as well right now? (Maybe because the degree of uncertainty and velocity of change is too rapid??)

Did Jack Welch start it all with this title?

I'm sure that at least some of the authors of the books and journal pieces noted -- and this shouldn't be lost -- that with the exception of a few hard-wired instincts such as the need to eat, to protect offspring, fight-or-flight reactions, etc., instincts about things such as art, business, etc. (i.e., loosely, "vocations") are the result of experience internalized. A rookie has very limited ability to use his/her gut as anything more than a feeding clock until educated by experience. Which is not to say that book-larnin' is not valuable in developing instinct. Only that it's one thing to read about having a gun pointed at you (figuratively -- and literally, I suppose), and quite another to stare down the barrel of blued steel.

I believe this "gut" phenomenon is more than just the happy pill of the day between bromides from consulting firms. But, the value is in understanding it completely, not just from "Five simple rules for running my business."

Posted by Grayson at November 5, 2003 08:27 AM