到哪儿去找战略直觉
2007-10-29
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到哪儿去找战略直觉?
作者：英国《金融时报》德拉•布拉德肖(Della Bradshaw)
2007年10月29日 星期一
正如学界所言，比尔•达根(Bill Duggan)脚踏实地的研究令人耳目一新。作为纽约哥伦比亚商学院(Columbia Business School)的管理学副教授，他专长于他所谓的“战略直觉”。
或者如他所说的：“好的想法是如何在你的头脑中形成的？当然不会是在下午2：30举行的头脑风暴会议中。”
他表示，当你问别人他们何时产生最好的想法时，答案往往是在半夜、在淋浴时或者身陷交通堵塞时。正是这种创意产生的过程吸引了达根教授。
达根教授的研究有赖于最新的大脑研究，而磁共振成像(MRI)技术使的大脑研究成为可能。该技术显示，实际上共有三种类型的直觉：普通、专业和战略。普通直觉是身体直觉；专业直觉是基于过往经验的突然判断——举例来说，一位专业足球运动员踢出球后就知道它的落点；但他最感兴趣的是第三种直觉——战略直觉。
战略直觉不是一种模糊的感觉，也不是一种反应，而是突然闪过的洞察力，能够解决你可能冥思苦想了几个月的问题。那么，人们如何才能让自己具有战略直觉呢？
达根教授提出了战略直觉如何发挥作用的四点描述。首先，你长期在大脑的“架子”上存储信息。其次，你放松或者清理你的大脑——他称之为“思维沉淀”。然后，不同的信息有选择地在你大脑中汇聚在一起，形成突然闪过的洞察力。第四，行动的决心驱使你前进。
达根教授表示，该过程中最难的部分是做到“思维沉淀”，不过，东方的宗教经常使用这种技术，比如打坐或者瑜珈。
他表示，该理论意味着没有什么创意是新的。他列举了几家想出新战略的公司——例如星巴克(Starbucks)。这家咖啡连锁店的创始人承认，其创意来自意大利众多的浓咖啡店。星巴克将这一概念应用到美国市场，剩下的，正如他们所说，大家都知道了。
达根教授表示，没有什么创意是新的，这种观点既令人灰心丧气，也让人如释重负。而将该理论应用于企业界的方法很简单。
举例来说，如果一家公司有问题要解决，那么，考察这个问题的一个方法是先提问：世界上有没有其它公司解决了这个问题的一部分？他表示，这种策略在通用电气(GE)发挥了极大作用。“它推翻了传统的战略概念。”
他还提倡“反向头脑风暴”的概念——开会的人找出问题，然后离开一段时间，让战略直觉发挥作用（通常是在人们最预料不到的时候）。“当头脑风暴发挥作用的时候，就是有人在会上提出想法的时候，”他表示。这种想法并非像人们通常认为的那样产生在会议之中。
在个人层面，他指出，最消极的情绪是由未能达到一项目标的挫折感导致的。“你必须放弃自己的目标，来看清你必须做什么，”达根教授表示。“这是一种思维纪律。”他认为，通过遵循做到战略直觉的步骤，你可以将消极情绪转变成为你的个人以及职业生活制定一种策略。
他表示，在美国这样的国家，情况尤其如此，这里的学生经常被告知，如果他们学习足够努力，就能得到任何他们想要的。他指出，这显然是不正确的。他将他的路径描述为“务实的成就理论”。
由于对学术诚实有着真正的理解，杜根教授主动承认，他的“战略直觉”概念并不是新事物。“我没有创造这个概念；我是窃取了它。”事实上，他承认自己是从法国著名军事领袖拿破仑•波拿巴(Napoleon Bonaparte)和作家卡尔•冯•克劳塞维茨(Carl von Clausewitz)那里窃取了这个概念。后者曾撰写了一本关于拿破仑的经典军事战略著作：《战争论》(On War)。
杜根教授表示，拿破仑具有灵感的火花（战略直觉），他称之为拿破仑的洞察力。他甚至扯到很远的话题，指出，“战略”一词是1810年被收入英语的，当时，拿破仑将军在战场上的成就使他成为欧洲大陆的皇帝。
杜根教授称，事实上，从古至今的伟大军事战略家和商界及社会领袖，都表现出这种战略直觉。他在2002年出版的著作《拿破仑的洞察力：战略秘诀》(Napoleon's Glance: The Secret of Strategy) 中开篇写道：“如果仔细研究历史上那些伟大的英雄，你会发现，他们都非常与众不同，但有一点例外：他们都是伟大的战略家。”
一年后，杜根教授出版了《直觉：超越三大主流战略学派的决策智慧》(The Art of What Works: How Success Really Happens)，而今年，他将推出他的第三本著作《战略直觉：人类成就中的创造性火花》(Strategic Intuition: The Creative Spark in Human Achievement)。该书将于11月份出版。此书对哥伦比亚大学商学院来说是一次尝试，因为它是该商学院自己的出版社出版的第一本图书。
事实证明，杜根教授的理论肯定受欢迎。2007年春季，在哥伦比亚商学院学生对该学期所有218门课程的评分中，他的课程得分最高。
明年春季，他将再次面向MBA和EMBA学员开设这门课程，他还会在非学位高管教育的定制和公开课程上教授这门课程的精简版。
《战略直觉：人类成就中的创造性火花》，将于11月2日由哥伦比亚大学商学院出版社(Columbia Business School Publishing)出版( http://columbiapress.typepad.com/strategic_intuition)
ACADEMIC ON QUEST TO HARVEST TOP IDEAS
By Della Bradshaw
Monday, October 29, 2007
As academics go, Bill Duggan is refreshingly down-to-earth. An associate professor of management at Columbia Business School in New York, he specialises in what he calls "strategic intuition".
Or, as he elucidates: "How do good ideas form in your mind? It's certainly not in the brainstorming meeting scheduled for 2.30."
When you ask people when they have their best ideas, he says, the answer is often in the middle of the night, in the shower, or when stuck in a traffic jam. And it is ideas creation that intrigues Prof Duggan.
He relies on the latest brain research that has been enabled by MRI technology, which reveals that there are actually three different types of intuition: ordinary, expert, and strategic. Ordinary intuition is a gut instinct; expert intuition is snap judgments based on previous experience - a professional footballer knows where a ball will land when he kicks it, for example; but it is the third kind, strategic intuition, in which he is most interested.
Strategic intuition is not a vague feeling, nor a reaction, but a flash of insight that solves a problem you may have been pondering for months. So how do you teach yourself to be strategically intuitive?
Prof Duggan has come up with a four-point description of how strategic intuition works. To begin with, you store information over time in the "shelves" in the brain. Second, you relax or clear your mind - "presence of mind", he calls this. Then different pieces of information selectively move together in your mind to form a flash of insight. Fourth, resolution to act propels you forward.
The most difficult part of the process is achieving "presence of mind" he says, though this is a technique often used in eastern religions, for example in meditation or yoga.
The implications of the theory are that there is nothing new, he says. He cites examples of several companies that have come up with strategies, such as Starbucks coffee shops. The founders of the chain acknowledge that the idea came in Italy over a cup of coffee in one of the many local espresso bars. Starbucks adapted that concept to the US market and the rest, as they say, is history.
The idea that there is nothing new is both unnerving and liberating, he says. And there are clear ways to apply the theory to the corporate world.
For example, if a company has a problem to solve, then one way to look at it would be first to ask: has any other company in the world solved part of this problem? It is a strategy that has been used to great effect in GE, he says. "It overturns the conventional notion of strategy."
He also proposes the idea of "reverse brainstorming" - people in the meeting identify the problem and then go away for a period of time to allow strategic intuition to work - often when they least expect it. "When brainstorming works, it is when someone has brought an idea into the meeting," he says; the idea was not generated in the meeting, as often supposed.
On an individual level he points out that most negative emotions are caused by the frustration of not reaching a target or goal. "You have to give up your goal to see what you have to do," says Prof Duggan. "It's a discipline of the mind." By following the steps to achieve strategic intuition, you can turn negative emotions into developing a strategy for your personal as well as professional life, he believes.
He says this is particularly true in a country such as the US, where students are often taught that if they work hard enough they can achieve anything they want. This is patently untrue, he points out. His route he describes as a "pragmatic theory of achievement".
With a true sense of academic integrity, Prof Duggan willingly concedes that his concept of strategic intuition is not new either. "I didn't invent it; I stole it." In fact, he says he stole it from Napoleon Bonaparte, France's most famous military leader and from Carl von Clausewitz, who wrote the classic military strategy about Napoleon, On War .
According to Prof Duggan, Napoleon had flashes of inspiration or strategic intuition, which he calls Napoleon's glance, or coup d'oeil. He even goes as far as to point out that the word "strategy" entered the English language in 1810, when Napoleon's success as a battlefield general made him emperor of Europe.
Indeed, the great military strategists from ancient to modern time, as well as business and social leaders, demonstrated this strategic intuition, says Prof Duggan. "Take a close look at great heroes of history and you see that they're all very different, except for one thing: they're all great strategists," he writes in the opening paragraph of Napoleon's Glance: The Secret of Strategy , published in 2002.
A year later Prof Duggan published The Art of What Works: How Success Really Happens and this year he will publish his third book, Strategic Intuition: The Creative Spark in Human Achievement , which will be published in November. The book is a first for Columbia Business School as it is the first book to be published under the business school's own imprint.
Prof Duggan's theories are certainly proving popular. In spring 2007 his course was the highest rated by Columbia students of all 218 courses on the menu that semester.
In the spring he will be teaching his course again to MBA and Executive MBA students with shorter versions of the course taught on non-degree executive education custom and open enrolment programmes. Strategic Intuition: The Creative Spark in Human Achievement, published November 2 by Columbia Business School Publishing ( http://columbiapress.typepad.com/strategic_intuition)
本站补充:今天看见这个文章,很喜欢,和我的看法差不多.推荐给大家分享.找了一点英文原文.
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