One can picture a food or wine connoisseur or a fashion analyst at the catwalks of Paris, or a highly skilled auto engineer at a super car company. These highly specialised experts in their fields know what works in their field. And, because they are so expert, arguably, they are not put off by ideas that to others may seem radical. To experts, who have seen and understand much, to explore newness is an invitation to continue developing rather than accept normal incremental improvements so often prevalent. Perhaps we need to be more like the ‘connoisseurs’ so we can actually spot a useful idea next to a fad, mad or bad one.

The question about how one might cultivate intuition might be considered through the way in which airlines teach their staff to ‘Notice. Understand. Think ahead.’ This process was introduced to actively teach their staff to think about the impact of what they observed in flight. For example, whilst it is fairly inconspicuous to see someone with a lighter, this is extremely dangerous on an aeroplane mid flight. Many people would notice such an activity and stop there, perhaps thinking (intuitively) “something’s not right there” but doing nothing about it. Cabin crew are trained to understand what they see – that is, stop when they get a ‘feeling inside’ and seek to understand the impact it might have. Finally, they are taught to think ahead. The process follows; a) notice a person with a lighter, b) understand that this could start a fire c) think ahead about the dangers this presents and the danger that person may be willing to cause. Then, set about a course of action to mitigate the risks.

Western Union described Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone as an electrical toy and had no use for it. History is peppered with lost opportunities like this one. So, if you are looking to start a business, analyse your idea first by noticing things, understanding the impact if you could change them and think ahead about the greater impact it could have. Follow this idea and you just might be onto a winner!