Toronto

• Main Author: Jaana Woiceshyn
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2005
• Subjects: Arctic
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.383.9743; http://attila.acadiau.ca/library/ASAC/v26/06/26_06_p277.pdf

This study of 16 oil company CEOs, recognized as effective thinkers, found that they combined reason and intuition, primarily by relying on both explicit and ‘automatized ’ principles. The CEOs also shared three thinking-related traits: self-awareness, certain motivation, and an active mind. Suggestions for effective thinking are derived from the findings. “I have a strongly held belief that intuitive or gut feelings are just pattern recognition, almost instantaneous pattern recognition, whereas logic is the more painstaking process of making a pattern emerge. I think that one is just as important as the other.”--A CEO participating in the study To probe how ‘good minds ’ think, I asked 16 CEOs who ran (or had been running until recently) successful oil and gas companies to read a realistic decision scenario which presented three strategic alternatives: to invest in a new technology, to explore in the Arctic in a joint venture, or to acquire another oil company. The chief executives were then asked to think out loud how they would decide in the scenario. See Table I for the research methodology. This paper 1) explains how effective thinkers combined reason and intuition, 2) shows what principles they relied on, 3) describes the three common characteristics of effective thinkers, and 4) discusses implications of the study’s findings for those wanting to improve their thinking.