Gut Feel Isn’t the Enemy of Lean - It’s the Missing Link
As a Lean thinker, I’ve been trained, and trained others, to seek structure, let data lead, and resist knee-jerk decisions. We challenge assumptions, find root causes, and apply systematic thinking. That’s the discipline of Lean. But then I stumbled across an article in The Times titled: “The top economist who believes intuition is a secret superpower” - featuring behavioural economist Laura Huang.
It got me wondering: Can gut feel and Lean really coexist? Or even better - can they complement each other? Spoiler! I now believe they can, and in fact, they must.
The Article That Made Me Pause...
Laura Huang, an award-winning behavioural economist and professor, argues that the most successful people in the world don’t just rely on data. They learn how to develop and harness their intuition. But here’s the twist: she doesn’t describe it as magical, fuzzy, or irrational. Quite the opposite.
She sees intuition as: “Wisdom, experience and subconscious insight informed by pattern recognition, mental models, schemas… and data that’s out there, prompting you.”
In Lean, we call that a Gemba-sense - the unspoken understanding you get after observing a system, living the process, and spotting signals others miss. It’s not woo-woo. It’s a form of embodied data recognition - the kind Lean thinkers accumulate over time. We just haven’t always labelled it as such.
But Isn’t Lean About Facts and Figures?
Yes… but that’s only part of the picture. We don’t obsess over data for its own sake. We chase meaningful insights. Lean is about learning quickly, acting smartly, and continuously improving. Sometimes that means making space for instinct as a signal, especially when data is incomplete or time is tight.
Here’s the thing: Lean doesn’t eliminate judgement - it sharpens it. It trains you to tell the difference between useful hunches and untested assumptions.
When Instinct Becomes a Lean Asset
Huang explains that intuition comes into play most powerfully when dealing with complex or chaotic problems, exactly the kind Lean practitioners are often tasked with untangling!
A team dynamic that’s breaking down with no clear cause
A process that “should work” but still frustrates customers
A behaviour in yourself or others that doesn’t align with expectations
These aren’t spreadsheet problems. They’re real-world, messy, human-centred situations where gut feel may provide the first alert - the Andon of the mind. And if we’re Lean enough to listen, that can guide what to observe, measure, or test next.
Lean Tools That Already Embrace Instinct
Here’s what Huang’s thinking reminded me of:
Gemba - You sense the tension in a space, the fatigue of a worker, or the "off-ness" of a process before the data confirms it
5 Whys - That first “why” is often a gut reaction - an inkling that something’s not quite right
PDCA - Acting on gut feel can initiate a test; reflecting on its result is what makes it Lean
Visual Management - Your body often acts as a visual cue - tension, goosebumps, tiredness… all indicators of friction or waste
Kaizen - Small, rapid improvements often start with a hunch: “I think this would make things smoother…”
In that light, intuition is not un-Lean - it’s a source of hypothesis. A whisper to investigate. A quiet prompt that something might not be aligned.
Real-World Lean Intuition at Work
Let me give you a few examples where intuition works as lean thinking in disguise:
At home: You feel “agitated” every time you open a cluttered drawer. That irritation is a signal - waste of Motion or Inventory. You act, apply 5S, and find peace.
In my in-development app Leanier: A test user says something about a task flow “feels off”. No formal bug - just dissonance. We dig deeper. Sure enough, the friction was real.
In facilitation: Someone hesitates before agreeing to a change. They can’t explain it. But you know not to push. That gut read saves you from implementing the wrong solution.
Gut Feel Is Still Data - Just Disguised
Huang encourages us to pay attention to where we feel things. That tightness in your chest? That queasiness? These are signals, just not numerical ones. This fits beautifully with Lean’s respect for people. It asks us not only to see the work, but to feel its effects. To become sensitised to flow, friction, effort, discomfort, and waste, even when it hasn’t yet surfaced as measurable error.
The Financial & Organisational Value of Gut-Driven Lean
Let’s not miss this: Huang’s research isn’t just conceptual - it has commercial implications. By trusting informed intuition:
Decisions are made faster in uncertain or ambiguous conditions
Mistakes are pre-empted through early sensing of risk
Leadership presence improves, as leaders become more grounded and responsive
User experience enhances, when subtle friction points are sensed and addressed
Employee engagement deepens, as individuals feel empowered to act on insights before problems escalate
In short: intuition reduces delay, error, and unnecessary rework - the very wastes we target in Lean.
So How Do We Practise “Lean Intuition”?
Huang offers some excellent exercises that are remarkably Lean in spirit:
Coin flip gut check: Flip a coin to decide something - not to follow the result, but to observe your reaction to it. “Do I feel relief? Regret?” → That’s your subconscious making a value judgement.
Reflect after urgency: Urgency clouds instinct. Wait 24 hours, revisit the decision. Did your gut feel shift or stay the same? → That’s Hansei - structured reflection.
Track your physiological cues: Where in your body do you feel “truth”? Discomfort? Learn your inner visual management board.
A Lean Mind is an Attuned Mind
If Lean is about learning, listening, and adapting, then surely that includes listening to yourself. The self is data too. So perhaps our Lean evolution isn’t about choosing between structure or instinct, but about building a practice that integrates both. Where insight comes not just from systems, but also from the subtle art of sensing. Where leaders are not just data-literate, but also body-literate, emotion-literate, and able to harness the full range of human judgement.
Final Thought
Lean thinking doesn't kill instinct. It clarifies it. Validates it. Improves it over time. Let’s stop treating gut feel as anti-intellectual and instead view it as an early-stage Lean diagnostic. The more we pay attention, reflect, and test it… the sharper and more valuable it becomes. That, to me, is a Lean mind in full practice.
So, the next time you feel that quiet nudge, that flicker of unease or flash of clarity, don’t rush to dismiss it. Instead, pause. Sense. Reflect.
Lean thinking isn’t just about data spreadsheets or process charts, it’s about learning, adapting, and being present enough to notice all the signals, even the ones that whisper.
How do you experience intuition in your Lean practice - or your life?
Drop me a comment, send a message, or share this with someone who leads from both heart and head. Because the most powerful Lean improvements might just begin from within.
