cover image Practical Intuition for Success

Practical Intuition for Success

Laura Day. HarperCollins Publishers, $22 (216pp) ISBN 978-0-06-017576-4

The author of Practical Intuition (1996) and teacher of seminars of the same name for 10 years applies her theories to the world of business. Whether job-hunting, starting a small business, investing or running a large corporation, readers, Day contends, can improve their chances for success by adding ""intuitive impressions"" to their daily practices and decision-making processes. While neither very well organized nor compellingly presented, the book does manage to convey some basic tenets and exercises for doing this. Day's guiding rule is that ""to succeed in business, your goal should be to create integrity with what you want and what you have to offer on the one hand, and the needs of your team, your market, and your environment on the other."" Her emphasis on always considering ""what the other guy wants"" teaches a refreshing win-win focus on business dealings. Stressing that intuition is not a replacement for logical reasoning, she suggests keeping ""your reasoning, logical mind at bay long enough for your intuition to have a crack at the problem,"" and then verifying intuitive impressions with evidence, reason and emotion. Exercises include formulating clear questions, prioritizing goals and becoming aware of ""hidden agendas"" and unconscious perceptions. Day applies these practices to such business situations as running meetings, predicting market changes and stock prices, dealing with ""contentious issues"" and turning enemies into allies. $200,000 ad/promo; author tour; simultaneous release of Broadway Books trade paper edition of Practical Intuition. (Oct.)