By Tom Sibbald
It has been suggested that intuitive decision making is a major difference between the expert and less expert and that intuition is one of the 9 key skills which characterize experts (Schempp, 2010). How, then, can we help coaches to develop their intuitive thinking for coaching? One approach may be the use of priming. Priming allows the coach to prepare observation markers (pattern recognition) and to consider some of the outcomes of a task which may occur (response selection). It prepares the mind to filter the available information and search for matches (associative thinking). All of which are cognitive process that intuition relies heavily on. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to pilot the use of priming – a conscious, cognitive, rational thinking task – to help coaches develop their intuitive thinking skills.
