Kris Safarova  00:45

Welcome to the Strategy Skills podcast. I’m your host, Kris Safarova. And our podcast sponsor today is StrategyTraining.com. If you want to strengthen your strategy skills, you can get the Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies. It’s a free download we prepared for you. And you can go to firmsconsulting.com/overallapproach. You can also get McKinsey and BCG-winning resume, which is a resume that got offers from both of those firms. And you can get it at firmsconsulting.com/resumePDF. And lastly, you can get a copy of a book we co-authored with some of our amazing clients. And you can get it at firmsconsulting.com/gift. And it is called Nine Leaders in Action. It went to become number one best seller on Amazon. And I think you can really enjoy it and learn a lot from it. So today we have with us a very special guest with a very beautiful name, Hrund Gunnsteinsdóttir. She’s an advisory council member at Yale’s International Leadership Center, and has been recognized for her work as a World Economic Forum, Young Global Leader and cultural leader and Yale world fellow. She has qualifications from Yale Harvard, Kennedy School, the London School of Economics and Political Sciences, Oxford said, Business School and the University of Iceland. Hrund, welcome.

Hrund Gunnsteinsdóttir  02:14

Thank you so much. It’s just a pleasure to be with you.

Kris Safarova  02:17

Same here. So before we get into intuition and leadership, I would love to start with you as a person. And if you had to trace the roots of your worldview, what shaped how you see the world today?

Hrund Gunnsteinsdóttir  02:30

That’s a lovely question. What shaped how I see the world today? So I think you know what? I was very young when I didn’t have these words then, but I was very young when I sensed that I was an Earthling. You know, that I was not just Icelandic, that I was a human being that lived on earth, and that they were humans that lived all over the world, and they were kind of similar to me, in the sense that they shared like they had hopes and dreams and and just that kind of, just this kind of kindred spirit. I remember seeing reports from, you know, kids somewhere else in the world, and I was 10 years at the time, I saw it on TV, and I just felt like I I had connection with them. So I think it’s kind of that kind of feeling I’ve had that we are brothers and sisters living on this earth. That’s one thing. But I, and I think I’ve always had tendency to want to kind of built bridges between worlds of knowledge as well. I’ve always been curious about different disciplines and different cultures. I was also quite young when I was set on, you know, I wanted to become a writer and or an artist. And then, for some reason, I also wanted very much to to work in conflict areas and make the world a better place. So it I think these things kind of have come together in me, and so I guess I’m a combination of being an artist at heart and an entrepreneur. I’m also a deep thinker, and yeah, it’s a mixture of things, I think is that kind of collection of things that I don’t really adhere to, the silos and boxes and categorizations that we’ve created so much about knowledge and people, I guess.

Kris Safarova  04:43

And was there maybe a defining moment, specific moment that comes to mind which shaped your worldview the most?

Hrund Gunnsteinsdóttir  04:51

Well, I would say that, you know, in my late 20s, when I was working with the United Nations and I was. A in a leadership position with one of the UN agencies working in post conflict reconstruction in Kosovo. I was in my late 20s, and I was given this big responsibility, and it was an amazing time I had there. It was very rich with experience. I made amazing friends, I learned a lot, but it was also a time that that kind of, how should I put it, that was very trying for me. And so I started to work in Kosovo shortly after the war, and that experience was like walking into an open wound. You know, people had just survived to war. There was a lot of, I mean, physically, you could see the remnants of war in the buildings and in the in the neighborhood, and, you know, straight dogs all around. And, you know, trusts everywhere, and lack of electricity and and people were traumatized, and I came into this context, and I wanted to give it all I had, but and I didn’t respect my own boundaries, I just thought like these people are my priority, and my well being is not. So I went really far in in giving the work all I got and experienced, I would say a serious, you know, at the time, I called it, I hit a wall. I didn’t know the word burnout at the time, but I would say I hit a wall. And I also, during this time, shortly after, went to work for the UN in Geneva. I was permanently hired with the UN, and I kind of found myself in this heavy bureaucracy and hierarchy where the system was was very dominant, and I felt like very divorced from people in the planet, the people and the planet that I wanted to be in service of. And also during the same this is like a four or five year period I went through a really difficult time in our personal life. My physical and health was, was, was, was really bad, and the doctors didn’t expect me to be working, to be able to work full time ever again. So a mixture of these things ended up in me just hitting a wall, collapsing, and having to have to piece myself back together again. And I would say that before that, I would think a lot about, you know, career and career ladder, and how you build that and how you pursue your dreams through that framework. But after going through that experience and really having to have to piece myself back together and realizing that the only way out for me in this situation was to connect within which sets me on the journey of really focusing on intuition, the sea within like and how do people change systems and and stuff like that. So after that, my whole kind of world view changed in the sense that it shifted my center of gravity. That’s the best way for me to explain it. I just, I really gained a much stronger inner compass, and my main kind of priority is always to be aligned with that inner compass, my intuition, my insight, and it has a certain meaning for me. I mean, it’s, it’s, uh, it has a certain meaning for me. And since then, I’ve, I’ve, I think, had about 20 titles in my life, I’ve been on a mission to support people to rethink systems and improve the state of the world, and really been exploring this magnificent world inside us, prominent In our intuition, which I think we are neglecting way too often, and we’re kind of misunderstanding to some extent, we are neglecting it to the detriment of our own well being, but also ability to navigate uncertainty and and discover and Explore and be brilliant leaders and entrepreneurs.

Kris Safarova  09:21

For someone listening to us right now who is going through a very difficult situation in their life, and they feel that they hit the wall, as you said, and they need to piece themselves together. When you go back to that time, what do you feel were a few things that allowed you to finally start turning things around?

Hrund Gunnsteinsdóttir  09:41

You know, I, if I like, really, literally, go back in time, then I would describe myself as somebody who was really well trained at work and in education. You know, I knew how to work hard, I knew how to deliver and be productive. And I. Analytical and just very much in my head, what I needed to do was to discipline myself to go into another rhythm, which is a rhythm of being and being in the moment and being receptive and being reflective and taking that rhythm as seriously as the rhythm and way of being that is very like planning, executing, delivering and being productive. So So literally, for someone listening now, who is really feeling exhausted and drained like I felt at the time, I found it hard to breathe deeply. For example, I literally couldn’t sometimes. And for anyone feeling that way, I would say what worked for me was an advice that I got was to sleep as often as I could. And you can’t imagine how resistant I was to that. I was like sleep. I mean, that is of no use. I mean, it’s like there was so much else, productive things that I could be doing, but that was actually super important, and I learned how to sleep again because I realized my sleep had been very broken. So restoring your energy, restoring your nervous system, and regulating it and and all these things that I didn’t know have words for them. That was what I went through and slowly started to heal. I also would always recommend journaling. So really sat down with pencil, pen and a paper, and right early in the morning, in a stream of consciousness, whatever comes up on a piece of paper, just allow it to come on a piece of paper. Don’t judge it, don’t analyze it, don’t edit it, just allow it to come out. So you’re creating space in your head. But what happens along the way is that you begin to realize what is actually in your head. Because when we’re in a state of stress and overwhelm, our thoughts tend to be swirling. We tend to overthink, we tend to over analyze, and our minds never get rest. So So journaling was was very important for me. And then thirdly, what I would say is movement, walk, go outside, breathe the fresh air, if you have access to not to nature then, then really go into nature, and stay there as much as you can and and be open to it, receive what it is like, observe the beauty and the texture and the smell And and, you know, along the way, I’ve read research about how even just the color green calms our nervous system. So it’s all these things, these three things, I would say, first and foremost, to go back into your body and be out in nature and moving so that you don’t just live in your head.

Kris Safarova  13:02

Is this the time when you also started listening to your intuition more?

Hrund Gunnsteinsdóttir  13:05

Yes, it’s really the time when I saw intuition with fresh eyes and I I like, I really, really, it’s really true that connecting with my intuition enabled me to heal and come back to me. And so I was was a mixture of things. I was advised and mentored by wiser people. I read a lot. I also started to do much more artistic work. So being creative is not just about writing wonderful poetry or short stories or drawing beautiful paintings or pictures, whatever it is being creative is about expressing your voice. It’s about releasing it’s about setting into, you know, motion, what it is that you’re feeling inside is about seeing yourself from a distance and and expressing the way that you’re living your life and observing the world. So it is such a healing process in that. And so to think about creativity and doing things like that is to think about it like an end in itself. It’s not a means to an end, you know, it’s a way of being. It’s about expressing who you are and your soul. So that was also super important to me.

Kris Safarova  14:32

How would you define intuition?

Hrund Gunnsteinsdóttir  14:35

So, you know, when I started to do the research and have conversation with leaders in business or in spiritualism or artists or whatever. I realized that we have so many different ways of defining intuition, so everything from Intuition being an irrational impulse we should never rely on, to being something vuvu That hasn’t been backed by science and we shouldn’t relate ourselves to or and then in between, there is so much. Research around intuition that shows us that intuition is fundamental to our intelligence, and I think that’s very important to keep in mind. I also want to say that something that is counterintuitive to many, in order to reason well, you need to have good intuition, and without intuition, there wouldn’t be much innovation. So one of the ways to define intuition is to say intuition is the productive use of unconscious information to make better decisions and actions. What I’ve done in the last 20 plus years is to really go back to the Icelandic world for intuition, which is in say, and through my work around the film I did, and the education program and my book and and and so on and so forth, we’ve opened up the Icelandic world inside and looking at like it’s created out of in and say in means inside or into, and say the second half of the word means the sea or to see. And I just realized, after all, my kind of journey around the globe, in a way, in a sense that this word holds so much wisdom, because it has space for all the most recent discoveries we have in science and research and practice, but also timeless in ancient wisdom, because it means the Sea within, and it refers to the ever flowing unconscious mind, which is the home of our imagination and intangible intangibility, like feelings and creativity and things that we can’t necessarily put into words, but we sense it with our body and and whole being. So it’s a world that you know the sea within. We can’t put it into boxes, because then it ceases to flow, and it tells us so much about how consciousness works, right? And secondly, it means to see within, and this is relates to how we harness and hold good intuition. So seeing within means that you know yourself well enough to be able to put yourself into other people’s shoes. You know the difference between intuition and biases, fears, wistful thinking, which is very important when you’re training your intuition, and then, thirdly, in say, means to see from the inside out, which has to do with how you how you navigate the ocean of life with a strong inner compass.

Kris Safarova  17:48

For someone listening to us right now who is not currently listening to their own guidance carefully, maybe you could share with us a story from your own life when you trusted your intuition the way it came to you, is it variable feelings in your body and how it changed everything for you?

Hrund Gunnsteinsdóttir  18:08

Yes, that’s a beautiful question. Before I answer this about myself, I want to share something with people listening. I want to ask a question. I want to ask you, dear listener, do you remember the last time you didn’t listen to your intuition, where did you feel it and what happened as a result? And the other question is, do you remember the last time you did listen to your intuition, where did you feel it and what happened as a result? So your question takes me back to 22 years, back in time, I am faced with a very challenging life challenge. I have recently become a mother. I have relatively recently been permanently employed in my dream job. I am about to get divorced with the then love of my life. I’m heartbroken. I haven’t slept for a long time, and I’m thinking how to piece my life back together again. I’m making a long story short, but I’m under pressure to take a decision and I go, I walk down to the sea, close to where I live, and I think this is one of the most powerful moments I had when I started to really listen to my intuition, and I had recently started to train it better. I’m standing by the sea, and this question comes to me, and I’m 20. I’m in my late 20s at the time, this question comes to me. Shouldn’t when you are an old woman, how do you want to look back? On your life. And the minute I ask this, I have this, this moment of like deep calm in my body, which I hadn’t felt for months, and probably a few years, deep calm, and I just see myself a few years from that moment, doing stuff that I could feel the energy. I was super happy. I was interacting with people, kids and adults, and I was speaking to them, and I was like, kind of, you know, bending down to hear everyone’s voice. And it was the very interactive and the life. And I realized it was not my job in Geneva or with a human Secretariat. And it just, it just came to me, and I really felt that the decision I needed to take was to resign from a permanent position that had been my dream job. And I’ll tell you there was, I had no idea what I would do afterwards. I had no idea how to get my next salary from and but I decided to resign from my permanent position, and it changed the course of my life.

Kris Safarova  21:17

So what happened once you resigned?

Hrund Gunnsteinsdóttir  21:22

So once I resigned, the UN offered me to do certain things to continue, because it was, you know, as often happens, and I decided, no, I just felt I had taken that decision. But leaving the UN was was not easy. So it was, it was not an easy decision, although it was very clear. And so what happened as a result was, at the last day, when I left, when I went to the UN to clean my desk and I was leaving the building, I sat down, and I promised myself that from now on, I would follow and honor ideas that came to me that wanted to become a reality, ideas that really persisted, that I could sleep over and I would have the courage to follow them into whatever form they wanted to take. And so since then, I’ve had around 20 titles in my life, and I’ve really been, I really tried to be true to this, this idea that I want to work on, ideas that I think make the world a better place and improve people’s lives. And I believe in people, I believe we need to change our systems, but I think people change systems. So in supporting people to change systems. And then I think my third kind of big value came in there, which is, you know, as I grow older, and again, this is in my late 20s, as I grow older, I’m not going to be a gatekeeper for the younger generation. I’m going to be a door opener for and support the vision of the younger generation.

Kris Safarova  23:03

So when you walked and got that guidance, the way it came to you was as words, as that question, but also as feelings in your body of feeling incredibly peaceful.

Hrund Gunnsteinsdóttir  23:15

Yeah, and so is, and just hearing you reflect on that also just reminds reminds us of the importance of knowing the difference you know, like when you ask yourself questions in a moment where you really feel the weight of the question, to know the difference when your body is your whole being is saying this aligns, as opposed to when you’re being your brain and body is saying, this is off, this is not working. There’s something Danger, danger. You need to rethink this. And so that was super valuable. And as you can hear, I went into the unknown. You know, I didn’t I had to redefine what solid ground was for me and and I realized that the the deepest security that we will ever find in life can only come from within us. And I think that the world we live in, and in particular today, I think that has really come to the surface is something that more and more people are feeling and sensing it’s it’s that need for that deep anchoring, deep sense of security within them and being more able to discern right from wrong for ourselves, personally, for our teams and our organizations.

Kris Safarova  24:37

Can you teach our listeners how they can strengthen their ability to get that guidance?

Hrund Gunnsteinsdóttir  24:44

Yeah, so, so there are many ways to do that I would I would always recommend books, such as inside, which is my book with with various exercises and tips and guidelines. But what I would say now is. First of all, the first thing to hone and harness intuition is to build self awareness and metacognition so and one of the things that I teach people, this is going to sound simple, but believe me, it’s very powerful. It is the following, pay attention to what you pay attention to and document it. And the thing is that we pay attention to lots of things throughout the day. I mean, there’s so many things happening. We pay attention to lots of things, but to what extent do we pay attention to what it is that we pay attention to, and then secondly, realize that we pay attention with our whole body. Intelligence is embedded in our whole body, in our whole system, through our senses, nervous system, we don’t just receive information and sensory data through our brain. It’s through our whole body. And intuition is an embodied intelligence. So pay attention with your whole body. And so what I advise people is to hold an attention attention journal and to attention journal. So you journal about what you pay attention to. So it’s not like a diary. It’s not like this morning I woke up and had a toast. There was sun in the sky. It’s more like what you notice, like the energy of that person was warm or cold, bright colors in the flax or in the sweater, a nice smile at the tail, too much stress in the air, you know, stuff like that, what you notice like what you pay attention to and write it down. What you’re doing with this is that you’re capturing what your attention is going because your attention is the key to your intuition. And our attention is a super scarce resource, and it’s highly sought after in today’s world, whether it’s multi billion dollar market forces or or politics or the media or smartphone or the speed everything that we are exposed to, which could be very hard Things to digest, but also exciting things and possibilities. So being aware of what it is that you pay attention to, and the goal here is to map your inner landscape, what you are bringing into your system of thinking and feeling. Because most of the time we don’t notice what it is that we are thinking about or noticing, but it’s also about mapping it in a way that you can also decide what it is that you want to leave out in the future. What is noise that is not serving you in any way. What are the things that you find you found inspiring, and then you begin to notice, also funny, that day I was super tired. So why? So that’s why I noticed all the black and gray. And another day you’re in love, or you slept well, and you notice all the beauty and the colors, and you start to understand how your intuition is shaped and formed, what strengthens it, what we can sit so that’s super important. Another thing I would always recommend on top of this is is doing reflective exercises, like just being with yourself, allowing the world to come to you, go for a walk, smell the air, watch people don’t have a plan. Allow the world to come to you and just create that empty space for reflection and experiencing the world as it is and meets you in the moment. Good sleep is super important. Anything that helps regulate your nervous system, because what blocks our intuition is pressures, lack of sleep, stress, fear, you know, when we become overly conscious about ourselves and we just live in our heads, you know, things like that, they are to the detriment of our intuition and so so doing things that are taking good care of your health. We all know this. Sleep well, drink water, you know, don’t drink too much alcohol, and all these different things. I could go on and on, but these are, I think, the three main things I would recommend to begin with.

Kris Safarova  29:26

Can you tell us more about attention journal, how having an attention journal in your own life allowed you to learn more about how to get guidance in a more consistent, reliable way?

Hrund Gunnsteinsdóttir  29:38

Yeah, so attention journaling is something that, to as you say, to reach guidance from yourself is you understand, first of all, what it is your attention is picking up. And when you write about your your whole body attention, like, for example, I got goosebumps. And then you try. To understand, what was it that made me get goosebumps in that moment you write, I got a knot in my stomach. What was it that made you your stomach not up or you write? Oh, I felt this warm sensation across my chest. What was it that made you feel that way? So how your body speaks to you is super important in order to understand your intuition attention. Journaling helps you do that. So it’s not just about what you pay attention to, but your reactions to the things that your attention is picking up. Some people would say the things that you notice in other people, the beautiful, generous things that you notice in other people, are things that are in you as well. If you didn’t have them, it would be hard for you to notice them. It’s a nice thing to think about, right when you when you write about other people, what you notice in them, it means you have it in you too. What I also like and it like, I find this humorous and funny, and I think it’s important to approach it that way, when you notice that you are your attention is picking up something that has to do with you being jealous at someone, then just what’s the piece of paper and what you’ve written down, be kind to yourself, and maybe you can smile a little bit, because if you’re jealous at Somebody who did something, then maybe you are telling yourself that this is something that you really want to do yourself. So continue to journal about that. Write about it. What is it that your attention is picking up there? So you’re teaching yourself about the things that stir you in positive way, the things that push you onwards, the things that you may just want to leave behind, and this is all very important, to detox your mind and decide, you know, what are the things that are strengthening for me and my intuition? How can I navigate throughout every single day and week in a more efficient way that will enable me to clear my mind, regenerate my energy. And the I think fourth or fifth things that comes that comes up in attention journaling is is actually food for creativity. It’s super powerful if you want to come up with more insights and ideas and be more creative and and even to spotting beauty and joy. So like ideas that keep coming up for you in your journal, sometimes we don’t even notice them until we start to write them down. So the things things that you Your attention is both how your outlook is on the world, but it’s also about how you allow the world to come to you and how you receive it. So it’s super powerful. I hope that that answered your question little bit better.

Kris Safarova  32:55

Did you ever had a situation where you needed to make an important decision and then you are getting conflicting guidance. From one side, you feel no, I don’t want to do it. From another side, you feel certain pain if you don’t do it. All comes from intuition. It comes as guidance, but it’s conflicting.

Hrund Gunnsteinsdóttir  33:16

I have often been in that situation, and you know what comes to mind when you ask me this now, it the examples that come to my mind. Mind have to do with work and opportunities and maybe new roles to take on. So would you like to take on this new job? Would you like to be on this board? Would you like to be an advisor to this amazing project and stuff like that. So I often have this feeling that I’m being pulled by expectations. I need to understand, are these expectations that I want to fulfill? I need to understand Are these real expectations or just imaginary expectations? And because my value is about being aligned with my intuition, then I also need to decide, is this my ego pulling me, or is this something that I genuinely want to do? So my response to that, when people offer me things like that that bring up these conflicting feelings, is, you know, to thank for the for the opportunity and let me sleep on it. And there’s a reason why we say let me sleep on it, and this is scientifically supported. It’s like in the moment, we may not be in the best position to consult with our intuition, and we literally need to sleep on it, because tomorrow is another day, and after a good night’s sleep. Our nervous system is is regulated, and we have been able to, you know, give it over to our unconsciousness, to process what it is that we really want to do. But in order to do that, we need to know what our values are. We need to know the difference between doing. Something with integrity, as opposed to doing something not with integrity. So that comes with experience. So we can’t expect that like if any of the listeners is a 15 or 16 year old who lacks that kind of experience, then don’t be too harsh on yourself. It takes time to develop this kind of listening. But as I explained earlier, at some point in my life, I decided that I realized for me that the jobs that I want to take on, they need to have a meaning for me. I need to feel like I’m doing something of use. They need to be aligned with my intuition and values and sense of purpose. If they are jobs that are purely considered very important from the outside, but not necessarily for me, then that’s that’s an example of of when I need to listen to my intuition and not get too wrapped up with my ego in doing something that is considered like a great thing to do but doesn’t match my my values and intuition.

Kris Safarova  36:12

Did you ever had situations where your intuition just went quiet and you were not getting guidance? And how we able to come back to it?

Hrund Gunnsteinsdóttir  36:23

Yes. You know, that’s a great question. So the way that I experience these moments with our with our they happen regularly. When I can’t tune and tap into my intuition. It usually means for me that I’m stuck in my head. So and I might be too stressed. I might be over analyzing situations of things. So what I need to do in these moments is to jump into my other rhythm, which is being fully in my body, in my presence. It means moving my body. It means stop thinking about what I’m thinking about. It means moving away from the computer. So I go out for a walk, I have a nap. I go out for with friends family. I cook a nice meal, you know, do something completely different. I go for recycling, running, whatever. Just do something different. So just park it for a while, you know, and just, and not just put it aside, but like, really do the work to reconnect with me and and connecting with the body. And, you know, meditation, yoga, whatever it is that people do to connect with themselves, to get out of the head and into the body. That is where you need to go when you’re not getting any signal from your intuition.

Kris Safarova  37:47

You earlier mentioned allowing the wall to come to you. Reflective exercises. Can you elaborate on that?

Hrund Gunnsteinsdóttir  37:53

Yeah, so reflective exercises are things that you do in order to create space in your head and things that you do in order to process information. So we are not built to just receive and receive and receive information or to do and execute and do and execute and like we need to balance this with reflective exercises. And so what I mean by allowing the world to come to you is just really give the deliberate, planned thinking a rest and going outside, for example, for a walk with no plan, no intention except notice the world around you. Smile to strangers, Spot beauty, or notice everything in the in the color yellow, whatever, just allow the world to come to you and be open to receiving and sometimes this means you, you, if you live in a city, you you wander the streets and you end up in a store, and you smile to the person working there, and you have a chat, and you discover that you have something in common, or you learn something new that you hadn’t planned that you were going to learn. So you know, because we are all, I think most of us are very busy. We hold a day that is scheduled, often back to back, we need to be there, and then we need to be there. And, you know, we don’t we, many of us find ourselves in a treadmill, yeah, and so I think that just being disciplined about not being in that mode all the time and finding a way to balance it with something which is the opposite, which is being receptive and just being present and being open to what is coming your way. You know, don’t plan dinner. Don’t plan what you’re going to say to somebody when you see them. Just let go of all that and just hear and listen. Allow things to emerge to the surface that wouldn’t emerge if you had landed from A to set.

Kris Safarova  40:02

If someone needs to make an important decision and they have until tomorrow morning, anything they can do just before they go to bed, just after they wake up, or anytime throughout that sit 24 hour period that will maximize chances they will get guidance.

Hrund Gunnsteinsdóttir  40:18

Yeah, I would you, I would recommend that. So I’m imagining that this somebody is is thinking about something that’s a decision that is worth thinking about, and you need to have a good night’s sleep. I recommend you go to bed with your journal and you write in a stream of consciousness, whatever comes to mind. You can write down from your attention. What are you noticing in yourself now? What are you afraid of? You know? What are you excited about? Whatever comes up. Just allow it. You just allow ask yourself questions. What am I afraid of? What am I excited about? What am I worried about? And allow the journal to keep those worries and thoughts for you overnight, so that your head can be clearer as you go to bed. Some people like to pray. What I love doing is, is paying gratitude every time before I go to sleep. It’s a way of of of of honoring and recognizing what’s in my mind. So thank you to the people I love. Thank you to my colleagues. Thank you for the challenges I had today. You know. Thank you to me for being able to, you know, go through that trial, or whatever you know, to speak, show gratitude for the day it it really rewires your your thought system in a different way. Try to get a good night’s sleep, and before you go to bed, put your intention on. Put it into words, out loud, on the piece of paper, or in your mind, tomorrow morning, I want to have a clear understanding of what is best for me to do, best for me and my family or company, whatever to do in this situation. What does my intuition tell me.

Kris Safarova  42:13

And if they wake up in the morning and still nothing, what should they do?

Hrund Gunnsteinsdóttir  42:19

Yeah, that’s a hard question. You know. Some there. Some people say, if you flip a coin and it lands, you will know which site you want you know. So there are all these different trust yourself, I guess I would say, I would say, find that space inside you. And here we go back to the self awareness, metacognition, having trained that ability to listen to your intuition will make it much easier for you to harness and hone it when you actually need it. So find that space in yourself to clear your mind, have confidence and trust yourself. Tell yourself if you have no time, tell yourself you got this and just hope for the best.

Kris Safarova  43:03

For someone listening to us right now and wondering, but where is this coming from? That guidance? What would you say?

Hrund Gunnsteinsdóttir  43:12

So every time that I’m asked this question, the first thing that comes to mind is that it’s very important for us to be humbled, intuition, consciousness and the brain is an area that scientifically, human beings know actually rather little about. So I think that’s the first thing. Just understand that and be okay with the fact that we can’t know everything. If you look at the fabric, the beautiful fabric of human beings and cultures that envelope planet earth, then you will find all the different ways of explaining where this comes from. You know, some of the indigenous communities that I know of Will It will say that intuition comes from the spirit world. Some people into like people in groups in different parts of the world, cities or not. They will say that intuition speaks to you through nature. Scientists will say that it’s, it’s neurological, you know, it’s the connection of of neurons. It’s how we connect dots across our experiences and pattern recognition and mastery of a domain. And so it depends on where you’re coming from. But when I write and talk about intuition, then I usually try to then I usually build it on something that is practice based, research based, or scientifically proving I don’t think science can explain everything under the sun. I don’t, but there’s a lot of practice and experience and spiritual wisdom that shows us that, that teaches us a lot around intuition. So I would say, for each and everyone asking. Themselves this question. Explore this question yourself and and find out what you and be curious about the answer.

Kris Safarova  45:07

For someone listening to us right now, let’s say they are a leader. They have a team, and they listen to our conversation, and they think not only I should find a way to listen to my intuition more, but they should also make space for my team to listen to their intuition more. Where can they begin?

Hrund Gunnsteinsdóttir  45:26

That’s another great question. So for leaders, they should begin by starting to train the muscle of intuition themselves. So some some are already in tune with their intuition. Others are not. So there are many ways to approach that. They just start with themselves. What they find is working for them. They can either then start to to encourage their team to do with with a group of experts, or read, read stuff that the team can do themselves, or they can all start at the same time. But the goal here is that the team and the leader understand that there’s a culture around harnessing and honing intuition, and that culture needs to be nourished and created so that you can actually hone and harness intuition at work. So let me explain, for example, sometimes when you know we live in uncertainty, there is so much uncertainty in businesses and everywhere, part of the reasons why into it a well honed intuition is super powerful in times of uncertainty is because it is capable of of pattern recognition. For example, it is capable of spotting stuff that’s on the periphery, on the horizon. It’s capable of connecting dot, dot, across very different collection of information. You know, it’s not stuck in silos. It’s also able to listen to people, deep listening. Is able to sense what’s emerging. So these are all different cues when it comes to harnessing your intuition to get deeper information and understanding about the times we live in. But what this also requires in the workplace is that you need to train yourself to listen to your colleagues when they start to try to explain something nobody has explained before. And usually we get impatient, and we will say, like, okay, just think, let’s go to the next one. But instead, if the team gets together, like, what are you trying to say? And try to help the person to explain, and then everybody gets the safe space to express what it is that they’re sensing. And slowly they build some kind of understanding of what is trying to emerge there. In the world of management, for example, like business management, there is, there is a very strong culture of trusting data only, and trusting only on things that can be measured and and often like, yeah, easily explained or or explained and measured and compared. While the the experts that we have that are working on researching intuition and management, will say, management that is able to also bring in practice based research around intuition and the ability to sense and sense make that is the skill they need in order to navigate uncertainty. So there’s a literature around that. So when we ask for data to support something, sometimes we as leaders, we need to recognize that we don’t always have data for uncertainty and things that are new and emerging. So then we need to build the ability to sense, sense make, to build intuition, and on a personal level, we do it in similar ways that you and I have talked about now. So it’s like, move between intuition and analysis. You know, learn how to switch between the two. This is how our Nobel laureates reach their greatest discoveries, right? We could also say, like, learn how to to plan and do and execute, and then fill your tank with reflective practices and sense making and journaling, doing art, yoga, mind, body exercises, all these things it really applies there too. That’s the same intuition, you know. And so creating a culture around that is something that that is very doable. And my kind of, my kind of take on on this, as I read more and more I speak to more and more people, is that, you know, there’s been this ice age in the world of science and management when it comes to intuition and sensing, but I noticed that the. Is thawing. You know, we’re changing much more in this direction, and it’s because the tide of time is calling on us to do that. You know, it’s we recognize more how intuition is valuable. You know, you have experienced people in your teams, and they will say, I don’t this. This doesn’t sit well with me. So instead of saying you don’t have any data to prove it, let’s continue with the next item you know stuff for a minute and say, Tell us more. Why do you think that? What makes you think that? And sometimes it’s actually very good intuition. Sometimes we are using the patterns that we’ve created from older experience and expertise, which might be useful to let go of in this particular context, because it’s a new reality, right? So knowing when to build on your expertise and when to let go of it is another way of using strategic intuition in different settings. So it there’s a culture around this. There is, there. There are many ways to develop it, but it’s, it’s super important to do it. And I think on a very personal level, it’s, it’s also important for us to to hone intuition as a skill, because it enables us as humans to regenerate and stay grounded with a regulated nervous system in the middle of an information storm or turbulence or uncertainty.

Kris Safarova  51:31

Last question for today, my favorite question to ask over the last few years or any amount of time: what were two, three aha moments, realizations that you feel comfortable sharing that really change the way you look at life or the way you look at business?

Hrund Gunnsteinsdóttir  51:46

Oh, wow, that’s a big question. So let me start with with a realization I had not long ago about intuition, and it’s, you know, the way I approach this theme is by piecing together knowledge from very different cultures, disciplines, sectors, and just honoring knowledge wherever it comes from. You know, thoughtful knowledge is is useful and and I listen to it. And so this realization that, you know, the intuition that we have when we make the world greatest discoveries and findings, from Einstein to Nobel laureates, it’s actually the same intuition that we have when we are able to live a fulfilling life, deeply aligned with our intuition. That’s one thing. You know, it seemed to me that it’s always been distinguished, you know, like well being and intuition is one thing, but and sometimes not kind, not quite respected in the same way that we respect genius intuition. But this is the same intuition. So I think that’s that is super important. I think also with this is coming up for me now when you ask this, and that is because in the last years before I published my book, and I’m focusing on intuition and leadership and human development or personal development, I was leading a sustainability center in Iceland, and I was leading it through a very well partly turbulent time, you know, COVID hit and stuff like that, but it was also a center with great growing pains and also beautiful prospects and all that. What I I guess I realized, like once again, maybe in my life, is that there is actually we do continue to complicate lots of things as we run our businesses and and do stuff, and especially like when we think about sustainability and the circular economy and stuff like that. Because if we as human beings step into our bodies and we stand on the earth and we look around us, the only sensible way is is to understand how everything is interconnected and and you know that the ecosystem is a living system, and the human body is is a living system as well, but we still tend to compartmentalize knowledge and our jobs to the extent that sometimes we absolutely disconnect from the effect and impact that our jobs and work is having on planet earth or other people around us, and I find that it never ceases to amaze me how how disconnected we are in so many ways, from understanding how we are all interconnected. And you know. We are earthlings living on planet Earth. And, you know, we as humans are ecosystems, and we are connected. You know, we synchronize our brain waves, our heartbeats, our neuro cells and everything and and, yeah, I think that understanding is something that I’m very curious about to what extent is this. Does this hold true for people? And if so, how can we work to build more, deeper connection?

Kris Safarova  55:33

Thank you so much for everything you shared. Where can our listeners learn more about you? Buy your book? Anything you want to share?

Hrund Gunnsteinsdóttir  55:39

Thank you. So yeah, by my book, I have a website. It’s my full name. It’s not the easiest name, but it’s the only name in the world called.com I have a newsletter. I’m on Instagram, and I’m on LinkedIn, and, yeah, I appear on your wonderful podcast and other shows and and I will be offering online courses about how you can align with and hold your intuition to the Icelandic concept of insight as well.

Kris Safarova  56:13

Thank you so much. I really enjoyed our discussion, and I’m looking forward to see your continuous research and studies about intuition, because I think all of us need to pay attention to it a lot more, and we can avoid a lot of hardship and pain and contribute it in a bigger way as well as a result.

Hrund Gunnsteinsdóttir  56:30

Thank you so much. It’s been such a pleasure to speak with you and it is an honor to be on your podcast. Thank you, and best of luck to you as well.

Kris Safarova  56:39

Thank you. Our podcast sponsor today, again, has been StrategyTraining.com. If you want to strengthen your strategy skills, you can get the Overall Approach Used in Well-Managed Strategy Studies. It’s a free download, and you can get it at firmsconsulting.com/overallapproach. You can also get McKinsey and BCG-winning resume, which is a free download, and you can get it at firmsconsulting.com/resumePDF. And that is an example of a resume that got offers from both McKinsey and BCG. So you can take a look, compare it to your resume and see what you can improve. And lastly, you can get a copy of a book we co-authored with some of our clients. It is called Nine Leaders in Action, and you can get it at firmsconsulting.com/gift. Thank you very much for tuning in, and I’m looking forward to connect with you all next time.