Question

Your book states to be wary of "gut reactions." Do you agree with this? Why or why not? Can you think of any examples where these types of behavioral reactions were advantageous for a company

Answer 1

WARY OF GUT REACTION : a reaction to a situation derived from a person's instinct and experience.
When it comes to making decisions at work, we’re better off trusting our heads than our feelings.

In modern society, however, our survival is much less at risk, and our gut is more likely to compel us to focus on the wrong information to make workplace and other decisions.
Gut reaction is TERRIBLE:-

Research on decision-making shows that most business leaders don’t know when to rely on their gut and when not to.

EXAMPLE:

Let’s say you’re interviewing a new applicant for a job and you feel something is off. You can’t quite put your finger on it, but you’re a bit uncomfortable with this person. She says all the right things, her resume is great, she’d be a perfect hire for this job–except your gut tells you otherwise.

Should you go with your gut?

In such situations, your default reaction should be to be suspicious of your gut. Research shows that job candidate interviews are actually poor indicators of future job performance.

Unfortunately, most employers tend to trust their guts over their heads and give jobs to people they like and perceive as part of their in-group, rather than simply the most qualified applicant.

We live in a data-driven world.

From hiring decisions, to investments, to dating — it seems like all of life’s biggest decisions are now made on the basis of number-crunching algorithms.

Example where gut reactions were of advantage for thr company:-

Chip Wilson, the founder of Lululemon Athletica and a globally recognized innovator in the field of technical apparel. Today, he is involved in Hold It All, a multifaceted organization with businesses falling under five categories: apparel, real estate, philanthropy, active private equity and passive investments. All share the principles of design, ingenuity, people development and making functional beautiful. A former competitive athlete, the function-over-fashion approach lead him to start his first retail apparel company, Westbeach, which grew to a globally recognized brand in the snowboarding community. At Lululemon, he became known for his people-before-product leadership style. He surrounded himself with like-minded individuals; creative, driven, athletic locals with a love for work-life balance inspired by the West Coast. This cohesive culture fueled the innovation and growth of the brand.

Conclusion:

The warning bells you get about a shifty-seeming person or a dicey situation are the product of millions of years of evolution. Our intuition is our body’s way of signalling danger — or lack thereof — before our rational minds can explain it.