When the Numbers Say Yes but Something Still Feels Wrong
Building Holistic Thinking Muscle
Week 7: Gut Feel
What do you do when the numbers say yes... but your gut says no?
That is why there is a seventh question.
How do we feel about this decision now?
This is the Gut Feel check.
Not because feelings are more important than facts.
But because people use multiple intelligences to make decisions.
We think with our heads, our hearts, and our guts.
Our gut is home to a vast living community that is constantly processing information about the world around us. Whether we understand the biology or not, many of us have experienced the feeling that something is not quite right long before we can explain why.
The Gut Feel check creates space to listen.
The purpose of the check is to create space to pause and listen to intuition, to heart, to gut.
Space for concerns that have not yet found words.
Sometimes that feeling disappears after discussion.
Sometimes it grows stronger.
Either way, it deserves attention.
A practical example: the subsidy
A farming family is considering a subsidy scheme.
The payment is attractive. The administration is manageable. The numbers work.
But there is a condition.
To establish the wild bird crop, they must use glyphosate.
The family works through the previous six checks and the proposal appears sound.
Yet several decision-makers feel uneasy.
So they pause and ask:
What is our gut trying to tell us?
They return to their Holistic Context and read the Future Resource Base.
There they find a description of the landscape they are working to create. Land that is alive. Healthy soils. Clean water. Abundant biodiversity. A place that will sustain quality of life for generations to come.
Therein lies the conflict. The Gut Feel check illuminates what the head could not analyse.
Series complete
This brings us to the end of our seven-week journey through the Holistic Context Checks.
Together, these questions do not guarantee perfect decisions.
Nothing can.
But they help us make better decisions.
Decisions that serve the whole under our management.
That is the muscle we have been building.
And like all muscles, it strengthens with use.
