The intuition algorithm: travel photographer Lev Mazaraki on making split-second decisions

Lev Mazaraki

In a corporate world obsessed with data and KPIs, the word “intuition” is often treated with suspicion. It’s seen as a synonym for unnecessary risk, an irrational “gut feeling” that stands in opposition to cold, hard analysis. But that’s a fundamental misconception. The greatest leaders have always relied on their intuition, and today, in an era of information overload, this ability is more critical than ever.

My name is Lev Mazaraki, and I’m a travel photographer. My job is to make dozens of creative and technical decisions in a split second in some of the most chaotic environments on Earth. In Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar, I don’t have time to build charts or run a SWOT analysis to capture a vendor’s fleeting smile. My decisions are intuitive. But this intuition isn’t magic. It’s a highly refined, automated algorithm for high-speed data processing – one that I’m convinced any executive can master and apply.

True managerial intuition is not an antidote to data; it’s the highest form of data processing – the culmination of experience, compressed into a single, instantaneous right decision. Let’s break this algorithm down into four sequential steps.

Step 1: The scan – a continuous 360-degree data intake

When I walk into a bustling city square, I’m not looking for a picture. I’m scanning. My attention switches to a wide-angle mode: I absorb the direction of the light, the flow of the crowd, architectural rhythms, people’s emotional states, the sounds, the smells. I gather thousands of micro-facts, building a living, multidimensional map of reality in my mind. I don’t focus on any single thing but maintain a state of total awareness.

In business, this is about creating a system of continuous monitoring. A leader who relies on weekly reports is always one step behind. Intuition is trained on a constant stream of live data:

• External Signals: Social media sentiment, new job postings at a competitor, customer reviews, articles in trade media.
• Internal Signals: The general tone in work chats, the questions asked in meetings, real-time product usage metrics, informal conversations with employees.

The goal of this stage is to feed your brain a constant stream of diverse data so it can see the entire forest, not just individual trees.

Step 2: The prediction – reading the leading indicators

Once I’ve gathered the initial data, I begin to see not what is, but what is about to happen. I see a child’s trajectory intersecting with a flock of pigeons and predict their point of encounter. I notice the glance two friends exchange just before they burst into laughter. This isn’t clairvoyance; it’s the ability to forecast events seconds into the future based on experience and current data.

For an executive, this is the skill of reading weak signals and leading indicators. It’s the ability to look at a customer churn report and predict not future financial loss, but a looming problem in the product or service. It’s the skill of hearing a single customer comment and realizing it will become a mainstream demand in a month. Great leaders don’t react to events – they act on accurate predictions born from a deep understanding of the context.

Step 3: The positioning – preparing for the window of opportunity

Having predicted where an interesting scene will unfold, I don’t wait. I act immediately. I move two steps to the left to get the perfect angle. I preset my camera’s settings, already knowing what the light will be like. I pre-focus on the spot where I expect the action. By the time the “decisive moment” arrives, I am 100% ready. I don’t waste precious fractions of a second preparing.

In business, this step separates proactive leaders from reactive ones. It’s not just about seeing the future but about purposefully preparing the organization for it.

• Do you predict a rise in demand for a certain technology? Start training your team now.
• Do you see a competitor gearing up for a new product launch? Prepare your marketing counter-campaign in advance.
• Do you forecast a spike in traffic to your IT infrastructure? Scale it before it crashes.

Positioning is how you turn a prediction into a strategic advantage. Your organization must be poised to seize the opportunity.

Step 4: The execution – acting in the decisive moment

The child runs, the pigeons take flight. Click. I’ve got the shot. There is no hesitation, no doubt. It is a single, confident action – the logical conclusion of the three preceding steps. If I had started to think at that moment, the shot would have been lost. My “gut feeling” in that instant is simply the compressed result of scanning, predicting, and positioning.

This is the culmination of an executive’s work. Signing a multi-million dollar contract, launching a new product, making a key hire. For the unprepared, this is a moment of stress and guesswork. For the leader who has gone through the first three stages, it is simply execution. The decision has already been made by their subconscious, based on a massive array of processed information. What looks like a risky gut bet from the outside is, in fact, the most calculated and well-prepared decision of all.

Stop treating intuition as something mystical. It is a working tool that can and should be developed. Start consciously practicing these four steps in your daily work. Scan, predict, position, and execute. Over time, this algorithm will become second nature, transforming your experience into your most powerful superpower: the ability to see the right move before anyone else.