Fingerspitzengefühl Through Deliberate Apprenticeship

"Fingerspitzengefühl: Intuitive Skill Literally a fingertip feeling or sensation, it is usually translated as “intuitive skill or knowledge.”"

"Germany has built Fingerspitzengefühl through an extensive apprenticeship program that involves practically everybody from baker to banker. On the blue collar side, the program culminates in the creation of a final sample product, a true “masterpiece.”"

"The trick is to expand our envelope of intuitive capabilities so that the vast majority of the time, we don’t need to utilize a slower explicit decision process. The focus of our effort lies in moving the percentage of time that we can use intuitive knowledge and quick mental simulations to as close to 100% as possible. This level of skill can be deceiving when seen by others (again, think of a stage magician), because people who have it often don’t look like they’re working harder or doing things faster. They just, as Musashi insisted, get to a useful result sooner.126 This is the whole idea behind the Toyota Production System: Create a system where activities become unnecessary—Toyota has a well-defined framework consisting of categories like muri, mura, and muda127—and the whole system operates more quickly, even though the people within it don’t appear to be working harder than their competitors anywhere else."