Episodes
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What is intelligence? Contrary to popular belief, it has very little to do with spies, secrets or James Bond.
In the first episode of a new three-part series, Dr Angela Lewis explores what intelligence actually is, why experts still debate its definition and why its real purpose is not collecting information but helping people make better decisions under conditions of uncertainty.
Drawing on everything from Michael Bay's Armageddon (1998) to corporate security and everyday leadership, Angela explains the difference between data, information, research, and intelligence. She explores why intelligence is not about predicting the future with certainty but about creating decision advantage when the future is unclear.
Whether you're an intelligence professional, a business leader or simply curious about how better decisions are made, this episode provides a practical introduction to one of the world's most misunderstood disciplines.
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#CriticalThinking #DecisionMaking #Leadership #IntelligenceAnalysis
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What if the examples we remember most are distracting us from the lesson they were meant to teach?
In this episode of The Unknown Knowns, Dr Angela Lewis explores how people learn, why certain ideas stick and what separates genuine expertise from simple familiarity.
Starting with an unexpected piece of student feedback, Angela examines concepts such as salience, schema formation and transfer, explaining why we often struggle to recognise familiar patterns when they appear in unfamiliar settings. From Marvel films and intelligence failures to leadership challenges and everyday decision-making, she explores how the same cognitive dynamics show up across very different contexts.
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#CriticalThinking #Leadership #DecisionMaking #IntelligenceAnalysis
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Missing episodes?
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In Part 2 of their conversation, Dr Angela Lewis is joined once again by former CIA officer Darrell Blocker to explore the habits and mindsets that underpin effective judgment. Building on their earlier discussion about intuition and expertise, Angela and Darrell examine the role of curiosity, observation and critical questioning in intelligence work and everyday decision-making. Drawing on stories from nearly three decades in the CIA, Darrell explains why the simple question "why?" remains one of the most powerful tools available to analysts, leaders and anyone seeking to understand people more deeply.
The conversation explores pattern recognition, human behaviour, non-verbal communication and the importance of developing systems that help us think more clearly under pressure. Angela and Darrell also discuss the relationship between experience and instinct, the value of self-awareness and why expertise is often the result of disciplined curiosity rather than natural talent.
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#Leadership #DecisionMaking #IntelligenceAnalysis #ProfessionalDevelopment
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In this two-part series, Dr Angela Lewis is joined by Darrell Blocker, a former CIA officer with 28 years of experience in intelligence operations and leadership.
In part 1, they will explore one of the most misunderstood concepts in professional decision-making: intuition. Is it simply a gut feeling, or is it something built through years of experience, observation and training? Drawing on stories from intelligence work, Angela and Darrell discuss how professionals develop pattern recognition, why expertise often feels instinctive and how trusted mental frameworks help people make effective decisions in uncertain environments. They examine the relationship between experience and judgment, the importance of learning what "normal" looks like and why some of the best decisions happen before we can fully explain them.
This conversation offers valuable insights for anyone interested in leadership, intelligence, decision-making and the development of professional expertise.
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#Leadership #DecisionMaking #CriticalThinking #IntelligenceAnalysis #ProfessionalDevelopment
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In this episode of The Unknown Knowns, Dr Angela Lewis explores a deceptively simple question: why do some messages land while others fail?
Drawing on intelligence tradecraft and organisational psychology, Angela examines how audience, context, and professional culture shape the reception of information. From briefing senior executives to building credibility in new environments, she explores why effective communication is about more than transmitting information. It is about creating understanding.
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#Communication #Leadership #IntelligenceAnalysis #ProfessionalDevelopment
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In this episode of The Unknown Knowns, Dr Angela Lewis explores why some of the most persistent problems resist simple solutions.
Rather than focusing on individual events or decisions, Angela examines how systems shape behaviour, outcomes and risk. From organisational challenges to geopolitical crises, she explains how feedback loops, incentives and interconnected relationships can create patterns that are difficult to see when we focus only on immediate causes.
The episode explores why well-intentioned interventions can produce unexpected consequences and how adopting a systems perspective can help leaders, analysts and decision-makers better understand complexity. By stepping back from individual events and examining the broader environment, we can often identify the forces truly driving change.
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#SystemsThinking #Leadership #DecisionMaking
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In this episode of The Unknown Knowns, Dr Angela Lewis examines how assumptions shape interpretation and why slowing down the decision-making process can often reveal what people initially miss. The episode draws on concepts to explain how analysts can structure information to improve understanding rather than simply delivering facts. Angela also explores the growing role of AI in analytical environments and why context, sequencing and understanding the consumer remain essential human skills in intelligence work.
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#Leadership #CriticalThinking #DecisionMaking #IntelligenceAnalysis #AI
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In this episode of The Unknown Knowns, Dr Angela Lewis explores the difference between imposter syndrome and intellectual humility and why the distinction matters in intelligence, leadership and decision-making environments.
Drawing on psychology research, intelligence tradecraft and personal experience, Angela examines why high performers often question themselves most and why uncertainty is not always a sign of weakness. The episode explores rigor, judgment and the challenge of making decisions without perfect information.
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#Leadership #DecisionMaking #CriticalThinking #IntelligenceAnalysis #ProfessionalDevelopment
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In this episode of The Unknown Knowns, Dr Angela Lewis explores what happens to judgment and decision-making under sustained pressure and how resilience can be built before cognitive overload takes hold.
Using the “mint strategy” as a framework, Angela examines how small interventions can interrupt stress spirals and improve analytical thinking in high-pressure environments. The episode explores cognitive resilience, premature closure, team dynamics and the systems that help people think more clearly when the stakes are high. This is a practical discussion about stress, judgment and the importance of building structures that support better thinking before pressure starts to narrow it.
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#Leadership #DecisionMaking #CriticalThinking #Resilience #IntelligenceAnalysis
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In this episode of The Unknown Knowns, Dr Angela Lewis explores the role silence plays in leadership, analysis and decision-making.
From uncomfortable meetings to high-pressure intelligence environments, Angela examines why silence is often misunderstood and how it can reveal uncertainty and hidden assumptions. The episode explores when silence creates space for better thinking and when it becomes avoidance that damages teams and decision-making.
This is a short reflection on communication, judgment and the signals people miss when nobody speaks.
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#Leadership #DecisionMaking #CriticalThinking #Communication #IntelligenceAnalysis
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In this episode of The Unknown Knowns, Dr Angela Lewis explores one of the most difficult challenges facing intelligence professionals and leaders: how to tell uncomfortable truths inside systems that may not want to hear them.
Using the relationship between Elphaba and Glinda in Wicked as a framework, Angela examines two very different approaches to dissent: speaking truth from outside the system and influencing change from within it. She explores why both roles matter and why knowing when to challenge power directly versus when to work strategically inside existing structures is a critical professional skill.
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#Leadership #DecisionMaking #OrganisationalCulture #RiskManagement
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In this episode of The Unknown Knowns, Dr Angela Lewis is joined by Sibylline’s Associate Director of Product Operations, Jack Nott-Bower, to explore why professional development is often overlooked in intelligence teams and why that creates long-term risks.
They examine the difficult transition from analyst to leader, why many high performers become bottlenecks after promotion and how training can help leaders build stronger teams rather than carrying the workload themselves. The discussion also explores how AI is reshaping analytical workflows, why judgment remains irreplaceable and how organisations can develop leaders who scale capability across entire teams.
The episode also highlights Sibylline’s upcoming in-person training event in San Francisco on 12 May, focused on leadership, judgment, language and authority in the age of AI.
Learn more about this in-person workshop here: https://sibylline.co.uk/leadership-for-intel-professionals-new-managers-judgment-language-and-authority-in-the-age-of-ai/
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#Leadership #ProfessionalDevelopment #IntelligenceAnalysis #AI #DecisionMaking #FutureOfWork
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In this episode of The Unknown Knowns, Dr Angela Lewis explores the concept of “flow” — the state of deep, immersive focus where high-quality judgment and insight emerge.
Drawing on personal experience and cognitive science, she explains why modern work environments often prevent us from reaching this state, and why that comes at a cost to decision-making. The episode breaks down what flow actually is, why it matters for intelligence professionals and leaders, and how it can be deliberately engineered through clarity, challenge, and protected focus.
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This is not about productivity. It’s about thinking better in a world that constantly fragments attention — and why creating the conditions for flow is essential for anyone working in complexity.
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AI can draft, summarise, and sound authoritative in seconds.
But it doesn’t understand what it’s saying.
In this episode of The Unknown Knowns, Dr Angela Lewis explores the real role of AI in intelligence and decision-making—and where it quietly goes wrong. From reinforcing flawed assumptions to projecting confidence without competence, generative AI is not a neutral tool. It is a pattern engine that reflects and scales human bias.
The core role of the analyst hasn’t changed: making meaning under uncertainty, calibrating risk, and owning consequences. What has changed is speed—and with it, the margin for error.
This episode examines why prompt discipline matters, how unexamined assumptions get amplified, and why fluency should never be mistaken for insight. AI can expand your thinking. It cannot replace your judgment.
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#AI #Leadership #Intelligence #Risk
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Before decisions are made, something else is already at work: bias.
In this premier episode of The Unknown Knowns, Dr. Angela Lewis explores the hidden role bias plays in shaping judgment, especially for intelligence professionals, leaders, and decision-makers operating under pressure. Far from being a flaw, bias is a feature of how we think—a set of cognitive shortcuts that help us move quickly through complexity. But when left unexamined, those same shortcuts can quietly distort perception, reinforce false certainty, and close off better alternatives.
Drawing on psychology, intelligence tradecraft, and real-world examples—from the Titanic to modern decision environments—this episode unpacks why awareness alone isn’t enough, why expertise can actually increase vulnerability to bias, and how the most dangerous bias of all may be the illusion of objectivity.
This episode sets the foundation for the series: moving beyond information toward insight, and turning instinct into disciplined judgment.
Because the goal isn’t to eliminate bias—it’s to think well in spite of it.
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