p.26-27 Metis corresponds to what we mean when we say that someone is 'street-smart' or who seems able to 'get away with things' or 'get out of difficult situations' with cunning and ease. Both phronesis and metis... are vital qualities of an effective management practitioner.

p.27 Conscious, deliberate, purposeful action... is presupposed in all managerial circumstances

p.30 for Heidegger, it is only through the physical experience of actual living in and coping with the exigencies of a multitude of situations - of being-in-the-world - that we subsequently develop the capacity for distancing, reflection, linguistic articulation, cognitive representation and conscious thought.

p.32 that form of intimate knowing which results from being totally immersed in negotiating, overcoming and resolving material circumstances as they arise... there is a kind of knowing that is locally adaptive and inventive and that emerges from the immediate need to continuously revise, adjust and make do according to the situation. In other words, it presumes that individuals in the intimacy of their dwelling situations, like a fish in water, can only operate 'blow by blow... (they must) accept the chance offerings of the moment, and seize on the wing the possibilities that offer themselves at any given moment' (de Certeau, 1984: 37). Rather than relying on a pre-established 'map' of action or some grand 'strategy', this kind of local practical knowing manifests itself in small, unheroic and seemingly inconsequential moves: 'tactics' requiring ingenuity, wit, trickery, surprise and opportunistic poachings. Timeliness in intervention is a crucial weapon of such 'tacticians'.

p.33 phronesis is acquired through immersion, acquisition and internalizing of such practices... is... acquired through trial and error and hence does not lend itself to scientific validation or precise codification.

p.34 Metis operates through 'duplicity' and 'disguise' concealing its true lethal nature beneath a reassuring exterior. It is characterized by three crucial aspects: (1) the quality of agility, suppleness, swiftness, mobility; (2) dissimulation, the art of seeing without being seen or acting without being seen to act; and (3) vigilance and alertness.

p.34 It is more appropriate to think of metis as an inherited 'mindless' coping capability that has been gradually refined and 'unconsciously' passed on... [a] kind of primordial 'knowing'... whereas phronesis is 'practical but not inherently oblique, devious or indirect', metic intelligence operates with a 'peculiar twist': it reflects the ability to attain a surprising reversal of situations

p.34 'Knowing how and when to apply the rules of thumb in a concrete situation is the essence of metis'

p.40 Management... involves reaching out from where one finds oneself: becoming aware, attending to, sorting out, and prioritizing an inherently messy, fluxing, chaotic world of competing demands that are placed on a manager's attention. 'Active perceptual organization and the astute allocation of attention is the central feature of the managerial task' (Chia, 2005: 1092). Managerial action and sense-making takes place from within a given set of circumstance that the manager finds him/herself in. As such, managing is more an acquired coping capability than a science; more a set of skilled practices than a profession; more a phenomenon of method than a field of study.