The steps of the thinking process are very simple: Identify the problem, assemble all pertinent facts, gather general knowledge, look for combinations, sleep on it, use a checklist, get feedback, team up with others, and give new ideas a chance. Once you understand this process, you’ll have an easier time making decisions, solving problems, and coming up with good ideas.
the nine steps to better thinking
1. Identify the problem.
The first step in solving a problem is to know what the problem is. But many of us forge ahead without knowing what it is we are trying to accomplish. Moral: Don't apply a solution before you have taken the time to accurately define the problem.
2. Assemble pertinent facts.
In crime stories, detectives spend most of their time looking for clues. They cannot solve a case with clever thinking alone; they must have the facts. You, too, must have the facts before you can solve a problem or make an informed decision.
Professionals in every field know the importance of gathering specific facts. A scientist planning an experiment checks the abstracts to see what similar experiments have been performed. An author writing a book collects everything he or she can on the subject: newspaper clippings, photos, official records, transcripts of interviews, diaries, magazine articles, and so on. A consultant may spend weeks or months digging around a company before coming up with a solution to a major problem.
Keep an organized file of the background material you collect on a project. Review the file before you begin to formulate your solution. If you are a competent keyboarder, rekey your research notes and materials into your computer. This step increases your familiarity with the background information and can give you a fresh perspective on the problem. Also, when you type notes, you condense a mound of material into a few neat pages that show all the facts at a glance.
3. Gather general knowledge.
General knowledge has to do with the expertise you've developed in life and business, and includes your storehouse of information concerning life, events, people, science, technology, management, and the world at large.
In many manufacturing plants, for instance, it is the gray-haired supervisor, the 20-year veteran, whom the young engineers turn to when they have problems. These senior workers are able to solve so many problems so quickly not because they are brighter or better educated than others, but because in their years of company work they have seen those problems—or similar ones before.
You can't match the veteran's experience. But you can accelerate your own education by becoming a student in the many areas that relate to your job. Trade journals are the most valuable source of general business knowledge. Subscribe to the journals that relate to your field. Scan them all, and clip and save articles that contain information that may be useful to you. Organize your clipping files for easy access to articles by subject.
Read books in your field and start a reference library. Think back to that 20-year plant supervisor. If he writes a book on how to troubleshoot problems in a chemical plant, and you buy the book, you can learn in a day or so of reading what it took him 20 years to accumulate. Take some night school courses. Attend seminars, conferences, trade shows. Make friends with people in your field and exchange information, stories, ideas, case histories, technical tips.
Most of the successful professionals I know are compulsive information-collectors. You should be too.
4. Look for combinations.
Someone once complained to me "There's nothing new in the world. It's all been done before." Maybe. But an idea doesn't have to be something completely new. Many ideas are simply a new combination of existing elements. By looking for combinations, for new relationships between old ideas, you can come up with a fresh approach.
The clock-radio, for example, was invented by someone who combined two existing technologies: the clock and the radio. Niels Bohr combined two separate ideas—Rutherford's model of the atom as a nucleus orbited by electrons and Planck's quantum theory—to create the modern conception of the atom.
Look for synergistic combinations. If you have two devices, and each performs a function you need, can you link them together to create a new invention?
5. Sleep on it.
Putting the problem aside for a time can help you renew your idea-producing powers just when you think your creative well has run dry.
But don't resort to this method after only five minutes of puzzled thought. First you have to gather all the information you can. Next, you need to go over the information again and again as you try to come up with that one big idea. Then you’ll come to a point where you get bleary eyed and numb. This is the time to take a break, to put the problem aside, to sleep on it and let your unconscious mind take over. A solution may strike you as you sleep, shower, shave or walk in the park. But even if the answer doesn't appear, when you return to he problem after a break, you will find you can attack it with renewed vigor and a fresh perspective. I use this technique in my writing: I put aside what I have written and read it fresh the next day. Many times, the things that I thought were fine when I wrote them can be much improved at second glance.
6. Use checklists.
Checklists can be used to stimulate creative thinking and as a starting point for new ideas. Many manufacturers, consultants, technical magazines, and trade associations publish checklists you can use in your own work. But the best checklists are those you create yourself because they are tailored to the problems that come up in your daily routine.
For example, Jill is a technical salesperson well versed in the technical features of her product, but she has trouble when it comes to closing a sale. She could overcome this weakness by making a checklist of typical customer objections and practicing how to answer them. The list of objections can be culled from sales calls made over the course of several weeks. Possible tactics for overcoming these objections can be garnered from fellow salespeople, from books on selling, and from trial-and-error efforts. Then, when faced with a tough customer, she doesn't have to "reinvent the wheel," but will be prepared for all the standard objections because of her familiarity with the checklist.
7. Get feedback.
Sherlock Holmes was a brilliant detective. But even he needed to bounce ideas off Dr. Watson at times. As a. writer, I think I know how to write an engaging piece of copy. But when I show a draft to my wife, she can always spot at least half a dozen ways to make it better.
Some people prefer to work alone. I'm one of them and maybe you are too. But if you don't work as part of a team, getting someone else's opinion of your work can help you focus your thinking and produce ideas you hadn't thought of.
Take the feedback for what it's worth. If you feel you are right, and the criticisms are off base, ignore them. But more often than not, feedback will provide useful information that can help you come up with the best, most profitable ideas. One good guide: If only one reviewer complains about a particular item, you can ignore it. But if all three reviewers make the same comment, they're probably on to something—and you should take a closer look.
Of course, if you ask others to "take a look at this report,*' you should be willing to do the same for them when they solicit your opinion. You’ll find that reviewing the work of others is fun; it's easier to critique someone else's work than to create your own. And you'll be gratified by the improvements you think of—things that are obvious to you but would never have occurred to the other person.
8. Team up.
Some people think more creatively when working in groups. But how large should the group be? My opinion is that two is the ideal team. Any more and you're in danger of ending up with a committee that spins its wheels and accomplishes nothing. The person you team up with should have skills and thought processes that balance and complement your own. For example, in advertising, copywriters (the word people) team up with art directors (the picture people).
In entrepreneurial firms, the idea person who started the company will often hire a professional manager from one of the Fortune 500 companies as the new venture grows; the entrepreneur knows how to make things happen, but the manager knows how to run a profitable, efficient corporation.
An engineer may invent a better microchip. But if she wants to make a fortune selling it, she might team up with someone who has a strong sales and marketing background.
9. Give new ideas a chance.
Many business people, especially managerial types, develop their critical faculties more finely than their creative faculties. If creative engineers and inventors had listened to these people, we would not have personal computers, cars, airplanes, light bulbs, or electricity.
The creative process works in two stages. The first is the idea-producing stage, when ideas flow freely. The second is the critical or "editing" stage, where you hold each idea up to the cold light of day and see if it is practical.
Many of us make the mistake of mixing the stages together. During the idea-producing stage, we are too eager to criticize an idea as soon as it is presented. As a result, we shoot down ideas and make snap judgments when we should be encouraging the production of new ideas. And many good ideas are killed this way.
More on how to get your brain to think faster
If you still feel slow-minded after deliberately applying these nine steps, you may be losing mental sharpness as a natural result of aging.
The brain is critically dependent upon blood flow and requires one-fourth of all the blood pumped by your heart. As you age, blood flow to the brain can diminish. When that happens, cells, begin a breakdown process that eventually leads to their death.
This "brain decay" begins around age 35 and accelerates dramatically when you reach age 50. Your ability to perform daily mental tasks can decline by 30 to 50 percent—and sometimes even more—during your lifespan.
And if you're limiting your fat intake, you're even more likely to be short-changing your brain. As you age, your brain actually loses weight—a decline of about 2 percent every decade after about age 40 or 50! To thrive, your brain must be supplied with phospholipids, vital nutrients that are derived from fat. Fat-poor diets can drain the phospholipid supply to dangerously low levels.
To keep your mind nimble, use it often. Do the crossword puzzle. Read a book. Surf the Internet. Go to museums. According to a report in Science News (March 6, 1999), the very act of learning may create a "neural efficiency" in the brain that makes it easier for individuals to think.
You can combat mental fatigue and decline with a physical and mental exercise regimen. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center believe a lifetime of brain exercise can help stave off Alzheimer's disease, as well as other degenerative brain disorders. And a researcher at the Salk Institute of Biological Studies has found evidence in a study of mice that running creates extra brain cells.
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