There is no logic in speaking, no matter how strong your ability is, it will not be reused. 4 tricks to improve your structural thinking

Have you ever encountered such a problem at work:

When reporting on work, your brain is in chaos, you can't find what you want to express, and you can't understand the logic?

When you encounter a problem, you often feel flustered and unable to make the next move?

When writing a year-end summary, don't know where to start?

When collaborating with colleagues, can't express your views accurately, causing all your efforts to go to waste?

Is it possible to use the "elevator 30 seconds" rule to finish a planning plan and get the order smoothly?

If you find it difficult, then you need to exercise your structural thinking skills. In the current era of information explosion, information is huge and fragmented. If it is not organized, it is easy to increase the cost of communication. If we want to deal with fragmented information more efficiently, we must learn to think in a structured way.

There is no logic in speaking, no matter how strong your ability is, it will not be reused. 4 tricks to improve your structural thinking

1. What is Structural Thinking?

Structural thinking is simply the ability to understand the world with structured thinking. Everything in the universe, whether macroscopic or microscopic, has its constitution and laws. We can call it structure. If we can master the method of understanding the structure, then we will have the method to solve all problems.

2. Four strategies for structural thinking

3. Conclusion first

As the name implies, it is to express the conclusion you have drawn first, then find the reasons to support the conclusion to bless it, and summarize your views again, and the reasons must support your conclusion.

Take the work report as an example. On the one hand, the piecemeal expression shows that your work has no focus, so that the leader does not know what you are busy with, and does not understand the progress of the work. However, using the principle of conclusion first, you will tell the leader about the core content of the day. , and then proceed to the elaboration of other work, and what kind of help these work provides for the main work, in return, the leader can quickly grasp the focus. Through efficient reporting, leaders will appreciate you more, give you extra points, and give you priority when encountering good positions and opportunities.

2. Above and below

The above will be more convincing. When communicating, the reasons we explain below must be able to support the above arguments, and there are reasons to support them to be more convincing, because it can reduce the time of the audience and listeners.

3. Categorize into groups

In the process of communication and thinking, we must distinguish the primary and secondary, which things can be postponed and which need to be expedited, we need to make a distinction, classification and grouping can improve our work efficiency and make our expression more clear.

4. Logical progression

Work requires communication with people. To complete the work efficiently, logical expression is particularly important. We found that the more logical the expression, the easier it is for people to remember. In the handover of work, we can talk about the big steps first and then discuss the details, and it is easier for the other party to understand each other.

There is no logic in speaking, no matter how strong your ability is, it will not be reused. 4 tricks to improve your structural thinking

Three, five methods of structural thinking

1. Clarify the concept and lay the foundation

Objectives must be clear, conclusion-based, and consistent with the principle of "simple and accurate".

2. Goal-based theme

After determining the goal, identify different themes based on the goal

3. The vertical structure is hierarchical

After the theme is determined, the content can be organized according to the information, and the pyramid principle can be used to carry out the structure level:

Top-down: suitable for decomposing problems

Bottom-up: suitable for generalization

4. Horizontal structure selection order

After the hierarchical relationship is clarified, what we need to do is to straighten out the logical relationship and use some logical methods for structural layering. It is also known as deductive induction: major premise - minor premise - conclusion - central idea. Using this kind of logical induction can make our point clearer and the reason more convincing.

5. Demonstration with image expression

Image expression is the icing on the cake of the packaging of the main body, and structured methods such as operation tables and diagrams. According to research, people are more receptive to numbers and pictures, and it is easier to make their arguments more convincing by using some graphs or frameworks (Maslow's hierarchy of needs, SMART rules, 5W2H, etc.).

There is no logic in speaking, no matter how strong your ability is, it will not be reused. 4 tricks to improve your structural thinking

4. The Golden Rule of Structural Thinking——MECE

MECE refers to the ability to quickly distinguish useful information from complex data, and can become the basis for its own theory.

ME: Mutually Exclusive => mutually independent

CE: Collectively Exhaustive => completely exhausted

MECE emphasizes non-repetition and no omission, that is, when thinking about problems, it is necessary to ensure that the supported arguments do not overlap, and to avoid the misunderstanding of partial generalization. When working, whether it is thinking or communication, we must comply with the MECE principle, which can effectively avoid rework. The MECE principle sounds simple, but it is not easy to do it well. When implementing the MECE principle, we need to follow the following 4 steps:

1. Confirm the problem

Determine the problem according to the goal you want to achieve, and prepare relevant materials according to the problem. If there is no goal to collect information, you will only get a lot of useless information.

2. Find the entry point

This step is the key to analyzing the data. The best way to find the entry point of MECE is to start with the problem and purpose, that is, what purpose do you hope to achieve through this information, so as to find a meaningful entry point.

3. Subdivide again

After completing the preliminary data classification, because of the vastness of the scope, we cannot get effective information from it. At this time, we need to subdivide the results again to make the data more meaningful and reference value.

4. Make sure nothing is left out

After the information is subdivided, it can be reviewed to see which information does not have a suitable classification or is suitable for multiple classifications, so as to prevent the omission and reuse of information.

Through the above four steps, we can summarize and organize the huge information, create a logical framework, and find suitable solutions and methods through the disassembly of the problem.

There is no logic in speaking, no matter how strong your ability is, it will not be reused. 4 tricks to improve your structural thinking

5. The application of structural thinking ability in 2W1H

2W1H is the core question that is often asked when thinking about a problem. The 2W1H are: What (discovering the problem), Why (analyzing the problem), and How (solving the problem).

When answering other people's questions, if you want your answers to be clear and logical, you can answer them in combination with 2W1H. Like why the speech?

Why: Why speak? (cultivating habits, exercising expression skills, etc.)

What: What kind of effect do you want to achieve? (work reports, talk shows, impromptu speeches, etc.)

How: how to implement it? (How long do you practice every day? Who is the benchmark, etc.)

There is no logic in speaking, no matter how strong your ability is, it will not be reused. 4 tricks to improve your structural thinking

In general, structural thinking is actually a kind of thinking logic. Mastering structural thinking can not only make our thinking clearer in the process of work and study, and make us more calm when encountering things, but also can take the initiative to think by looking at the part as a whole, so that we can see the problem more comprehensively.