Thinking in the workplace: McKinsey note-taking - a thinking weapon for professionals to solve problems

This is an article I posted before. I think it is very inspiring to think about the workplace. Now I put it here, hoping to inspire everyone.

Notes are not for elementary school students, and notes can also be used in the workplace

For me, the so-called note-taking technique is not used to jot down what other people say, but to organize my own thoughts.”

Kenichi Ohmae, a Japanese management guru, once described his views on note-taking.

Do you think that you have passed the age of using notes, and students use notes to organize knowledge and improve efficiency? If you think so, then you are really wasting the greatest role of notes. In the opinion of McKinsey management consulting experts , the biggest role of notes is not to record, but a weapon for thinking and a tool for solving problems.

When it comes to McKinsey, everyone must be familiar with it. Founded in 1926, it is the most famous management consulting company in the world. The success of McKinsey & Company stems from their ability to efficiently solve problems, and their efficient working methods have become workplace skills that people are eager to learn. The McKinsey note-taking technique, a problem-solving note-taking.

Thinking in the workplace: McKinsey note-taking - a thinking weapon for professionals to solve problems

What does a McKinsey problem-solving note look like?

Shoyu Oshima, the author of "McKinsey Notes and Thinking Method", is a top consultant at McKinsey and holds an MBA degree from the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University in the United States. Oshima Xiangyu corrected people's misunderstandings about notes from the three mindsets that should be taken when taking notes, and introduced in detail how we should use notes in the process of solving problems. In general, three types of notes are used: horizontal lines Notes, checkered notes, McKinsey notes, as long as we select the corresponding notes in each process of solving problems, we can solve problems efficiently, and then Oshima Xiangyu also introduced the skills to improve thinking ability to help us exercise thinking ability . In addition, the book also mentions notes on reorganizing our minds and introspecting, which can help us better manage our emotions and understand ourselves better. This part is quite interesting. I asked and answered my own questions. I tried it and it worked well.

"McKinsey's Notebook Thinking Method" sold 250,000 copies in Japan as soon as it was published. It seems that the charm of McKinsey is unstoppable. How do McKinsey consultants use their pens and notebooks to solve problems? Let's come check it out.

How should a problem-solving note be made?

First: establish a correct note-taking mentality: take notes while thinking

We have two very bad habits when taking notes. When taking notes, the brain is in a state of wandering, just mechanically writing down the content, and the brain is not involved in thinking; the other is whether it is useful or not. Let’s talk about it later, we always think that we will look back when we write it down, but then, then there is no such thing.

Human memory is divided into two types: brain memory and action memory. Action memory means that in addition to the brain, the body also participates in learning, such as learning to ride a bicycle, or playing table tennis. There are many brain circuits that are triggered and controlled by action memory. Once the action is memorized, it is difficult to forget. When we watch "The Strongest Brain", the mental players always activate all the senses of the body when they memorize something, and it is also the same reason to observe from the sound, shape, touch and other aspects. Therefore, when taking notes, you should think while you are taking notes, because the hands are involved, the memory is deeper, and the thinking is more visualized, which can stimulate the inspiration to solve the problem at any time, rather than just writing and not thinking, or just thinking in your head and not thinking. write down.

In addition, as professionals, we also need to have a purpose in taking notes. Because we know the end point, we will not stray, and we also know reasonable choices. Your ultimate goal is to solve problems, so writing beautifully and neatly is not important. The important thing is to organize your thoughts to solve problems, not to pay too much attention to the form, and not to take notes just for the sake of taking notes.

Thinking with a story line is the key point of McKinsey's note-taking. In Oshima's view, notes are not for recording the past but looking forward to the future, so when taking notes, not only record what happened in the past, but more importantly, what happened next. How to do it. Storyline thinking is telling a story around your ultimate purpose, and the plot of the story is what happened from the moment you discovered the problem to when you finally solved it.

Thinking in the workplace: McKinsey note-taking - a thinking weapon for professionals to solve problems

Let's take an example. The leader asks you to solve the dull phenomenon of the staff meeting. Your purpose is to make the staff meeting active. When you start thinking with notes, you should take notes around this purpose. You observe and ask yourself. You will find many reasons for the people related to the meeting, so how do you find the most essential and critical one from among the many reasons, make assumptions around the essential reasons, how to make the meeting not depressed, and finally give a solution, story line thinking It's about being conscious of telling your boss a story, and that story is the magic story of how to rejuvenate a dead staff meeting.

When you first start taking notes, you can use the story line to think. First, you can have a big picture, and second, you can verify whether the hypothesis you put forward after finding the problem is persuasive.

Next: Notes on problem solving: 3 notes + 4 steps

After you have established the correct mindset for taking notes, let’s take a look at how problem-solving note-taking is done.

McKinsey & Company uses three types of problem-solving notes: line notes, square notes, and McKinsey notes. According to the four steps of solving the problem: discovering the essence of the problem - proposing a hypothesis - verifying the hypothesis - proposing a solution Selecting the corresponding notes in each step will allow us to discover the essence of the problem and visualize the thinking, in any situation. Find out what really works.

Thinking in the workplace: McKinsey note-taking - a thinking weapon for professionals to solve problems

At the stage of discovering the nature of the problem, it is necessary to collect as much information as possible. At this time, we need to use horizontal line notes to facilitate the arrangement of the collected information one by one. Visually, the horizontal line extends wirelessly, and there is no limit to thinking. At this time, the information is not screened to avoid missing key information due to subjective problems. At this stage, we need to classify the collected information according to the root of the problem, the cause, and the countermeasures, correct our cognitive bias, and accurately define the real problem.

We need to make use of lined and squared notes when formulating and testing hypotheses. Checkered notes are also common checkered notes on the market. It makes assumptions about the essential problems discovered if it is done, and organizes information in groups according to facts, explanations, and actions. In the stage of making assumptions, we will use the stories mentioned above. Line thinking, the overall design diagram of the solution, and the use of square notes can allow us to always analyze and organize around the assumptions made, avoid thinking deviation, more conducive to sorting out ideas and decomposing the structure of the problem, and can also improve attention to related information. Awareness, and keep a questioning attitude to the proposed hypothesis (with horizontal line notes) to further verify the rationality of the hypothesis.

Finally, express the found answer and the solution to the problem in the clearest and most concise way. Use the form of the emphasis to come to the conclusion first. The emphasis is to remind others that this is the most important content, and then show the arguments below the conclusion. And the reason, this is the McKinsey note, at a glance, others know your conclusion and how the conclusion came, the key is that others can know the next specific action.

In the case of the depression of the staff meeting mentioned above, we can first use the horizontal notes to record and collect all the information you have, then use the square notes to make hypotheses about the essential problems you find, verify the hypotheses, and finally use McKinsey notes to propose you The solution is shown to the boss, using a chart and a message to describe it in detail, which is very concise and generous, and the boss can see what your solution is at a glance, and can clearly see your thinking process. , At a glance, the boss also knows the specific action steps, which is very convenient.

The third: note-taking skills: improve the quality of note-taking and thinking

After knowing how to use notes to help us think, the key question is how to improve our thinking ability. In the two stages of finding out the real problem and making assumptions, all conclusions are not drawn out of thin air. We need to screen out a lot of information with our eyes. If the essence of the previous problem is not found, then all our follow-up work will be done. It's all useless work, so how to improve thinking ability is the key.

In addition to consulting more relevant materials and learning communication from experienced colleagues and elders, we need to use notes to exercise our own thinking ability.

Categorizing here is a good idea. When taking notes, at the beginning, in order to solve the problem, we need to write what we need to think first, but after writing, we have to group and classify it, which helps us to find clues from the messy information, which is the basic of organizing and thinking. method. To give a simple example, you need to go to the supermarket to buy things. You always forget a lot of things to buy, but at this time, you use notes to sort out the things you need to buy. According to fruits, vegetables, cleaning supplies, etc., what you want to buy Things will not be forgotten and will be organized.

Thinking in the workplace: McKinsey note-taking - a thinking weapon for professionals to solve problems

In addition to using the classification method to organize ideas, Oshima Xiangyu also listed methods such as using the matrix to find the core breakthrough, using the business model to find the reason for the process one by one, etc. These are all formulaic methods to improve thinking ability, and it is more conducive to our visualization of thinking. , using notes to clarify ideas clearly, avoid omissions and dead ends, make us more efficient, and propose more effective solutions.

This is McKinsey’s idea of ​​using notes to think. When we don’t have a clue, using process-based steps and methods can help us think better and find breakthroughs in solving problems. This is the role of notes. It helps us think and A tool for solving problems, don’t trust your brain too much. In fact, it is sometimes very messy. We always think that thinking only uses the brain, and the brain sometimes gets lost and can’t find the exit. We need to draw a roadmap to make it more efficient. Good to find the exit, sometimes just thinking is useless.