The Business Skills Handbook

The Business Skills Handbook Roy Horn - Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development

The Business Skills HandbookThe Business Skills Handbook



Thinking and Memory Skills

Week 13


ReadingReadingRecommended text:

The Business Skills Handbook

Horn, R.

London: CIPD

1st edition, 2009

ISBN: 1843982188

Chapter 13: Thinking and Memory Skills (page 317)


Lecture OutlineLecture Outline develop a clear conception of what thinking is recognise the different types of thinking and where to

use them developing a clear understanding of how memory

works developing a good memory


Learning ObjectivesLearning Objectives

be able to recognise and use different types of thinking

develop a range of techniques to improve memory


What is Thinking?What is Thinking?

‘I did it without thinking!’ We have all probably said this at some stage in our university, social or work life. It is often said when something goes wrong; when there is an unexpected outcome. Many of our daily actions are performed without thinking.


What is Thinking? [2]What is Thinking? [2]

This is not a problem. Indeed, if we had to think extensively before we did ‘things’, we would get very little done. This raises two questions:– How careful should we be before allowing actions to become

routine?and– How do we know when we should be thinking and not

behaving in a routine manner?



Once you have thought about this, you may come to realise that most of our daily actions are performed in a routine manner. Routine is a powerful controller of behaviour.



So thinking can be patterned and routine, but there will be times when patterned, routine behaviour will not be suitable. Real thinking will be needed when you encounter:– a difficulty with normal patterned behaviour – what you

normally do does not work any more– a new or unfamiliar situation – you have no experience to

call upon or the normal patterned behaviour does not work in that situation

– a changed situation – something has changed and requires a change in behaviour.



When we are confronted by a situation, difficulty or problem that we have not experienced before, we will need to engage a ‘thinking process’. Your ability to think in an appropriate way and develop practical and effective solutions is a very valuable skill.



Thinking takes time, so although you may concentrate on solving a problem, the solution may not readily come to you. You may have experienced this when you strain and strain to solve a problem, either academic or practical; you then give up and do something else and then wondrously wake the next morning with a solution.



Thinking is the purposeful and conscious action of considering. When the conscious work is finished, the unconscious mind will carry on. Effective solutions often come from hard, purposeful, conscious thinking and leaving the problem for a while (time).


What is Thinking? [8]What is Thinking? [8] Thinking may be required to solve an academic

problem, such as an assignment. It may be required to solve a practical problem, such as poor team performance. In business these two elements are always connected. Academic problems need to be solved with reference to practical outcomes for business.



Practical problems need to be solved with reference to academic theory. Let’s move on now to think about the different types of thinking you can employ in solving problems.


Different Types of ThinkingDifferent Types of Thinking When you look at these different types of thinking you

may feel they are all the same or very similar. Clearly, they are all examples of thinking. But, you will need to recognise the fine-grain differences between these ways of thinking.


Different Types of Different Types of ThinkingThinking [2] [2]

An indicator of an effective learner or manager is that they will be aware of and able to control their thinking. So if at first these ways of thinking make no sense then persevere because with time (like thinking) they will stand out clearly as different ways of thinking.


Different Types of Different Types of Thinking Thinking [3][3]

There are more ways to categorise thinking and more categories of thinking than can ever be useful. The following sections categorise thinking in ways that I think are useful in business.



Practical thinking focuses on the processes of business. How in practice does the process of business happen? The underlying data for practical thinking is observation. The skilled manager can observe and diagnose a problem.



The key criteria of practical thinking are experiences. A manager’s experience provides an extensive library with which to compare the present. Practical thinking is also logical process thinking. This is the ability to link one process to another in effective ways so that a process is effective.



Over time managers build up mental models of what a good business process will be like and they judge current processes by reference to those mental models.



Convergent thinking is a cognitive process bringing information and thoughts to a common point. It is integrative in that it brings known things to one point. It is effectively a condensing process of bringing together a synthesis of ideas. This type of thinking might be used when there are lots of ideas and opinions but very few agreed solutions.



Divergent thinking starts from a common point and moves outward in a creative way to increase the diversity of thought. It is essentially creative in that it moves from what is known towards new ideas and perspectives. This type of thinking might be used with complex problems that have proved hard to solve for lack of ideas.



Critical thinking is convergent thinking that assesses the claims of something. This was covered extensively in Chapter 10.



Inductive thinking is a reasoning process that starts with the parts and cognitively works towards the whole. This type of thinking is most often seen in qualitative research where parts of a problem are researched and then the researcher argues how the parts create the whole.



Deductive thinking is a reasoning process that works from the whole to the parts. This is often seen in quantitative research where the whole of something is researched and the explanations are then made about the parts.



Evaluative thinking is thinking concerned with judging the value of something. It is closely tied to critical thinking and was extensively covered in Chapter 10.



Comprehension thinking is the cognitive process of understanding something. This process is often a case of understanding writing or situations. The techniques of comprehensive thinking are visualisation, contextualising and practice.



In visualisation we make visual in our minds the ideas we read on paper. We imagine how the idea would take place. Drawing on paper or creating the image in your mind is an excellent way to comprehend something. We can also comprehend something by placing it in a familiar context.



Finally we comprehend by ‘trying out’ or practising. If we use the idea of speed reading, all three techniques could be useful. We read about speed reading then imagine how it will happen; we place it in context by thinking, ‘I could use that idea here or here’; we will comprehend the idea better when we try it out.



Memorising thinking is covered later in this chapter. It involves using strategies and approaches that allow the recall of information.



Reflective thinking involves careful and consistent thought about what you know and believe. The reflection requires that you weigh up the reasons for your beliefs. It also requires that you change your thinking dependent on the reasoned analysis of a situation or belief. Reflective thinking is the basis of all change and improvement.



Investigative thinking involves thinking and analysis of things that are incomplete or unclear. We could call this ‘detective’ thinking because it involves piecing together actions that have taken place. You will need to adopt this mode of thinking when investigating critical incidents at work. Managers often need to investigate some sort of failure, accident or complaint.



Social thinking concerns the emotions, beliefs, actions and thoughts of others. In most social situations you will have developed social thinking from an early age.



But, conscious social thinking is required by managers who must not only take the views, perspectives and desires of others into account but must also demonstrate that those views have been taken into account. Without active social thinking managers can easily overlook the perspectives of smaller groupings in their team or workforce.



Creative thinking involves measures and techniques that inspire new ways of thinking and acting.


MemoryMemory Memory is an important part of academic and

business life. You may at the moment think your memory is not very good: ‘I can’t remember a thing.’ Understanding how your memory works and developing some helpful memory methods will soon improve your memory.


Memory [2]Memory [2] The most important reason to improve your memory

at university is to do well in examinations. But improvements for this reason will also help with other university tasks and will certainly help you at work. It is not always your ability to recall facts and figures that is important; it is often that you need to recall where you can find those facts and figures.


Memory [3]Memory [3] Modern computing can certainly help here in that

organising information has never been easier. Well-organised information is also easier to retrieve and easier to remember. So part of having a good memory is to organise information in ways that are easily retrievable. In business, the ability to remember your customers and their preferred purchases and some relevant personal facts is vital.


Memory [4]Memory [4] If you are in sales your customers will buy more from

you if they think you know them personally and care about them. So how would you remember the details of each of your customers, their buying preferences and some personal facts?


Memory [5]Memory [5] Modern handheld computers provide the answer. All

the information you will need to successfully manage the sales relationship can be held on these devices. You only have to look up the detail five minutes before you make the sales contact. But you still have to be able to remember the detail for the length of the meeting.


Memory [6]Memory [6] Let’s look at the nature of memory by considering

what is easy to remember and what is hard to remember. I doubt you have any trouble remembering:– the names of family members or friends– your birthday– how to read and write– knowledge from school– stories from your past– skills, such as riding a bike– routines and habits.


Memory [7]Memory [7]

However, you might have more trouble remembering: things that you don’t want to do things you believe will be difficult to remember information that you consider to be boring or trivial changes to your daily routine things you did when you were tired, bored or unwell.


Memory [8]Memory [8]Forgetting things can have some unpleasant effects: embarrassment, frustration or anxiety a reduction in self-confidence feelings of being stupid avoiding participating in things – withdrawal apprehension once we have experienced the inability

to remember.



How memory works Memory is a process and that process is believed to

follow these steps:– You perceive something by sight, sound, smell, taste or feel.– This information is filtered by the sensory registers and

committed to short-term memory (STM) (also known as working memory).

– STM can hold this information for up to 30 seconds and there is a limit of about 5–9 items that can be held in STM for most people.


Memory [11]Memory [11] If you choose to you can commit it to long-term

memory (LTM); this is done by:– rehearsal– coding– Imaging.

You need to retrieve it from LTM to STM if you want to use it.


Memory [12]Memory [12] As an example let’s consider how you perceive

information in a lecture using two different scenarios.

Scenario 1 In the first lecture you are given extensive handouts

that cover all the slides shown and the related information. You sit passively listening to the lecturer and at the end of the teaching session you can remember only one striking visual thing that was shown to you about halfway through the lecture.



Scenario 2 You are given no handouts and have to listen

carefully and make your own notes. You do this by creating a visual mind map of the ideas presented. An hour after the lecture you can recall most of what was taught.


Memory [14]Memory [14] Memory in Scenario 1 – the only stimuli you receive

are a stream of sound that enters your STM; it is not encoded or otherwise transferred to LTM and is quickly forgotten. The visual stimulus is immediately transferred to LTM by imagery.


Memory [15]Memory [15] Memory in Scenario 2 – the constant sound and

visual stimuli are transferred by encoding and imagery, the mind map you created, to LTM as the lecture progresses. This is available to retrieve back into STM some time afterwards. If this LTM were reinforced it would become relatively permanent in LTM and available to retrieve for years afterwards.


Memory [16]Memory [16] In Memory Scenario 2 there are simple techniques that

will improve your ability to remember the mind map you created during the lecture. Common helpful techniques are:– numbering and lettering – lists

– diagrams, pictures, tags and icons

– colours

– adding your own contextual examples

– linking and connecting

– logical structures and positioning – think about the clock index from Chapter 2

– top-level summaries.


Techniques for Improving Techniques for Improving Your MemoryYour Memory

You will need to reflect on the techniques of memory that will work for you. We are not all the same and some of the following work for some people and some do not.


Techniques for Improving Techniques for Improving Your Memory [2]Your Memory [2]

Pictures and images We have already noted that pictures and images are

easier to remember than words. Linking and visualising by drawing ideas will assist with remembering them. This is a two-stage process: the act of drawing fixes the thing in LTM and then the act of looking reinforces the thing in memory.



Charts and tables Complicated and complex data is easier to remember

if it is structured into tables or charts.



The Roman Room The Roman Room strategy is an extension of the

association and imagery approach. Here the things you need to remember are placed into rooms in your family home. In each room you will have furniture and furnishings that can also be linked to things you need to remember.



This technique works because you are very familiar with your family home and you link new information to this familiar structure. While this will require some mental effort to link the items to the rooms and furniture, it does allow for excellent recall. If the links can be funny or odd, they will be all the more memorable.



Acronyms Acronyms are words made from the first letters of

something you wish to remember. They allow recall of both the information and the order of information. One classic that most people will know is ROYGBIV, which is a way of remembering the colours of the rainbow – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet.



A more complicated acronym is BEDMAS, for the order that maths operations should take – brackets, exponentials, division, multiplication, addition and subtraction.



Two business-related acronyms are: SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, realistic

and timely TRACC – for business memos: timely, relevant,

accurate, concise and clear.



And finally, a North American one for the quiz enthusiasts:

HOMES – Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior – the names of the Great Lakes.



Acrostics Acrostics are short phrases where the first letter of

each word is the cue for something you need to remember. If we take a look at an acrostic that will help remember the planets in the solar system, you will see how they work.


Techniques for Improving Your Techniques for Improving Your Memory [11]Memory [11]

The planets and the order they are from the Sun: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. There aren’t many useful acrostics in general and not many in business, so the essence is to build your own for remembering things.



Now to that acrostic that could be used to remember the order of planets from the sun is:

– My Very Excellent Mother Just Served Up Nice Pancakes



You will note that this works much better for this ordered list than an acronym would. This is because MVEMJSUNP doesn’t actually mean much to most people. You can easily invent your own acrostics to cope with the specific knowledge that you need to remember.



Chunking Chunking is useful with numbers. If you remember,

your short-term memory will be running out of space by the time you have heard or seen 5–9 items. A ten-digit telephone number will be difficult to remember.



Try remembering 0770525252 as a single-digit sequence. This may be difficult, as your mind will automatically chunk it to make it easier to remember. Wait 30 seconds and see.



Can remember it? Now try remembering:0770 52 52 52. This should be easier and you will probably remember it tomorrow.



Chunking with familiar numbers is an even more effective method. If your birthday is on the 07 of August and your granny lives at number 70 and part of your car registration is 52, then this becomes a number you are unlikely to forget.


Activity Activity

Case Study Preparation

The billionaire business idea with ethics

Wo

rk in

gr o

up

s o

f 3

–4

60 minutes’ prep 5 minutes’ feedback

Feedback to the group – answers to the three tasks


Next Week

• basic Word skills• using the new features of Word 2007• using keyboard shortcuts• understanding and using styles and themes• creating a references list and a bibliography• creating an index• creating a contents page• using mail merge



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