Thinking method of solving problems quickly ——warfalcon—— Reading notes

This article is excerpted from McKinsey's recently read "Working Methods: Seven Lessons to Enhance Personal Competitiveness by 50%". The translation of this book is somewhat obscure, but the thinking method provided in it is very practical.

main body

All kinds of news are broadcast around us every day.

Perhaps people often think that this has happened, but the important things are yet to come.

Try to form the following thinking habit: "What does this news mean to yourself, your job or your customers?"

Through self-questioning and self-answering training, you can take your time and take necessary actions when problems arise.

The order of thinking is: first, think about what can be learned from this matter and what is the significance; Secondly, from a different perspective, according to the logic of "air, rain and umbrella", we should implement the actions we should take.

Be careful not to think from the front and back of the coin.

For example, if you see a decrease in sales of commodity A, you only think of a decrease in sales and an increase in promotional activities, which is to think from the front and back of the coin.

In this way, we can't think about the meaning and influence of things themselves.

If we think deeply and understand the core of the problem, we may come to the following conclusion: the role of commodity A in the market is gradually weakening, so the business resources invested in commodity A are completely transferred to other commodities, which is conducive to new growth.

When solving problems, we should not only pay attention to the present, but also consider the future direction.

Don't stick to commodity A, but pay attention to the long-term development of the market in the future. At this time, by using McKinsey-style problem-solving skills and framework, you can find options that you have never seen before.

This is the value of solving problems. Exploring possibilities is the significance of McKinsey-style problem-solving skills and framework.

The determination never to give up.

Ask questions from a keen entrance. Logical argument.

This seems to be in line with McKinsey's problem-solving method, but in fact, the higher the customer evaluation, the less important the logic is. Are you surprised that I said that?

It is not uncommon for your brain to run at a high speed when you are immersed in solving problems, and it is not uncommon for you to have a brainwave to speed up the problem solving.

It is logical to decompose the steps related to the initial thought flash, but the result may not be plastic.

Creating independent assumptions, getting rid of restrictions, adopting zero assumptions, finding the key driving factors that can connect the information that is generally considered irrelevant, and deducing the answer, this is the McKinsey-style problem-solving method.

The decisive factor to solve the problem is not the framework or logic (of course, this is still a necessary tool), but the determination to try your best and never give up.

Never casually use logical reasoning and unconsciously deduce the answer.

Some people may think: although you say so, in a special environment like McKinsey, you may have that kind of brain wave. But I am basically sure that this is not the case.

No matter what kind of environment you are in, you can generate your own unique inspiration. Awakening the five senses is also conducive to inspiration.

Some people work very hard, tired every day and can't think clearly. I suggest that they ensure sleep time.

You can disagree, but please try to sleep 10 every night for a week. If possible, it is better before 10. Stick to it for three days, and you will become refreshed and clear-headed. Maybe you will wake up at another time, but it doesn't matter.

If you wake up naturally at 3-4 am, take this time as your work, study or thinking time.

I think, in this way, I can feel the feeling of dragging my tired body late into the night and not getting up in the morning.

This feeling is similar to the feeling of clear mind and sharp facial features. In the final analysis, don't let yourself be physically and mentally exhausted, try to go to bed early and get up early, so that your five senses can be more acute and your thinking can be more agile.

Rest is still very important. If the body and mind are not rested, they will feel dull, so that even if they absorb more information, their minds will not respond.

Indeed, if the mind becomes dull, it will meditate on useless things, leading to a decline in efficiency.

It is said that no matter how busy Steve Jobs is, he will definitely meditate on Saturday morning.

Because I am very busy, I have to take time to clear my mind.

Not getting tired of thinking is a crucial point to improve the quality of thinking.

People who are tired of thinking, no matter how they turn their brains, will not have a good result and will only gradually rolling in the deep.

In this way, not only the whole person has been full of anxiety, but also the work will become a mess.

Because I am busy, I can't think smoothly, but because I am busy, I need to make sure my thinking is clear. On the contrary, when you are busy, important things and unimportant things will become mixed and disorderly.

In this state, customers will not know why, will lose confidence, and more and more occasions will not be able to work smoothly.

Therefore, it is very important to relax and concentrate. In fact, when you are not tired, you can naturally concentrate, which is the characteristic of the brain.

In other words, we should put an end to useless ideas. McKinsey-style framework tools can also effectively avoid futile thinking.

People often say "I'm too busy to think", but it's not true. When thinking to the extreme, no matter how busy you are, you can instantly identify things that are important to you.

If you can stay relaxed when you are busy, you can naturally think effectively.

When you are relaxed and focused, you can accept new information, you will be moved by yourself, and it is easier to flash inspiration.

Everyone at McKinsey agrees that clearer thinking is the key to success in life. This is particularly important.

So, how should we keep our thinking clear?

Everyone has his own way, but the simple and effective ways that anyone can adopt are: first, have a good rest and relieve physical and mental fatigue; Then exercise and simply have fun.

Some people run, others swim, dive or meditate. * * * The similarity lies in making yourself happy and getting simple happiness.

When you concentrate on one thing without distractions, you are close to a state of relaxation and concentration, thus gaining clear thinking.

Putting an end to futile thinking is also the key to enhancing the value of work. As mentioned above, McKinsey's frame thinking method is an effective tool.

So, in order to put an end to futile thinking, how to use the framework?

First of all, no matter what problems you face, you should set your goals before you start thinking. Clearly describe the state you want to achieve and the changes that have taken place.

Suppose I start thinking about how to study for the qualification exam and prepare for job hopping. First of all, my original real purpose (the state I hope to achieve and the changes I hope to make) is different, and my preparation for the qualification examination should also be different.

If you want to accumulate work experience quickly, the first way you can think of is to take the initiative to enter this industry and prepare for the qualification examination while working. Maybe this way will also help you get practical work advice.

If it is to increase future options, perhaps we should explore whether the qualification certificate can bring benefits to future life planning or career planning.

The key is to think beyond the immediate problems. For example, the urgent problem in the above example is the preparation method of qualification examination. This is indeed a problem that has to be solved, but as 1 class said, if you can't accurately grasp what the real problem is, then

What you spend time thinking is not necessarily what you really want to do.

For example, getting a qualification certificate is not the real purpose. The real problem is to get a weapon to improve yourself.

What do you want to do after you get the qualification certificate? What kind of state do you want to achieve? Only by thinking about these problems from the beginning can we grasp the real problems and put an end to futile thinking.

Assuming that you can grasp your real problem, consider ways to help you reach your ideal state, that is, how to expand your thinking framework.

When thinking becomes so specific, it has actually been implemented in the framework.

You can also apply the "3C" analysis framework:

"3C" is taken from the initials of three elements: customer, competitor and company. The framework is "to explore business topics and formulate strategies flexibly by analyzing your company's current business environment", and it is not simply used to clarify your company's situation.

What are your advantages if you want to change jobs?

What is the ability requirement of the company you want to work for?

How did other job-hoppers successfully jump to this company?

Through the analysis of the above problems, we can clearly know how to make our own advantages the key to success.

Sometimes, even if you find your key advantage, it is not enough to make you suddenly enlightened.

At this time, because you have clearly known your advantages and the key to success, you can try to expand the possibilities, in other words, to see if it can be used in other areas.

The most important thing at this time is to give full play to your advantages according to the goals you want to achieve and the things you want to do. If you have been engaged in marketing, in view of your marketing experience and achievements, you clearly know that your advantage lies in accurately finding customers' problems, then maybe you are not only engaged in marketing. You may become a teacher, because being good at finding places where students are easily frustrated in their studies can greatly improve their learning ability.

This is also a way to use the ability to accurately find customer problems.

The above is the process of transcending your existing professional framework, diverging thinking and exploring new possibilities.

But at this time, many people only care about the immediate problems and can't expand their thinking. Although they have unique advantages, they can't use them flexibly and fall into a state of ignorance and confusion.

Expanding the framework of thinking does help to find better possibilities, which is McKinsey-style thinking method.

There are not a few people who want to broaden their thinking framework. However, many of them have no idea what their framework is.

When expanding and breaking through the framework, if you don't realize what your framework is, it will become particularly difficult.

Suppose someone wants to improve their interpersonal skills. After sorting out his thoughts with the logical tree framework, he found that the real problem was that he could not accurately convey information to the other party.

In order to solve this problem, he concentrated on thinking deeply about the reason why he could not accurately convey information to the other party, and then found that the root cause was his strong inner thought of "not wanting to cause disharmony".

In the process of communicating with the other party, because I don't want to cause disharmony, I firmly believe that silence is golden, so I can't accurately convey information to the other party.

The framework in this case is that you don't want to cause disharmony. Only by realizing the existence of this framework can we break through it.

However, if you can't realize the framework of ideas or concepts, you can't break through or broaden the framework.

Although I said I wanted to succeed and become better, I couldn't help thinking that I might not have that ability. Once you have this idea, you can't realize your wishes on any occasion. The reason is that maybe I don't have the framework of that kind of ability, which has become an obstacle to thinking and hindered success and progress.

Only by recognizing this kind of thinking obstacle and trying to break through it can we develop in a better direction.

The invisible framework will also hinder the discovery of new possibilities.

Because, only by recognizing your own framework first can you break through the framework and explore new possibilities.

As for how to break through your own framework, I recommend a relatively simple method: consciously change your behavior.

For example, people who don't usually eat Japanese dim sum must try to buy an old Japanese dim sum. If we can find that the spoon in the Japanese dim sum packaging bag is not a common metal spoon, but a wooden spoon, we can continue to think about why Japanese dim sum needs a wooden spoon.

In this way, we can consciously break through our own framework in our daily life and stimulate new thinking.

In the process of communicating with people, it is worth noting that we can effectively expand our thinking.

Although it is important to listen to others' words, it is easy to be attracted by others' words in the process of listening, which leads to unclear thinking.

Faced with this situation, McKinsey teaches you a skill of decomposing thinking.

This is not very difficult, just listen to the other person break down their words into opinions and facts.

For example, the other party tells you that "the meeting in our company is boring and takes a long time." When you communicate with him, classify him in your mind: this is just his personal opinion.

On this basis, further ask him why he feels this way. In fact, the content of the meeting was almost "completely wasted on the statement of the topic, without any innovative ideas or proposals". You found that this is the truth, and this is the real problem.

In this way, you can clearly understand that the length of time is not a problem, but that there is no innovative discussion at the meeting.

On the other hand, if you think that "too long" is the problem, and think in the direction of shortening the time, then you are further away from finding the real problem.

Perhaps, at first, you think it is completely like simultaneous interpretation of thinking, which requires a lot of energy, but with the accumulation of experience, you can consciously complete the general classification while listening to the other party's dialogue.

Therefore, when you are young, listen to as many people as possible, and then gradually cultivate the habit of distinguishing opinions from facts in the process of listening.

At the beginning, it doesn't matter if you can't tell the difference between opinions and facts and feel there is no obvious difference. Once the seeds of decomposition thinking are sown, all that is needed is quiet irrigation. Maybe you will stop what you are doing because you question why the seeds haven't germinated yet. Maybe you want to try different methods, but once you give up halfway, the bud of trying to develop the habit of distinguishing opinions from facts may never break ground again.

Germination time varies from person to person and also from external stimuli. In this sense, people who have been in the company for 3-5 years should focus on constantly completing their immediate work and constantly absorbing new jobs.

Iboko Kurokawa, who conducts perceptual analysis based on brain science, once described human thinking and brain growth like this:

"The human brain only matured in the middle and late 1950s, that is, the brain that can understand the essence. To this end, people will experience various choices before the age of 30, including painful experiences, and gradually establish priorities in the brain circuit. "

Thanks to many experiences such as failure, hard work and unpleasant advice accumulated when you were young, when you grow up to be a real adult at the age of 50, you can naturally think and judge, explore the essence and establish a good overall concept.

How can we succeed? What is the key to success? What should be done to achieve this goal?

Please always take these questions to observe things and start thinking! McKinsey took great pains to instill this idea in us.

Isn't everyone like this?

Suppose one day you make up your mind to buy a tablet computer. Therefore, when you take the tram, you can't help but notice the advertisement of the tablet computer. When surfing the Internet, there will always be news about tablet computers or banner advertisements on web pages intentionally or unintentionally.

By analyzing your focus, you can get more information and stimulate your thinking activities.

However, we can't think directly on the basis of wishes. Please pay attention to this. Because if it's just a wish to want a tablet computer, then the brain can't work normally, and I'm not sure if it's really needed.

So turn your wishes into problems.

If you want to convert a tablet computer into whether you should buy a tablet computer, you can gradually form a correct judgment by thinking and verifying this question.

The above process is called problem-driven, which may be easier to understand and closer to reality from the perspective of doubt.

Whether in daily life or at work, if we form the habit of thinking from problems, it is easy for us to make objective thinking and judgment even on our own problems.

The reason is that the questions raised are "yes" and "no", so that local people can think fairly and justly. For example, when considering the issue of opening up the Indian market, we should not start from the idea of "hoping to open up", but should start from the question of "whether to open up".

Only by thinking in a questioning way can we give full play to the role of various frameworks. In other words, there is no doubt in my mind that even if I use the analytical framework, I can't figure out what I want to achieve.

So is the demonstration. Although the logic is rigorous and has been analyzed in a framed way, the audience is still puzzled because the speaker forgot to start with the question.

When asking questions, you need to pay attention to the following two points.

Let's put the problem in a word first.

Tablet computers look very popular, but what is more convenient? I am more concerned about the size of the LCD screen, but can I use it freely? In addition, I don't know which model to choose, whether to buy the one recommended by my friend or wait for the new model to come on the market.

In the above questions, we can't tell what this person cares about most.

Jiao Si, starting from a problem that can't be summarized in one sentence, has a scattered mind and can't take action according to the final conclusion.

A complicated or irrelevant question means that the question has not hit the point yet.

If the thinking itself is clear, then the problem itself will be concise and powerful.

If you can't sum up your doubts in one sentence, please continue to make a detailed investigation and consider what is the most important issue.

What should be done to get to the heart of the problem?

There are many methods, one of which is simple to think about the most critical issues in an orderly way.

For example, sitting on a tram to visit customers and thinking about "what is the crucial issue that A company will visit next" can clearly grasp the core of the problem.

I recommend this method because it can be done anytime and anywhere without any tools. Only by grasping the core of the problem can we grasp the key problems when visiting customers, so as to achieve the purpose of visiting.

In addition, in order to grasp the core of the problem, another effective method is to try to ask questions in your mind: "How to summarize the contents of the book you read in one sentence?"

Grasping the core of the problem is also closely related to asking high-quality questions. At work, the questions asked to customers determine whether we can grasp the real problems of customers.

In order to grasp the core of the problem, it is very important to ask high-quality questions. Seeing this sentence, some people may wonder: "What is a quality problem?"

Different occasions have different definitions of high-quality questions, but I think it is necessary to put aside evaluation for the time being and try to communicate with a learning attitude.

If you believe that this must be the case from the beginning, and then ask questions according to the answers you want, it is impossible to get close to the core of the problem.

Refuse to assert and ask questions with the attitude of learning from each other, so that items that were missed before or keywords related to new possibilities may emerge.

If people rely on the other person's inquiry to re-recognize the importance of something, they will have a sense of intimacy and trust in the person who asks them, and then regard them as partners in work or problem solving, hoping to exchange information with this person more actively. Finally, we can grasp the core of the problem and get high-value information.

◎ Basic attitude of asking high quality questions:

Pay attention to each other's reaction.

Listen with pure curiosity (put aside your thoughts and considerations for a while)

● Don't judge each other's remarks and ideas.

● Pay attention to simple questions and ask questions.

● Think deeply and observe.

Change the perspective, such as:

● If you are a customer, what do you want to do?

If you work now, what do you think you will do?

● How important is this matter from the perspective of the whole life?

◎ Explore the reasons, such as:

● In the whole process, which link made you feel the pressure?

● In today's environment, what aspects make you feel happy physically and mentally?

● What do you want to do, but you haven't actually done it?

Know each other's value, such as:

When will you feel satisfied?

What is the most important and irreplaceable thing for you?

How did you spend 6.5438+0 million yen in one day?

Another key when asking questions is whether the questions are true or not.

Some people may wonder if there is any difference between true and false, and the answer is yes.

The so-called pseudo-question refers to a question that does not need to be discussed at this time, or a question that has no answer at all.

Moreover, what is more difficult is that some questions seem to be true, but they are actually false, which requires special attention.

In daily life, you may meet friends who come to discuss the following issues.

"I am very concerned about my weight recently, so I want to go to the gym to lose weight. Which gym do you think is better, A or B? "

In this case, "Which gym should I go to A or B" is the question I want to discuss. However, the real problem is actually to care about your weight.

If so, the actual problem may lie in the imbalance of diet and the irregularity of life, not just the lack of exercise.

That is to say, before solving the question "Which gym should I go to? A or B", it is necessary to investigate the more fundamental question: Why do you start to care about weight recently, what is the specific weight change, and is there anything else you care about?

If there are other interesting changes in health, it is necessary to turn the pseudo question "Which gym should I go to A or B" into the real question "Should I receive a comprehensive physical examination?"

In the workplace, we should cultivate the habit of distinguishing between true and false problems when facing them, and don't act rashly and think blindly.

If the initial problem is biased, then the derived solution will also be fallacious. Therefore, it is very important to find out the real problem.

Can we grasp the core of the problem from a broader perspective?

When you can't answer the above questions through your own thinking, try to describe the core of your question to others.

The point is whether the description can be completed within 30 seconds. As mentioned earlier, the real problem is simple. If you have to make a lengthy explanation, it means that you haven't grasped the core of the problem.

In this case, I hope you can try an instant demonstration called "elevator test".

Literally, in a very short time (about 30 seconds) when the elevator rises and falls, convey the core of the problem to the other party in one sentence.

Maybe everyone will think it's impossible. However, please recall that when you take the elevator with a stranger, you will feel that the time is very long. So, 30 seconds is not as short as you think. You can broadcast two commercials with a duration of 15 seconds within 30 seconds, so if you really get to the heart of the problem, you should be able to effectively convey the information to the other party within 30 seconds.

No matter how busy the other person in charge or boss is, it is impossible to have 30 seconds.

If key information can be conveyed within this time, it will be beneficial to both parties.

"Regarding the new commodity proposal of Company A, the settlement price is the key to the success of the transaction. So we should discuss the price adjustment of 10%. Can it be transferred between departments? "

In this way, the core of the problem, including the problem, solution and implementation method, is displayed concisely and forcefully, so that it can be judged immediately.

If you can get a reply from the other party smoothly, it proves that you really get to the heart of the problem.

It can also be used in meetings. Participants can write down the core issues including problems, solutions and implementation methods on post-it notes in advance according to the topic or theme, and discuss them as the center.

Taking action on the premise of clearing up the thinking is the key to determining the result.

Only by cultivating the habit of grasping the core of doubt before acting can we create higher value.