THE ABC OF ACTION
Have you ever made the mistake of doing something without thinking? We all have! But if you’d like to practice thinking before doing, and you’re looking for some sort of guide to do it, I hope I can help.
Ask my friends; I’ve change a lot. And if I can give credit for my transformation, it is my experience in academics. As a former college lecturer on Communication Theories, I had to know a number of theories — and theories are basically ways to explain what’s happening. After years of teaching, I developed an automatic response process to my experiences. This process has 3 steps and it entails getting information, taking them apart looking at them from various perspectives, and building my own interpretation, and eventually my own perspectives and worldviews.
To “know something”, we humans go through a process of collection, analysis, and formation.
- Acquire — We “build” our body of knowledge by collecting stories, data, observations. This is when we hear about the situation, we ask around, read the news, observe people and our surroundings, and try to get as much information about it as possible. This is not yet Intelligence. This is just data.
- Breakdown — We pass data, or the raw information and stories through different lenses of understanding. Basically we look at the situation from a particular perspective. It’s best if we do this from many different ones. For example, in buying a new phone, you can look at it from different perspectives by asking these questions: Is this something I need now?(Needs-based) How might this benefit me? (Benefits-based) Can I afford it? (Cost-based) Is the cost good with what I’m getting? (Cost-benefit) There can be an infinite number of perspectives to take when we breakdown scenarios. The key is for us to be open to all the possible perspectives so we can make the best possible understanding.
- Create — The better we break down knowledge, the more and better materials we have to rebuild. Imagine a fresh box of Legos. The more pieces you have, the more room you have for imagination and creation. This is rebuilding. Once we’ve broken down knowledge into manageable concepts, we rebuild them to form our own ideas, and perspectives which inform us of our actions. Having informed knowledge that drive action is Intelligence.
Some academics call these steps — thesis, anti-thesis, synthesis. But essentially it means you gather information, you break it down, and then you rebuild it based on your understanding.
A good rule of thumb is to always get as much information or data before you analyze. And breakdown the ideas, and sift through data through different lenses first before you form your own ideas, perspectives or make your own decision.
All of us at some point have made terrible decisions because we failed to get enough information or we did not analyze situations well enough to make decisions and actions.
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