What level of thinking ability is you at?

This article introduces the four levels of thinking: point thinking, linear thinking, structured thinking, and systematic thinking. By understanding and applying different levels of thinking, we can think about problems more comprehensively, improve work efficiency, and achieve better results. It is recommended for readers who want to expand their thinking patterns and improve their work capabilities.

We often encounter various difficulties and challenges in work and life. Sometimes, we think that we are not working hard enough or lack the ability.

However, the real problem may not be how hard we work, but how we think.

The right way of thinking can help us better face difficulties and achieve success, while the wrong way of thinking may put us in trouble. Are we aware of what our thinking patterns are and whether we think about problems from different levels?
This article will introduce four levels of thinking: point thinking, linear thinking, structured thinking, and systematic thinking.

01 Point-based thinking

Let me ask you a question, how to improve work efficiency?

Your first reaction may be: use tools to improve efficiency, plan your work well, reduce interruptions, etc.

This way of thinking is point-based thinking, which means that when you think about a problem, you will have scattered thoughts one by one. This is the way most people think about problems.

This method relies heavily on intuition and inspiration. The scattered thinking may not be related and lacks logic.

I have some friends who love to learn various data analysis courses. If you ask them how to do data analysis, they can tell you a lot of analysis methods. But they don’t know how to actually do it.

The fundamental reason is that these people think in a point-by-point way. They know a lot of knowledge, but there is no connection between the knowledge. Whether they can apply it properly depends on luck.

02 Linear Thinking

Compared with point-based thinking, linear thinking begins to have a certain logic.

Regarding how to improve work efficiency, people with linear thinking will think: My work efficiency is not high now because there are always people interrupting me when I am working, so I have to leave myself some long periods of time without being disturbed, so that I can improve my work efficiency.

This way of thinking will think about the reasons for the low work efficiency and then analyze how to improve the reasons. There is a logical connection between the beginning and the end, and it is more organized.

However, linear thinking is still not perfect. Linear thinking is easily limited to a specific way of thinking, relies on inertial thinking to solve problems, and the analysis is not comprehensive enough.

03 Structured thinking

The third type is structured thinking, which is a way of thinking possessed by only a few talents.

Structured thinking is no longer a single line, but multiple lines forming a surface.

For example, how to improve work efficiency, the same problem, structured thinking will break down all the factors related to work efficiency, such as:

• Work efficiency is the work output per unit time. Improving work efficiency can be done from two aspects: improving efficiency and reducing losses.
• Improving efficiency can be divided into: reasonable allocation of tasks, improving work skills, being good at using tools, thinking of innovative methods, and timely communication of progress, etc.
• Reducing losses can be divided into: reducing external interference, tidying up the working environment, maintaining good health, arranging work and rest schedules reasonably, etc.

After sorting out all the relevant factors, we can continue to analyze the response methods for each factor.

Structured thinking is a way of thinking that breaks down a problem into several parts, and then classifies, sorts, summarizes and analyzes these parts to ultimately get a solution to the entire problem.

Structured thinking is a more comprehensive way of thinking about problems, and corresponding solutions can be found when encountering any problem.

Structured thinking is a skill that few people can master.

This is about skills, not knowledge.

You may know what structured thinking is, but structured thinking is not your skill because your first reaction when thinking about a problem is not structured.

Think back to the department meeting, when the leader called on you to answer a question, what was your reaction? Most people think linearly or even point-wise.

People who can express themselves in a structured way in a short period of time are definitely elites in the workplace.

04 Systemic thinking

Systemic thinking, or systemic thinking.

It means to view the whole thing as a system, understand the interaction and relationship between each part, consider the problem from the overall perspective, and find the key points and optimization solutions of the whole system. This kind of thinking can help people better understand the nature and operation rules of the system, and help make more comprehensive and effective decisions.

Using systematic thinking to analyze how to improve work efficiency pays more attention to the relevant functions and relationships between the various parts of the problem than structured thinking.

For example, when analyzing how to improve work efficiency, structured thinking will come up with two ideas: reducing external interference and communicating progress in a timely manner.

From the perspective of systemic thinking, there is some conflict between these two viewpoints. "Reducing external interference" means affecting "progress in timely communication", while "progress in timely communication" also means affecting "reducing external communication".

Therefore, in order to draw an accurate conclusion, we need to refer to the relationship between each part and get a comprehensive result. Generally speaking, when it comes to the level of systematic thinking, we must express our thinking through visualization. When the problems we think about become more and more complicated, because our brain's short-term processing capacity is 5±2 memory blocks, the brain cannot keep up with the content that exceeds this capacity . Or our brain turns too fast, and we can't keep up with the speed of writing or speaking, which eventually leads to more and more chaotic text or language.

At this time, it is urgent to record the thinking process and let the brain process it module by module.

Systematic thinking generally involves making system loop diagrams, which help find solutions to problems by drawing the relationships between various elements.

05 Summary

This article introduces four levels of thinking: point thinking, linear thinking, structured thinking, and systematic thinking.

In actual work, we should be aware of our own thinking patterns and learn to think about problems at multiple levels so that we can better cope with changes and challenges and achieve more success.

Having excellent thinking is the only way to success.

Author: Jason

Source: WeChat public account "Sanyuan Variance (ID: sanyuanfangcha)"