They Key To Understanding Your World: If
Then
Categories: Habits of Success; Measurement; Logic;
Keywords: logic, logical map, measurement, measuring, clarity, motivation, focus,
confidence, strengths,
Today’s post is going to be a bit longer than usual. It contains one of the single most powerful
tools I’ve ever discovered to help solve difficult problems, and bring about effective change.
Last time we started looking at measuring. Measurement can be a really powerful tool, if you
measure the right things. To quickly recap, we said,
Measurement brings clarity
Measurement motivates
Measurement focuses
Measurement creates confidence
The problem is that if you measure the wrong things, it can bring clarity about things that are
unimportant, it can undermine your motivation, it can focus you in the wrong direction, and it
can make you confident in your knowledge about things that don’t matter.
For this reason, the process of implementing useful measurements in your life starts with
understanding how your world works. And logical mapping is one of the best tools for gaining
this understanding.
Logical mapping is a simple process by which you create a map that helps you understand how
different things work together to create a certain situation.
To create a logical map, you need something like yellow post-it notes, or if you are going to do it
on a computer, some software that allows you to write things down in blocks, and move it
around easily, such as Microsoft Visio, or even PowerPoint will do the trick.
For today’s example, we are going to use the concept of strengths. I will talk more about
“strengths” in another post, but for now, the working definition of strengths can simply be work
that you love doing, and that you have a natural talent for. Those are your strengths. We are
going to try to solve a problem many people face – which is not working in their strengths.
This, by the way, is one of the most useful problems in life to solve. When you are not working
in your strengths, you are not well positioned for the greatest success and the greatest impact
you can make on the world. So why not grab some sticky notes right now, or even some small
pieces of paper, and do this exercise for yourself?
To create your logical map, start by writing down one aspect on each of your post-it notes,
relating to what it is that you want to understand better.
First write down the challenge or the problem you are currently experiencing:
I’m not working
in my strengths
most of the time
Now write down everything you know about this situation. Write one statement on one post-it
note. If you have to use “and” or “or” or “because” then you are probably writing two
statements, and should write it on two sticky-notes. Put all of these in front of you, in any order,
so that you can see them all at once.
E.g.
I’m not working
in my strengths
most of the time
I cannot identify tasks
that will suit my
strengths.
I’m not always
confident in my own
strengths
I don’t make any effort
to get tasks assigned
to me that will allow
me to work in my
strengths
My boss doesn’t
recognize my
strengths
I’m not sure what my
strengths are
And you might write down a lot more.
The next step is to begin to build the cause-and-effect relationships between all the different
elements of what you know about your situation. You can identify these by beginning to make
“if … then …” statements.
For example:
If:
I’m not sure what my
strengths are
THEN: I cannot identify tasks that will suit my strengths.
And IF I cannot identify tasks that will suit my strengths
THEN: I will not make any effort to get those tasks assigned to me.
Now begin to arrange your notes in the cause-and-effect order you’ve identified, with the
causes at the bottom, and the effects at the top. Make some arrows on extra post-it-notes to
put in between, to maintain your logical links, or if you have a white-board, you can stick the
notes on the white-board and draw the arrows.
I don’t make any effort
to get tasks assigned
to me that will allow
me to work in my
strengths
I cannot identify tasks
that will suit my
strengths.
I’m not sure what my
strengths are
You may notice that some of the items you wrote down initially, are beginning to fit in here.
For example, if you cannot identify tasks that that will suit your strengths, AND you are not
confident in your strengths, then you are even LESS likely to make the effort to get tasks that
suit your strengths, assigned to you.
Connect these by using arrows and circles. Like this:
The above logical map can be read like this:
If I’m not sure what my strengths are, then I cannot identify tasks that will suit my strengths.
And if I cannot identify tasks that suit my strengths AND I’m not always confident in my own
strengths, then I won’t make any efforts to get tasks assigned to me that will suit my own
strengths.
It doesn’t matter if you didn’t get everything related to your situation written down up front. As
you start building your logical map, you easily discover gaps and relationships that make you
realize something is missing – and then you just write that down and add it in.
For example:
As you look at this map, can you begin to see a link between “I’m not sure what my strengths
are” and “I’m not always confident in my own strengths?” But you can also see that there are
some logical steps missing here. See if you can identify these steps, and fit them in.
Here is a suggestion:
If I’m not sure what my strengths are, I will not know where to focus my selfdevelopment efforts.
If I don’t know where to focus my self-development efforts, I could probably waste time
developing areas that are not my strengths, and neglecting areas that are my strengths.
If I neglect development of areas that are within my strengths, I will not gain true
mastery over these areas.
If I cannot gain mastery in the areas of my strengths, then I will not be confident in my
own strengths.
Take a few moments to extend your logical map based on the above information, if you can,
before you look at the way I’ve done it. You may also disagree with some of what I’ve said –
which is fine, because you are not me, and what is true for me, may not be true for you.
Here is my suggestion:
The way to read the two arrows going out from “I’m not sure what my strengths are,” is also by
using “And”, but this time the AND points to TWO effects from the same cause:
If I’m not sure what my strengths are, THEN
-
I don’t know where to focus my self-development efforts
AND I cannot identify tasks that will suit my strengths.
But there are still two cards from our original list that haven’t found their spot in our map yet:
I’m not working in my
strengths most of the
time
My boss doesn’t
recognize my
strengths
Look at your map again, and see if you can decide where these fit, before you look at my
suggestion.
Now you can see that being uncertain about what your strengths are, lies at the root of the
current situation. We said last time that one of the things measurement does, is to bring clarity.
So this is a perfect example of a place where you need measurement to bring clarity. If you
could introduce some kind of measurement that could help you move from not being sure about
what your strengths are, to being absolutely clear about your strengths and your weaknesses,
you will have addressed the first step in a journey to getting to work in your strengths all the
time.
But how do you measure that?
In our next post, we will look at a simple method for putting in place a measurement system
that will help you to clarify what your strengths and your weaknesses are.
But don’t wait for the next post – go and try to do this yourself. We said that strengths are
things that you love doing, and that you have natural talent for. If those two things are what
make your strengths, then …? See if you can build a logical map that can help you see what
would move someone from not being clear about their strengths, to being clear about them,
and then see if you can think of a way to measure that.
To Your Balanced Wealth!
Ashton
About The Author
Ashton Fourie is a Management and Organisation Development consultant with a passion for
life-long learning and growth as foundations for meaningful success. He started out working as
an office cleaner for a small cardboard factory, worked himself up, and has since built up 15
years of management experience, obtained a degree in Business Management and is completing
a Master’s Degree in Managing and Leading Innovation and Change. He is married to a beautiful
Chinese lady and has a 7 year old daughter and 5 year old son, who are both fluent in English
and Mandarin Chinese.