Translated from 日本語 • View original Colorkrew offers a variety of trainings, but this time we will introduce "Logical Thinking Training". This is a training report by employees in their second and third years as new graduates.
Colorkrew specialty, I received logical thinking training!
Hello! This is Tsutsumi, an engineer, and Aoki, a salesperson!
As our second and third year employees of Colorkrew's valuable new graduate members, we received a training this month. Colorkrew has a range of training and learning programs to encourage employee growth, but the most famous of them all.
Its name is "Logical Thinking Training".
This is a training that cultivates logical thinking to break down and organize things, create a path, and draw conclusions. For more information about Logical Thinking Training, please click here. (ISAO style and how to develop professional human resources - Logical thinking training)
It was a mandatory training for all employees, and I was looking forward to it because I had heard a lot from my seniors. Although I was interested, I honestly had heard about how much I understood logical thinking.
Tsutsumi: "I've read it in a book, I know the word MECE." Aoki: "The coach is Mr. Yoshioka (who serves as a training instructor), so I've been pointed out, but I'm not sure how much I understand."
It was like this before it started.
However, when I finished it, there were many things I learned that I was glad I received. This time, I will tell you what I learned the most from each of them.
Learning from Tsutsumi, a second-year engineer
There are a lot of things I learned from the intensive training from morning to night for two days, but one of the things that left a particularly strong impression on me.
It is "very difficult to grasp the whole of things, and you will quickly stick to one part."
In the training, "The number of visitors to a certain theme park is decreasing, so I want to do something about it. In response to the theme, there was an exercise to organize customer satisfaction on the two axes of "theme park services" and "customer base".
I approached the exercise without any doubt about organizing on these two axes. However, at the end of the exercise, he was asked, "Is there anything else I should think about the decrease in the number of visitors?"
- Lack of axis items
- It's not enough to just look at customer satisfaction in the first place.
I was pointed out.
If you ask me, it's true...... I think, but I didn't notice it at all when I was actually practicing.
When I was a university student, I had read a book on logical thinking, so I knew that I had to think about MECE (without leaking it). However, I never thought that omissions would occur so easily when actually used. And what is even sadder is that I repeated the same thing in the exercises after this, which I was determined to make sure there were no leaks. As expected, I was shocked that I did it again.
Looking back now, I personally think that if you are working for the purpose of analysis and organization, you will forget the original purpose and cause such omissions. I would like to use it in the future, keeping in mind that the purpose is to solve problems and that logical thinking is only a means.
As an engineer, MECE can be used in actual work to identify where bugs occur. For example, in a web application, an error occurred while developing the X function of the backend. Basically, you can read the error message, but even if you read it and search on the Internet, you may not know the cause. In that case, we will also look into the code for other Y functions related to the X function. If you can't find it there, look into other related features.
However, what must not be forgotten is the purpose.
The purpose is not to "examine the code of the X function of the backend", but to "identify the location of the bug that is occurring". Don't assume that the backend is the cause. Maybe the cause is the front-end or infrastructure. This is what happens when you lose sight of purpose and stick to a part. Therefore, it is important to be aware of the purpose and think about the whole rather than the part.
It is also useful to organize it in MECE when consulting and reporting. For example, when reporting a bug, "When I investigated, I divided the scope into three categories: front-end, back-end, and infrastructure." "As a result of the investigation, the front-end was 〇〇, the back-end was 〇〇, and the infrastructure was 〇〇." If you tell them, it will be easier for the listener to understand.
New graduate 3rd year sales, Aoki's learning
The lecturer, Mr. Yoshioka, is also a senior sales officer and a coach. On a daily basis, I was also pointed out about logical thinking. Among them, I feel that I have deepened my learning after receiving the training is the "summarization ability".
The following three important points in summary skills.
- Grouping that focuses on common elements and categorizes them
- Keywords that summarize the characteristics of a classified group in one word
- Align keywords with a sense of level
In my job, I often need to have summarization skills in a series of processes such as systematizing the content of meetings (meeting minutes) with customers, organizing them so that members of the company can understand them, and sharing information. However, "The minutes of the meeting are not organized, so let's organize them and be able to speak in an easy-to-understand manner." It was pointed out.
I tried and failed every time in my own way, but I didn't know what the right answer was, and I was somehow unconfident.
That's why this training is here. It was the first time I had the opportunity to focus on "summarization skills" and learn about it. Thanks to this, I was able to realize not only what is important for summarization skills, but also what is difficult.
This is my own interpretation, but in particular, if you are aware of the purpose of "keywords" and "keyword level matching", the summary will be betterI've been thinking about it lately. Until now, I faced the content of the notes without being conscious of the purpose and summarized them in my own way. As a result, when I looked back at the minutes, important information was missing or difficult to understand.
In fact, when I was aware of the purpose of "thinking about the next approach to the customer", "sharing with internal members", and "asking for internal cooperation", it became easier to work backwards from there and organize the information such as how to talk> how to summarize the meeting minutes> and what I wanted to ask the customer.
By the way, when I talked about this to someone who also has an issue in sales, the response was quite good, so I think my understanding is a mistake.
The key to logical thinking is to be aware of the purpose
So far, I have summarized the observations of both of them, but what I felt in common is that logical thinking is a means and it is important to be aware of the purpose.
In the training, workshops and exercises were prepared in detail for each theme. And in each feedback, I was asked to explain why I thought so. As you repeat it, you may have gradually developed a habit of thinking about your purpose.
It was a great gain to learn not only the framework for thinking logically, but also the purpose that must not be forgotten when using it. This may not have been noticed by studying from books alone. I think it was because the training was designed to not only learn how to use but also use it, that I was able to deepen my understanding so far.
Why do you think logically? What do you want to do with the results of your thinking? In this way, I would like to always be aware of the purpose and face practical work. And if my juniors are worried, I would like to help them by sharing the insights I gained during the training.