Hello,
Now the last chapter of Harry Alder’s book “Train your brain”. I embedded a list at Amazon of all the great Harry Alder self-help books.
Let us start with chapter 9: Three Week Peak Performance Plan – that is all, just read the chapter if you want to go on the 21 day exercise.
Before that, read chapter 8: Techniques to Train your brain
- Balloon Diagrams – they are forerunners to mindmaps and allow you to represent your thoughts in a graphical way
- Brainstorming – you should be familiar with that and don’t forget the most important rule not to interrupt anyone else or ridicule someone else’s thought/idea
- Brainwriting – graphically as Brainsketching (one puts ideas on a board graphically, same rules as at Brainstorming applies) or as Brainwriting Pool (one writes 4 ideas on a piece of paper and shares them in the middle, same rules as at Brainstorming again)
- Chunking – you take a word/problem and chunk it down or up
- The Concept Fan – you work your ideas backwards; it reminds me of DBM where you e.g. ask yourself “I like to drive a car” – What kind of car you like to drive? How do you like to drive it? Why is it that you like to drive a car? You simply go into more detail and ask for the right motivation and solution to a problem. Sometimes you discover that the obvious answer is not right because the problem described is not the real problem. This is similar to a method mentioned as Repetitive Why Analysis.
- SWOTs – using the SWOT technique: Strenght, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats. Again, DBM has a tool called “FADS” – Fear, Angst, Development, Safety. The more dynamic and the more you might want to move in the model, e.g. you could draw a cross on the floor and stand in the situation, the better. Have someone to guide you through it!
- Flowscapes – you write down what comes to your mind when thinking of the problem. you then rank them time wise A, B, C – arrange the base list graphically to have a flow-chart. You then examine the points and see where the problem lies.
- Force Field Analysis – showing similar to SWOT which forces are for or against a situation
- “How to” Diagram – working backwards asking how to do certain things – very similar to the concept fan
- Metaphors and Analogies – using stories and examples from out of the workplace to find a new idea.
- Reversal – you change your point of view by 180 degrees. This can be physically, mentally, imaginative or just by putting yourself in someone else’s shoes.
- Root Cause Checklist – checking whether your answers touch the root of the problem. Going deeper into possible solutions.
- Sleight of Mouth – reframing technique from NLP which is described in detail in Wikipedia.
Let me thank Harry Alder for this great book. It summarizes a lot of NLP, common sense and how to use certain techniques to be more creative, perform better and have a greater life. Enjoy reading it in detail and start changing your life today.
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