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Memory Techniques

Memory Techniques - Introduction

The tools in this section help you to improve your memory. They help you both to remember facts accurately and to remember the structure of information.

The tools are split into two sections. Firstly you'll learn the memory techniques themselves. Secondly we'll look at how you can use them in practice to remember peoples names, languages, exam information, and so on.

As with other mind tools, the more practice you give yourself with these techniques, the more effectively you will use them. This section contains many of the memory techniques used by stage memory performers. With enough practice and effort, you may be able to have a memory as good. Even if you do not have the time needed to develop this quality of memory, many of the techniques here are useful in everyday life.

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Mnemonics'Mnemonic' is another word for memory tool. Mnemonics are techniques for remembering information that is otherwise quite difficult to recall: A very simple example is the '30 days hath September' rhyme for remembering the number of days in each calendar month.

The idea behind using mnemonics is to encode difficult-to-remember information in a way that is much easier to remember.

Our brains evolved to code and interpret complex stimuli such as images, colors, structures, sounds, smells, tastes, touch, positions, emotions and language. We use these to make sophisticated models of the world we live in. Our memories store all of these very effectively.

Unfortunately, a lot of the information we have to remember in modern life is presented differently - as words printed on a page. While writing is a rich and sophisticated medium for conveying complex arguments, our brains do not easily encode written information, making it difficult to remember.

This section of Mind Tools shows you how to use all the memory resources available to you to remember information in a highly efficient way.

Using Your Whole Mind To RememberThe key idea is that by coding information using vivid mental images, you can reliably code both information and the structure of information. And because the images are vivid, they are easy to recall when you need them.

The techniques explained later on in this section show you how to code information vividly, using stories, strong mental images, familiar journeys, and so on.

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You can do the following things to make your mnemonics more memorable:
Use positive, pleasant images. Your brain often blocks out unpleasant ones
Use vivid, colorful, sense-laden images - these are easier to remember than drab ones
Use all your senses to code information or dress up an image. Remember that your mnemonic can contain sounds, smells, tastes, touch, movements and feelings as well as pictures.
Give your image three dimensions, movement and space to make it more vivid. You can use movement either to maintain the flow of association, or to help you to remember actions.
Exaggerate the size of important parts of the image
Use humor! Funny or peculiar things are easier to remember than normal ones.
Similarly, rude rhymes are very difficult to forget!
Symbols (red traffic lights, pointing fingers, road signs, etc.) can code quite complex messages quickly and effectively

Designing Mnemonics: Imagination, Association and Location The three fundamental principles underlying the use of mnemonics are imagination, association and location. Working together, you can use these principles to generate powerful mnemonic systems.

Imagination: is what you use to create and strengthen the associations needed to create effective mnemonics. Your imagination is what you use to create mnemonics that are potent for you. The more strongly you imagine and visualize a situation, the more effectively it will stick in your mind for later recall. The imagery you use in your mnemonics can be as violent, vivid, or sensual as you like, as long as it helps you to remember.

Association: this is the method by which you link a thing to be remembered to a way of remembering it. You can create associations by:
Placing things on top of each other
Crashing things together
Merging images together
Wrapping them around each other
Rotating them around each other or having them dancing together
Linking them using the same color, smell, shape, or feeling
As an example, you might link the number 1 with a goldfish by visualizing a 1-shaped spear being used to spear it.

Location: gives you two things: a coherent context into which you can place information so that it hangs together, and a way of separating one mnemonic from another. By setting one mnemonic in a particular town, I can separate it from a similar mnemonic set in a city. For example, by setting one in Wimbledon and another similar mnemonic with images of Manhattan, we can separate them with no danger of confusion. You can build the flavors and atmosphere of these places into your mnemonics to strengthen the feeling of location.

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Our first memory techniques, the Link and Story Methods, show how effective these ideas can be. To read about these, click "Next article" below. Other relevant destinations are shown in the "Where to go from here" list underneath.

The Link & Story MethodsRemembering a Simple List
The Link Method is one of the easiest mnemonic techniques available. You use it by making simple associations between items in a list, linking them with a vivid image containing the items. Taking the first image, create a connection between it and the next item (perhaps in your mind smashing them together, putting one on top of the other, or suchlike.) Then move on through the list linking each item with the next.

The Story Method is very similar, linking items together with a memorable story featuring them. The flow of the story and the strength of the images give you the cues for retrieval.

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It is quite possible to remember lists of words using association only. However it is often best to fit the associations into a story: Otherwise by forgetting just one association you can lose the whole of the rest of the list.

Given the fluid structure of this mnemonic (compared with the peg systems explained later in this section) it is important that the images stored in your mind are as vivid as possible. See the introduction to this section for further information on making images strong and memorable.
Where a word you want to remember does not trigger strong images, use a similar word that will remind you of that word.
Example:
You may want to remember this list of counties in the South of England: Avon, Dorset, Somerset, Cornwall, Wiltshire, Devon, Gloucestershire, Hampshire, and Surrey.

You could do this with two approaches, the Link Method and the Story Method:
Remembering with the Link Method
This would rely on a series of images coding information:
An AVON (Avon) lady knocking on a heavy oak DOoR (Dorset)
The DOoR opening to show a beautiful SuMmER landscape with a SETting sun (Somerset)
The setting sun shines down onto a field of CORN (Cornwall)
The CORN is so dry it is beginning to WILT (Wiltshire)
The WILTing stalks slowly droop onto the tail of the sleeping DEVil (Devon).
On the DEVil's horn a woman has impaled a GLOSsy (Gloucestershire) HAM (Hampshire) when she hit him over the head with it
Now the Devil feels SoRRY (Surrey) he bothered her.
Note that there need not be any reason or underlying plot to the sequence of images: only images and the links between images are important.

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Remembering with the Story Method:
Alternatively you could code this information by imaging the following story vividly:

An AVON lady is walking up a path towards a strange house. She is hot and sweating slightly in the heat of high SUMMER (Somerset). Beside the path someone has planted giant CORN in a WALL (Cornwall), but it's beginning to WILT (Wiltshire) in the heat. She knocks on the DOoR (Dorset), which is opened by the DEVil (Devon).

In the background she can see a kitchen in which a servant is smearing honey on a HAM (Hampshire), making it GLOSsy (Gloucestershire) and gleam in bright sunlight streaming in through a window. Panicked by seeing the Devil, the Avon lady screams 'SoRRY' (Surrey), and dashes back down the path.

Key points:
The Link Method is probably the most basic memory technique, and is very easy to understand and use. It works by coding information to be remembered into images and then linking these images together

The story technique is very similar. It links these images together into a story. This helps to keep events in a logical order and can improve your ability to remember information if you forget the sequence of images.

Both techniques are very simple to learn. Unfortunately they are both slightly unreliable as it is easy to confuse the order of images or forget images from a sequence.

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These problems are solved using a simple "peg system" like the Number/Rhyme Mnemonic, explained in our next article. To read this, click "Next article" below. Other relevant destinations are shown in the "Where to go from here" list underneath.

The Number/Rhyme MnemonicRemembering Simple Ordered ListsA popular peg system
The Number/Rhyme technique is a very simple way of remembering lists in order.

It is an example of a peg system using - a system where information is 'pegged' to a known sequence (here the numbers one to ten) to create pegwords. By doing this you ensure that you do not forget any facts, as gaps in information are immediately obvious. It also makes remembering images easier as you always know part of the mnemonic images.

At a simple level you can use it to remember things such as a list of English Kings or American Presidents in their precise order. At a more advanced level it can be used, for example, to code lists of experiments to be recalled in a science exam.

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How to Use the Tool:
The technique works by helping you to build up pictures in your mind, in which you represent numbers by things that rhyme with the number. You can then link these pictures to images of the things to be remembered.

The usual rhyming scheme is:
Bun
Shoe
Tree
Paw
Hive
Bricks
Heaven
Gate
Line
Hen
If you find that these images do not attract you or stick in your mind, then change them for something more meaningful.

Link these images to ones representing the things to be remembered. Often, the sillier the compound image, the more effectively you will remember it - see the introduction to this chapter to see how you can improve the image to help it stay clearly in your mind.

Example:
For example, you could remember a chronological list of ten Greek philosophers as:
Parmenides - a BUN topped with grated yellow PARMEsan cheese
Heraclitus - a SHOE worn by HERACLes (Greek Hercules) glowing with abright LIghT
Empedocles - A TREE from which the M-shaped McDonalds arches hanghooking up a bicycle PEDal
Democritus - think of a PAW print on the voting form of a DEMOCRaTicelection
Protagoras - A bee HIVE being positively punched through (GORed?) byan atomic PROTon
Socrates - BRICKS falling onto a SOCk (with a foot inside!) from aCRATe.
Plato - A plate with angel's wings flapping around a white cloud
Aristotle - a friend called hARRY clutching a bOTtLE of wine vaulting overa gate
Zeno - A LINE of ZEN Buddhists meditating
Epicurus - a HEN's egg being mixed into an EPIleptics's CURe.
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Try either visualizing these images as suggested, or if you do not like them, come up with images of your own. Once you have done this, try writing down the names of the philosophers on a piece of paper. You should be able to do this by thinking of the number, then the part of the image associated with the number, and then the whole image. Finally you can decode the image to give you the name of the philosopher.

If the mnemonic has worked, you should not only recall the names of all the philosophers in the correct order, but should also be able to spot where you have left them out of the sequence. Try it - it's easier than it sounds.

You can use a peg system like this as a basis for knowledge in an entire area. The example above could form the basis for knowledge of ancient philosophy. You could now associate images representing the projects, systems and theories of each philosopher with the images coding the philosophers' names.
Key points:
The Number/Rhyme technique is a very effective method of remembering lists. It works by 'pegging' the things to be remembered to images rhyming with the numbers 0 - 9. By driving the associations with numbers you have a good starting point in reconstructing the images, you are aware if information is missing, and you can pick up and continue the sequence from anywhere within the list.

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In the next article, we look at the Number/Shape mnemonic, another useful peg system. To read this, click "Next article" below. Other relevant destinations are shown in the "Where to go from here" list underneath.

The Number/Shape MnemonicRemembering Simple Ordered Lists
The Number/Shape system is very similar to the Number/Rhyme system. It is a very simple and effective way of remembering a list in a specific order. It is another example of a peg system based on oegword images.

How to Use the Tool:
The technique works by helping you to build up pictures in your mind, in which the numbers are represented by images shaped like the number. You can then associate these with the things you want to remember using striking images.

One image scheme is shown below:

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Candle, spear, stick
Swan (beak, curved neck, body)
Bifocal glasses, or part of a "love heart"
Sail of a yacht
A meat hook, a sea-horse facing right
A golf club
A cliff edge
An egg timer
A balloon with a string attached, flying freely
A hole
If you find that these images do not attract you or stick in your mind, then change them for something more meaningful to you.

As with the Number/Rhyme scheme, link these images to ones representing the things to be remembered.

In some cases these images may be more vivid than those in the number/rhyme scheme, and in other cases you may find the number/rhyme scheme more memorable. There is no reason why you cannot mix the most vivid images of each scheme together into your own compound scheme.

Example:
We can use a list of more modern thinkers to illustrate the number/shape system:
Spinoza - a large CANDLE wrapped around with someone's SPINe
Locke - a SWAN trying to pick a LOCK with its wing
Hume - A HUMan child BREAST feeding
Berkeley - A SAIL on top of a large hooked and spiked BURR in the LEE of a cliff
Kant - a CAN of spam hanging from a meat HOOK
Rousseau - a kangaROO SEWing with a GOLF CLUB
Hegel - a crooked trader about to be pushed over a CLIFF, HaGgLing totry to avoid being hurt
Kierkegaard - a large EGG TIMER containing captain KIRK and a GuARD from the starship enterprise, as time runs out
Darwin - a BALLOON floating upwards, being blown fAR by the WINd
Marx - a HOLE with white chalk MARks around it's edge
Key points:
The Number/Shape technique is a very effective method of remembering lists. It works by linking things to be remembered with the images representing the numbers 0 - 9. By using it in conjunction with the Number/Rhyme system, you can build potent images that can make very effective mnemonics.

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The next technique we look at, the Alphabet Technique, extends this approach, helping you remember longer lists. To read this, click "Next article" below. Other relevant destinations are shown in the "Where to go from here" list underneath.

The Alphabet TechniqueRemembering Middle Length ListsA popular pegword system
The Alphabet system is a peg memory technique similar to, but more sophisticated than, the Number/Rhyme system. It is a good method for remembering longer lists of items in a specific order, in such a way that you can tell if items are missing.

It works by associating images representing letters of the alphabet with images you create for the things to be remembered.

How to Use the Tool:
When you are creating images for the letters of the alphabet, create images phonetically, so that the sound of the first syllable of the word is the name of the letter. For example, you might represent the letter 'k' with the word 'cake'.

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Tony Buzan in his book 'Use Your Perfect Memory' suggests using a system for creating vivid images that you can reconstruct if you forget them. He suggests taking the phonetic letter sound as the first consonant, and then, for the rest of the consonants in the word, using the first letters in alphabetical order that make a memorable word. For example for the letter 'S' (root 'Es') we would first see if any strong images presented themselves when we tried to create a word starting with 'EsA', 'EsB', 'EsC', 'EsD', 'EsE', etc.).

This approach has the advantage of producing an image that you can reconstruct if you forget it. You might, however, judge that this is an unnecessary complication of a relatively simple system. In any case it is best to select the strongest image that comes to mind and stick with it.

One image scheme is shown below:
A - Ace of spadesB - BeeC - SeaD - Diesel engineE - EelF - EffluentG - JeansH - H-Bomb, itchI - EyeJ - JadeK - CakeL - ElephantM - EmptyN - EntranceO - OboeP - PeaQ - QueueR - ArkS - EskimoT - TeapotU - UnicycleV - VehicleW - WCX - X-RayY - WireZ - Zulu

If you find that these images do not attract you or stick in your mind, then change them for something more meaningful to you.

Once you have firmly visualised these images and have linked them to their root letters, you can associate them with information to be remembered.

See the introduction to this chapter to see how you can improve these pictures to help them stay clearly in your mind. Once you have mastered this technique you can multiply the it using the images described in the article on Expanding Memory Systems (see 7.2).
Example:
Continuing our mnemonic example of the names of philosophers, we will use the example of remembering a list of modern thinkers:
A - Ace - Freud - a crisp ACE being pulled out of a FRying pan (FRiED)B - Bee - Chomsky - a BEE stinging a CHiMp and flying off into the SKYC - Sea - Genette - a GENerator being lifted in a NET out of the SEAD - Diesel - Derrida - a DaRing RIDer surfing on top of a DIESEL trainE - Eagle - Foucault - Bruce Lee fighting off an attacking EAGLE with kungFUF - Effluent- Joyce - environmentalists JOYfully finding a plant by anEFFLUENT pipeG - Jeans - Nietzche - a holey pair of JEANS with a kNEe showing throughH - H-Bomb - Kafka - a grey civil service CAFe being blown up by an H-Bombetc.

Key points:
The Alphabet Technique links the items to be remembered with images of the letters A - Z. This allows you to remember a medium length list in the correct order. By pegging the items to be remembered to letters of the alphabet you know if you have forgotten items, and know the cues to use to trigger their recall.

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The Journey System is the next tool we look at. This is a powerful technique for quickly remembering long lists. To read this, click "Next article" below. Other relevant destinations are shown in the "Where to go from here" list underneath.

The Journey SystemRemembering Long Lists

The journey method is a powerful, flexible and effective mnemonic based around the idea of remembering landmarks on a well-known journey. It combines the narrative flow of the Link Method and the structure and order of the Peg Systems into one very powerful system.

How to Use the Tool:
You use the Journey Method by associating information with landmarks on a journey that you know well. This could, for example, be your journey to work in the morning; the route you use to get to the front door when you get up; the route to visit your parents; or a tour around a holiday destination. Once you are familiar with the technique you may be able to create imaginary journeys that fix in your mind, and apply these.

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To use this technique most effectively, it is often best to prepare the journey beforehand. In this way the landmarks are clear in your mind before you try to commit information to them. One of the ways of doing this is to write down all the landmarks that you can recall in order on a piece of paper. This allows you to fix these landmarks as the significant ones to be used in your mnemonic, separating them from others that you may notice as you get to know the route even better.

To remember a list of items, whether these are people, experiments, events or objects, all you need do is associate these things with the landmarks or stops on your journey.

This is an extremely effective method of remembering long lists of information. With a sufficiently long journey you could, for example, remember elements on the periodic table, lists of Kings and Presidents, geographical information, or the order of cards in a shuffled pack.

The system is extremely flexible: all you need do to remember many items is to remember a longer journey with more landmarks. To remember a short list, only use part of the route!

One advantage of this technique is that you can use it to work both backwards and forwards, and start anywhere within the route to retrieve information.

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You can use the technique well with other mnemonics. This can be done either by building complex coding images at the stops on a journey, or by linking to other mnemonics at each stop. You could start other journeys at each landmark. Alternatively, you may use a peg system to organize lists of journeys, etc.

See the introduction to this section for information on how to enhance the images used for this technique.
Example:
You may, as a simple example, want to remember something mundane like this shopping list:

Coffee, salad, vegetables, bread, kitchen paper, fish, chicken breasts, pork chops, soup, fruit, bath tub cleaner.

You could associate this list with a journey to a supermarket. Mnemonic images could be:
Front door: spilt coffee grains on the doormat
Rose bush in front garden: growing lettuce leaves and tomatoes around the roses
Car: with potatoes, onions and cauliflower on the driver's seat
End of the road: an arch of French bread over the road
Past garage: with its sign wrapped in kitchen roll
Under railway bridge: from which haddock and cod are dangling by their tails
Traffic lights: chickens squawking and flapping on top of lights
Past church: in front of which a pig is doing karate, breaking boards
Under office block: with a soup slick underneath: my car tires send up jets of tomato soup as I drive through it
Past car park: with apples and oranges tumbling from the top level
Supermarket car park: a filthy bath tub is parked in the space next to my car!
Key points:
The journey method is a powerful, effective method of remembering lists of information, by imagining images and events at stops on a journey.

As the journeys used are distinct in location and form, one list remembered using this technique is easy to distinguish from other lists.

To use this technique you need to invest some time in preparing journeys clearly in your mind. This investment pays off many times over by the application of the technique.

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In the next article we look at the Roman Room Mnemonic - a powerful technique for remembering unstructured information. To read this, click "Next article" below. Other relevant destinations are shown in the "Where to go from here" list underneath.

The Roman Room SystemRemembering Grouped Information
The Roman Room technique, also known as the Method of Loci, is an ancient and effective way of remembering information where its structure is not important. As an example, it serves as the basis of one of the powerful mnemonic systems used to learn languages.

How to Use the Tool:
To use the technique, imagine a room that you know, such as your sitting room, bedroom, office or classroom. Within the room are objects. Associate images representing the information you want to remember with the objects in the room. To recall information, simply take a tour around the room in your mind, visualizing the known objects and their associated images.

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The technique can be expanded by going into more detail, and keying information to be remembered to smaller objects. Alternatively you can open doors from your room into other rooms and use the objects in them as well. As you need them, you can build extensions to your rooms in your imagination, and fill them with objects that would logically be there.

You can use other rooms to store other categories of information.

There is no need to restrict this information to rooms: you could use a landscape or a town you know well, and populate it with memory images.

The Roman Room technique is just one way of representing your cognitive map of the information in an easily accessible way.

See the introduction to this chapter for information on how to enhance the images used for this technique.

Example:
For example, I can use my sitting room as a basis for the technique. In this room I have the following objects:
Table, lamp, sofa, large bookcase, small bookcase, CD rack, telephone, television, DVD player, chair, mirror, black and white photographs, etc.

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I may want to remember a list of World War I war poets:

Rupert Brooke, G.K. Chesterton, Walter de la Mare, Robert Graves, Rudyard Kipling, Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, W.B. Yates

I could visualize walking through my front door. Within this image, someone has painted a picture on it showing a scene from the Battle of the Somme. In the center of the picture is a man sitting in a trench writing in a dirty exercise book.

I walk into the sitting room, and look at the table. On the top is RUPERT the Bear sitting in a small BROOK (we do not need to worry about where the water goes in our imagination!) This codes for Rupert Brooke.

Someone seems to have done some moving: a CHEST has been left on the sofa. Some jeans (Alphabet System: G=Jeans) are hanging out of one drawer, and some cake has been left on the top (K=Cake). This codes for G K Chesterton.

The lamp has a small statuette of a brick WALL over which a female horse (MARE) is about to jumping. This codes for Walter de la Mare.
Key points:
The Roman Room technique is similar to the Journey method. It works by pegging images coding for information to known things, in this case to objects in a room.

The Roman Room technique is most effective for storing lists of unlinked information, while the journey method is better for storing lists of ordered items.

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In the next article we look at the Major System, one of the most powerful mnemonic techniques available. To read this, click "Next article" below. Other relevant destinations are shown in the "Where to go from here" list underneath.

The Major System - Remembering Very Long Numbers

The Major Memory System is one of the most powerful memory systems available. It takes a lot of time to master, but once learned is very powerful. The technique often forms the basis of some of the extraordinary, almost magical, memory feats performed by stage magicians and memory performers.

The system works by converting number sequences into nouns, nouns into images, and linking images into sequences. These sequences can be very complex and detailed.

How to Use the Tool:
The building blocks of the system are the association of the numbers below with the following consonant sounds:

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0 - s, z, soft-c - remember as 'z is first letter of zero'1 - d, t, th - remember as letters with 1 downstroke2 - n - remember as having 2 downstrokes3 - m - has three downstrokes4 - r - imagine a 4 and an R glued together back-to-back5 - L - imagine the 5 propped up against a book end (L)6 - j, sh, soft-ch, dg, soft-g - g is 6 rotated 180 degrees.7 - k, hard-ch, hard-c, hard-g, ng - imagine K as two 7srotated and glued together8 - f, v - imagine the bottom loop of the 8 as an eFfluentpipe discharging waste (letter image of F inalphabet system)9 - p, b - b as 9 rotated 180 degrees.

These associations need to be learned thoroughly before going further with the technique.

Starting to use the Major SystemThe system operates on a number of levels, depending on the amount of time you are prepared to devote to learning the system.

The first level, which involves coding single digit numbers into small words, functions almost as a poor relation of the number/rhyme system. It is at higher levels that you can unleash the real power of the system. You should, however, learn to use this first level before moving on.

The trick with converting numbers into words is to use only the consonants that code information within the word, while using vowels to pad the consonants out with meaning. If you do have to use other consonants to make up a word, use only those that do not code for numbers - i.e. h, q, w, x, and y.

At the first level we code each number into a short noun. This is made up of the consonant coding for the number, and vowels that turn the consonant into a word. On a sheet of paper, write the numbers 0 to 9, and apply these rules to create your own memory words. Some examples are shown below:
0 - saw1 - toe2 - neigh3 - ma4 - ray5 - law6 - jaw7 - key8 - fee9 - pie

You can use these words in association much like the other peg technique memory words.

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Moving to the second levelSimilar rules apply to creating a standard word from two numbers. It is best not to try to use a single number word as a root, as this can confuse the image.

Write down the numbers 01 to 99, and apply the rules to create memory words for yourself.

A few examples are shown below:
09 - z, p - zap17 - t, ch - tech23 - n, m - name36 - m, sh - mesh41 - r,s - rose52 - l, n - line64 - ch, r - chair75 - k, l - keel89 - f, p - fop98 - b, f - beef

Taking the Major System FurtherJust using double number words may be enough to make this a sufficiently powerful mnemonic for you. Alternatively you may decide to use triple number words, using the same construction rules as double number words.

Examples are:182 - d, v, n - Devon304 - m, s, r - miser400 - r, c, s - races651 - j, l, d - jellied801 - f, z, d - fazed

Even though you can construct words from first principles each time, at this level of complexity it may be worth writing them down to make them easier to remember. You can then run through them many times to strengthen the link in your mind between the numbers and the associated words. This will help you to remember the appropriate word faster.

Using Words to Remember Long NumbersOnce you have come up with words and images to link to your numbers, you can start to apply the technique to remember, for example, long numbers. A good way of doing this is to associate Major System words with stops on a journey (see 7.1.5).

Example:
The number Pi is 3.14159265359 (to 11 decimal places). Using the major system and the journey system (see example) together, I can remember this as:
Passing my Ma (3) by the front door of my house
Seeing that someone has dared (1,4,1) to sleep under the rose bush in the garden
Someone has tied a loop (5,9) of yellow ribbon onto the steering wheel of my car
I see a poster with a photo of a steaming pile of sausages and mashed potato, with the title 'glorious nosh' (2,7) at the end of the road
A lama (5,3) is grazing on grass outside the garage forecourt
Another loop (5,9) of yellow ribbon has been tied around the railway bridge. This is getting strange!
Key points:
The major memory system works by linking numbers to consonants, and then by linking these into words. By using the images these words create, and linking them together with the journey system, large amounts of information can be accurately memorized.

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In the next article, we show you how to use Mind Maps as mnemonics. To read this, click "Next article" below. Other relevant destinations are shown in the "Where to go from here" list underneath.
Using Concept Maps or Mind Maps toRemember Structured Information
"Mind Map" is a trademark of the Buzan Organization
How to Use the Tool:
Mind Maps are not formally mnemonics. They do, however, help you to lay out the structure of a topic as a clear 'shape' that you can remember easily. By seeing this shape in your mind, you can prompt yourself to remember the information coded within it.

This becomes even easier if you have coded this information using striking images. See the introduction to this chapter to see how to make information as memorable as possible.

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The next article looks at how you can use memory games to improve your ability to remember. To read this, click "Next article" below. Other relevant destinations are shown in the "Where to go from here" list underneath.
Memory Games Have fun, while you improve your memory!
Have you ever looked up a phone number and repeated it over and over to yourself until you dialled it correctly? This draws on your working memory; however, just moments after dialling the telephone number, chances are you have forgotten it.

This is because the telephone number was not “committed” to your long-term memory. And, while working memory is reliable for quick recall of bits of information (like phone numbers), it can hold only a few pieces of information and only for a very short time.To remember things for a longer amount of time, you must connect the new information with information you already have, “committing” it to your long-term memory, which stores more information and, for a longer period of time.

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There are, of course, many ‘serious’ techniques for improving your memory. (And you can find many in Mind Tools memory techniques section.) But you can also have a bit of fun “working out” with memory games. This article introduces several games to workout your memory, individually or in a team.

Story TellingOne way to remember the information you need to commit to long-term memory is to make up a story that “connects” the items or facts you need to remember, thus making them easier to recall. The idea here is that it’s easier to remember more information when one fact or item connects to another.

While making up the story, create a strong mental image of what’s happening. This helps to “connect” the data to an image and better cement it in your long-term memory.

For an example, read our article on story telling technique.
It’s fun to practice using this technique in a group. Practice by laying out 20 or more objects on the table and trying to remember them. Each member of the group takes his or her turn to add to the story by including another object.

If the first three objects are an apple, a key and a mobile phone, here’s how the story might start:

Person 1: In the orchard, ripe apples were falling from the trees.
Person 2:But the gate to the orchard was locked and John had brought the wrong key.
Person 3: So he called Sue from his mobile phone to see if she could help.….

Once all the objects have been included in the story, remove them all from the room. See who can remember the most items. Now tell the story again as a group, taking it in turns. The group will probably be able to remember the whole story and so recall all the items.
Pexeso: Matching PairsPexeso involves matching pairs of like cards or tiles from a large group, when one of each group is hidden.

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You play Pexeso with a set of cards or tiles that includes pairs of picture or numbers. You can play using half a pack of standard playing cards – just remove 2 of the 4 suits, so you have just 2 aces, 2 kings, 2 queens and so on.

Start by laying out 24 of the cards, making sure the 24 cards consists of 12 matched pairs. Once face down, move the cards around so that you do not know where any single card is located.

Turn one card over at a time, take a look at the number or object, and then turn it face down again. Repeat this process until you turn over a card that matches a card you turned over earlier. Now find the card’s ‘mate’ by remembering from earlier where it is located. As you find a matched pair, remove them from the group. The number of cards dwindles until all the pairs are matched.

Time yourself and see how you improve (get faster) each time you play.

As you get better, increase the number of cards you start with, moving from the original 24 to 30, then to 36, 42 and so on.

‘Blind’ Jigsaw PuzzlesAnother fun and inexpensive way to give your concentration and memory a boost is the good old-fashioned jigsaw puzzle. Playing it ‘blind’ means without referring back to the picture on the box!

First, look at a picture of the completed puzzle. Give yourself a few minutes to commit it to memory.

Next, mix up the pieces to the jigsaw puzzle.

Now, work to put it back together without looking at the picture of the completed puzzle again (until you are done).
Trivia QuizzesA great way to improve how well you recall information is to play trivia quizzes. The trivia can be about anything – movies, history, even about your specific business.

Whilst you can easily purchase trivia quiz board games and books, you can also make up your own questions when you are playing in a group.

Each person submits a list of questions (and answers!) and then to ‘quiz master’ takes questions from each person’s list in turn.

When you play with a new set of trivia questions, you rely on your recall of prior knowledge and experience to find the answers. If you play with the same questions in a few days or weeks later, you will also rely on memory of playing the game last time. Both new questions and re-runs are good for building you memory skills.

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The next article in this section shows how you can use memory techniques to learn a foreign language. To read this, click "Next article" below. Other relevant destinations are shown in the "Where to go from here" list underneath.
How to... Learn a Foreign Language

Systems Needed:
Link Method
Roman Room Mnemonic
Using the Tools:
Foreign languages are the ideal subject area for the use of memory techniques. Learning vocabulary is often a matter of associating a meaningless collection of syllables with a word in your own language.

Traditionally people have associated these words by repetition - by saying the word in their own language and the foreign language time and time and time and time again. You can improve on this tedious way of learning by using three good techniques:

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1. Using Mnemonics to link wordsThis is a simple extension of the link method. Here you are using images to link a word in your own language with a word in a foreign language.

For example, in learning English/French vocabulary:
English: rug/carpet - French: tapis - imagine an ornate oriental carpet with a tap as the central design woven in chrome thread
English: grumpy - French: grognon - a grumpy man groaning with irritation
English: to tease - French: taquiner - a woman teasing her husband as she takes in the washing.

This technique was formalized by Dr. Michael Gruneberg, and is known as the 'LinkWord' technique. He has produced language books (an example is German by Association) in many language pairs to help students acquire the basic vocabulary needed to get by in the language (usually about 1000 words). It is claimed that using this technique this basic vocabulary can be learned in just 10 hours.
2. The Town Language MnemonicThis is a very elegant, effective mnemonic that fuses a sophisticated variant of the Roman Room system with the system described above.

This depends on the fact that the basic vocabulary of a language relates to everyday things: things that you can usually find in a city, town or village. To use the technique, choose a town that you are very familiar with. Use objects within that place as the cues to recall the images that link to foreign words.

Nouns in the town:Nouns should be associated to the most relevant locations: for example, the image coding the foreign word for book could be associated with a book on a shelf in the library. You could associate the word for bread with an image of a loaf in a baker's shop. Words for vegetables could be associated with parts of a display outside a greengrocer's. Perhaps there is a farm just outside the town that allows all the animal name associations to be made.

Adjectives in the park:Adjectives can be associated with a garden or park within the town: words such as green, smelly, bright, small, cold, etc. can be easily related to objects in a park. Perhaps there is a pond there, or a small wood, or perhaps people with different characteristics are walking around.

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Verbs in the sports center:Verbs can most easily be associated with a sports center or playing field. This allows us all the associations of lifting, running, walking, hitting, eating, swimming, driving, etc.

Remembering GendersIn a language where gender is important, a very good method of remembering this is to divide your town into two main zones. In one zone you code information on masculine gender nouns, while in the other zone you code information on feminine nouns. Where the language has a neutral gender, then use three zones. You can separate these areas with busy roads, rivers, etc. To fix the gender of a noun, simply associate its image with a place in the correct part of town. This makes remembering genders easy!

Many Languages, many townsAnother elegant spin-off of the technique comes when learning several languages: normally this can cause confusion. With the town mnemonic, all you need do is choose a different city, town or village for each language to be learned. Ideally this might be in the relevant country. Practically, however, you might just decide to use a local town with the appropriate foreign flavor.
3. The hundred most common wordsTony Buzan, in his book 'Using your Memory', points out that just 100 words comprise 50% of all words used in conversation in a language. Learning this core 100 words gets you a long way towards being able to speak in that language, albeit at a basic level. The 100 basic words used in conversation are shown below:

1. A,an
2. After
3. Again
4. All
5. Almost
6. Also
7. Always
8. And
9. Because
10. Before
11. Big
12. But
13. (I) can
14. (I) come
15. Either/or
16. (I) find
17. First
18. For
19. Friend
20. From
21. (I) go
22. Good
23. Good-bye
24. Happy
25. (I) have
26. He
27. Hello
28. Here
29. How
30. I
31. (I) am
32. If
33. In
34. (I) know
35. Last
36. (I) like
37. Little
38. (I) love
39. (I) make
40. Many
41. One
42. More
43. Most
44. Much
45. My
46. New
47. No
48. Not
49. Now
50. Of
51. Often
52. On
53. One
54. Only
55. Or
56. Other
57. Our
58. Out
59. Over
60. People
61. Place
62. Please
63. Same
64. (I) see
65. She
66. So
67. Some
68. Sometimes
69. Still
70. Such
71. (I) tell
72. Thank you
73. That
74. The
75. Their
76. Them
77. Then
78. There is
79. They
80. Thing
81. (I) think
82. This
83. Time
84. To
85. Under
86. Up
87. Us
88. (I) use
89. Very
90. We
91. What
92. When
93. Where
94. Which
95. Who
96. Why
97. With
98. Yes
99. You
100. Your
(Extract reproduced from Use Your Memory by Tony Buzan with the permission of BBC Worldwide Limited, © Tony Buzan)

SummaryThe three approaches to learning foreign languages shown here can be very effective. They help to point out:
the most important words to learn
show how to link words in your own language to words in a foreign language, and
show how to structure recall of the language through use of the town mnemonic.
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The next article shows you how to use mnemonics to remember information for exams. To read this, click "Next article" below. Other relevant destinations are shown in the "Where to go from here" list underneath.
How to... Remember Informationfor Exams

Systems Needed:
The Number/Rhyme Technique
The Number/Shape Technique
The Alphabet Technique
The Journey Technique
Concept or Memory Maps
Using the Tools:
A very effective way of structuring information for revision is to draw up a full, cloud coded concept or memory map of a subject. This will help you to see the overall structure of the topic and show you the associations between pieces of information. A good concept map can be an effective mnemonic in its own right.

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The problem with this is that you can forget the label on a line on a concept map. A more reliable method is to take your concept map, and break it down into a numbered list of important points. You can then use one of the peg techniques (see links above) to remember the items on the list. Alternatively you can use the journey technique for longer lists.

By associating items on a list with a peg system or journey, you can check that you have retrieved all items held by the mnemonic. Supporting facts can be associated into images or sub-mnemonics. These could be triggered by the pegs for the peg systems, or at landmarks if you use the journey system. Alternatively you can loosely associate this information with the facts coded.

Retrieving all the facts necessary to answer an exam essay question becomes as simple as running through the mnemonic in your mind. As you go, jot down the retrieved facts that are relevant to the question. Once you have written these down, you can apply any other mnemonics you have coded, or note any associated facts and connections that occur to you. This should ensure that you have all possible information available to you, and should help you to produce a good essay plan.

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Next we look at how memory techniques can help us solve an age-old problem - remembering people's names. To read this, click "Next article" below. Other relevant destinations are shown in the "Where to go from here" list underneath.
How to... Remember People's Names

Systems Needed:
The Link Method
The Roman Room Mnemonic
Using the Tools:
Remembering people's names needs a slightly different approach from all the others explained so far in this section. The techniques used, though, are quite simple:

1. Face associationExamine a person's face discretely when you are introduced. Try to find an unusual feature, whether ears, hairline, forehead, eyebrows, eyes, nose, mouth, chin, complexion, etc.

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Create an association between that characteristic, the face, and the name in your mind. The association may be to link the person with someone else you know with the same name. Alternatively it may be to associate a rhyme or image of the name with the person's face or defining feature.

2. RepetitionWhen you are introduced, ask for the person to repeat their name. Use the name yourself as often as possible (without overdoing it!). If it is unusual, ask how it is spelled or where it is comes from, and if appropriate, exchange cards. Keep in mind that the more often you hear and see the name, the more likely it is to sink in.

Also, after you have left that person's company, review the name in your mind several times. If you are particularly keen you might decide to write it down and make notes.

SummaryThe methods suggested for remembering names are fairly simple and obvious, but are useful. Association either with images of a name or with other people can really help. Repetition and review help to confirm your memory.

An important thing to stress is practice, patience, and progressive improvement.

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Next, and in our final article in this section, we recap on how to remember long lists of information. To read this, click "Next article" below. Other relevant destinations are shown in the "Where to go from here" list underneath.
How to... Remember Lists andLong Numbers

Systems Needed:
Link Method
The Number/Rhyme Technique
The Number/Shape Technique
The Alphabet Technique
The Journey Technique
The Major System
Using the Tools:
Remembering lists are what many mnemonics are for. You can code almost any information into these mnemonic lists. All that you need is the imagination to come up with the relevant associations.

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To memorize short lists, use:
The Link or Story Methods
The Number/Rhyme System, or
The Number/Shape Method
To remember intermediate and longer lists, use:
The Alphabet Technique, or
The Journey Technique
As with lists, using mnemonic systems, remembering numbers becomes extremely simple. There are a number of approaches, depending on the types of numbers being remembered:

1. Short numbersThe easiest, but least reliable, way of remembering numbers is to use simple Number/Rhyme images associated in a story.

A better way is to use a simple peg system, where, for example, you can associate digits from the Number/Rhyme System into positions organized with the Alphabet System.

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2. Long numbers (e.g. Pi)You can store long numbers most effectively with the Journey System. At a simple level, single numbers can be stored at each stop on the journey using Number/Rhyme or Number/Shape images. At a more advanced level you can increase the number of digits stored at each stop by using the Major System.

By using all the simple techniques together you should be able to store a 100 digit number with relatively little effort. Using the more powerful systems, holding it to 1000 digits might not be too much of a challenge.
3. Telephone NumbersThese can be remembered simply by associating numbers from the Number/Rhyme system with positions in either the Alphabet Technique or the Journey System. You can then associate these with the face or name of the person whose number you are remembering.

For example, to remember that someone's phone number is 735-3458, I can imagine myself traveling to their flat: with my destination firmly in mind, I envisage the following stops on my journey:
1. Front door: the door has sprouted angel's wings, and is flying up to heaven! (7)2. Rose bush: a small sapling (tree, 3) is growing its way through the middle of the bush.3. Car: some bees have started to build a hive (5) under the wheel of my car. I have to move it very carefully to avoid damaging it.4. End of road: a tree (3) has fallen into the road. I have to drive around it.5. Past garage: Someone has nailed a door (4) to the sign. Strange!6. Under railway bridge: the bees are building another hive (5) between the girders!
7. Beside the river: A rusty farm gate (8) is blocking the road.

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In the next section, we look at leadership skills. To read this, click "Next article" below. Other relevant destinations are shown in the "Where to go from here" list underneath.
Leadership SkillsBecome an Exceptional Leader
The old-fashioned view of leadership is that leaders are marked out for leadership from early on in their lives, and that if you’re not a born leader, there’s little that you can do to become one.

That’s not the way we see it now. The modern view is that through patience, persistence and hard work, you can be a truly effective leader, just as long as you make the effort needed.
The articles in this section (which are drawn from our “How to Lead: Discover the Leader Within You” course) help you develop your leadership skills so that you, too, can become an exceptional leader.

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Start with the introduction by clicking here, or pick the articles you’re interested in below. Enjoy them!


Introduction

Leadership Motivation Assessment - How motivated are you to lead?

Leadership Motivation Tools - Find the passion to lead

Information Gathering - Information is inspiration

Building Expert Power - Leading from the front

Task Allocation - Picking the right person for the job

Understanding Developmental Needs - "Different strokes for different folks"

Leadership Styles - Using the right one for the right situation

Conflict Resolution - Resolve conflict rationally and effectively

Mission Statements & Vision Statements - The power of purpose

Successful Delegation - How, when, why

Download the Leadership Section of Mind Tools in PDF format to browse and print at your leisure...


Premium Member Tools: (How to become a member)

Adams' Equity Theory - Balancing employee inputs and outputs.

The Balanced Scorecard - Motivating employees to deliver your strategy.

Behavioral Assessments - How personality affects the way people do their jobs.

Belbin's Team Roles - Understanding team roles can improve team performance.

Blake Mouton Managerial Grid - Balancing Task and People-Oriented Leadership

Concept Attainment - Reaching a shared understanding of important ideas

Cross Cultural Leadership

Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing - Helping new teams perform effectively.

The GROW Model - Coaching team members to improve performance.

Leadership Styles - Using the right one for your situation.

The Pyramid of Purpose - Concisely communicating your strategy.

The RACI Matrix - Structuring accountabilities for maximum efficiency and results.

Successful Induction - Getting new team members off to a great start!

Understanding Developmental Needs - Help your team reach peak performance

Working in Virtual Teams - Team working that overcomes time & space

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These techniques and 41 other leadership skills are explained in Mind Tools’ “How to Lead: Discover the Leader Within You” course. This teaches the 48 essential skills needed to be an effective leader. Click here to find our more about “How to Lead".


Leadership Skills Introduction
“At the age of seven, a young boy and his family were forced out of their home. The boy had to work to support his family. At the age of nine, his mother passed away. When he grew up, the young man was keen to go to law school, but had no education.At 22, he lost his job as a store clerk. At 23, he ran for state legislature and lost. The same year, he went into business. It failed, leaving him with a debt that took him 17 years to repay. At 27, he had a nervous breakdown.

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Two years later, he tried for the post of speaker in his state legislature. He lost. At 31, he was defeated in his attempt to become an elector. By 35, he had been defeated twice while running for Congress. Finally, he did manage to secure a brief term in Congress, but at 39 he lost his re-election bid.At 41, his four-year-old son died. At 42, he was rejected as a prospective land officer. At 45, he ran for the Senate and lost. Two years later, he lost the vice presidential nomination. At 49, he ran for Senate and lost again.At 51, he was elected the President of the United States of America.The man in question: Abraham Lincoln.” —— Author Unknown
Many of us are acquainted with this eloquent example of persistence and determination in achieving victory. We read it, stop for a moment and then sigh and say: “Wow! That’s the stuff real leaders are made off.”And in saying this, it’s all too easy for us to think about leaders like Lincoln almost as “mythological creatures”, separate from the rest of humanity and empowered by some mysterious quality that smoothes their path towards inevitable success. This is the view of leadership that many people have traditionally taken: That leaders are marked out for leadership from early on in their lives, and that if you’re not a leader, there’s little that you can do to become one.However, that’s not the way we see it now. The modern view is that through patience, persistence and hard work, you can be a highly effective leader.This section of Mind Tools helps you make a start in finding and developing these leadership qualities within yourself.

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Our first tools look at your motivation to lead – without a strong motivation to lead, you’ll struggle to be an effective leader. The Leadership Motivation Assessment helps you understand the strength of your motivation to lead, while our Self-Motivation Tools article gives you some useful techniques you can use to build it further.

We then move on to look at vision creation. This is a complex subject, however we look at one important facet of it: Information Gathering. Good information is essential if you are to build a compelling, robust vision of the future that people can believe in and want to follow.

And this is also part of Winning Expert Power, one of the profoundly honest sources of strength and power that you can draw on as a leader, and subject of the next article.


After this, we look at the important execution skill of Task Allocation - picking the right team - before moving on to consider the different Leadership Styles that you could adopt, and the important skill of Conflict Resolution.

And we round the articles out by looking two of the main roles of leaders: viving their team direction through Mission Statements and Vision Statements, and Delegating.

These articles are just a few of the 48 essential leadership skills explained within Mind Tools new course “How to Lead: Discover the leader within you.” Click here to find out more about “How to Lead”.


The Leadership Motivation Assessment How motivated are you to lead?
The first and most basic prerequisite for leadership is the desire to lead. After all, becoming an effective leader takes hard work. If you're not prepared to work hard at developing your leadership skills or if, deep down, you're really not sure whether you want to lead or not, you'll struggle to become an effective leader.

Are you motivated to lead? This assessment helps you find the answer.

How to Use the Tool:To use this tool, show the extent to which you agree with each of the following statements on a scale running from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree).

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For each question, click the button in the column that most applies. Click the 'Calculate My Total' button to add up your score and check your result using the scoring table underneath.
#
Question
StronglyDisagree



StronglyAgree
1
I am energized when people count on me for ideas.
2
As a practice, I ask people challenging questions when we are working on projects together.
3
I take delight in complimenting people that I work with when progress is made.
4
I find it easy to be the cheerleader for others, when times are good and when times are bad.
5
Team accomplishment is more important to me than my own personal accomplishments.
6
People often take my ideas and run with them.
7
When involved in group projects, building team cohesiveness is important to me.
8
When involved in group projects, coaching others is an activity that I gravitate toward.
9
I find pleasure in recognizing and celebrating the accomplishments of others.
10
When involved in group projects, my team members’ problems are my problems.
11
Resolving interpersonal conflict is an activity that I enjoy.
12
When involved in group projects, I frequently find myself to be an “idea generator.”
13
When involved in group projects, I am inclined to let my ideas be known.
14
I find pleasure in being a convincing person.
Total = 0");//-->


Total =
0

Total of weighted scores(see instructions):





Score Interpretation
Score
Comment
14 – 27
This implies a low motivation to lead
28 - 55
This implies some uncertainty over your motivation to lead
56 - 70
This implies a strong motivation to lead.
Source: This set of questions was constructed for this self-assessment and for illustrative purposes only. No prior validation work has been conducted that enables us to address the construct validity of this assessment. This self-assessment was patterned after that of A. J. DuBrin in Leadership: Research Findings, Practice and Skills (2nd edition) (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1998). Pp. 10-11.

This test is one of five essential leadership assessments contained within Mind Tools’ “How to Lead: Discover the Leader Within You” course. This teaches the 48 essential skills needed to be an effective leader in today’s workplace. Click here to find our more about “How to Lead".
Leadership Motivation ToolsIncreasing Your Motivation to Lead
In the previous article we gave you a tool for assessing your motivation to lead. So what if you want to become more of a leader, but you're finding it difficult to motivate yourself?

The tools in this article will help. First we look at the "Demotivation Demolisher", next we look at the "Need-Effort Bridge" and finally we look at "Passion Propulsion".

Demotivator Demolisher – Kill the KilljoyThe first step in building motivation is to identify what demotivates you and then tackle the problem head on.

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Now, here we’re looking at demotivation on two levels. On one level we’re looking at the fundamental motivation to lead, as we discussed in our previous article. At a second level, we look at the day-to-day irritations that frustrate you and distract you from doing a good job.
First, we look at motivation to lead.
When we asked you to complete the Leadership Motivation Assessment, we were asking you whether, deep down, you want the responsibility as well as the rewards of leadership.
Some of the benefits of leadership are obvious. But what if you find that something is holding you back? What if you find that, when you look within yourself, you’re not that sure that you want to lead a team?

Example 1: The basic motivation to lead
Marcus Jackson wasn’t happy. He had just been promoted to lead a product development team in a different department of the engineering company at which he worked.
He felt that he had been promoted because of his expertise and the quality of his work. And he was proud that he’d been chosen.
However, he felt profoundly uncomfortable in his new role: He was confused about what was expected from him, he had had little experience of leadership before, and he felt out of his depth in dealing with the people issues he was now expected to handle. What was worse was that he instinctively felt that the team was expecting things of him that he didn’t know how to give. All in all, he was questioning whether he’d made the right move, and whether he should return to his previous job.
Fortunately, Marcus had enough insight to recognize the importance of these issues, and identify the detailed issues he was experiencing. And when he listed the points out, it all became clear: What he needed was training in basic supervisory skills, and help in applying these.
He approached his boss and put a persuasive case for a particular training course. And he also made sure that he got regular coaching on the issues he faced, which helped put the theory he learned into practice.
The second level of demotivation comes from the day-to-day irritations that distract you from doing a good job. Consider the case of Susan Mitchell, outlined below:

Example 2: Day-to-day demotivators
Susan, a marketing executive, had just joined a new firm. She had set a target for herself - within a year she would take over as the team leader. She knew she had the capability and was prepared to work hard enough.
Our girl would be the first to volunteer for a new assignment and the initial weeks saw her excitedly working late hours. But a couple of months later, she started losing steam. She was distracted, would tire easily and somehow just couldn’t come up with great ideas.
Susan knew she would fail in her ambition if things went on this way. She made a conscious decision to tackle the problem. First she acknowledged that she had lost motivation. Then she tried to analyze, why. She came up with three reasons - uncooperative team members; boredom; and her office being positioned bang next to the pantry.
Susan figured she could tackle at least one problem immediately – the office placement. She asked the boss for a move to another office space and got it. The other two issues she is still grappling with. But at least she knows they exist and is consciously trying to fix them.
If you too suffer from either of these issues of motivation, take a leaf out of Marcus’ and Susan’s book.

Conquering Demotivators
First set aside 15 minutes to note down the things that steal your motivation, whether these are things that undermine your motivation to lead, or are general irritants that are undermining your self-motivation. List them under the column, De-motivators, in the table below.

De-Motivator
Circumstantial or Habitual
Solution


































Done with the list? Now you are ready to take on the challenge of tackling the killjoys.
Start by considering whether the ‘demotivation attacks’ are occasional, circumstantial things, triggered by circumstantial factors (the visit of a difficult client; or being under the weather), or are they habitual, typifying your working style (leaving tasks unfinished; or saying yes to everything irrespective of whether you can do it). Mark the cause, circumstantial or habitual, in your table.
Next comes the solution column. If circumstantial factors bother you, then get a grip on exactly what is it that “switches you off” and try to neutralize the cause. For Susan, it was being next to the kitchen. She “just didn’t feel like working” and was distracted by who was having how many cups of coffee. Once the de-motivator was identified, she pushed her boss to allot her another workspace. Her work improved. You may not be able to run out and fix the problem immediately, but at least list the solution.
However, if the de-motivator is a recurring habit, you have to acknowledge it as a serious handicap, which may undermine all the good work you want to accomplish. You need to make concerted effort to bring motivation and passion to the activity. Our next tools will show you how to achieve this. Zero in on the correct tools and list them in your solutions column.

Background:One of the key figures in the development of the theory of motivation was Frederick Herzberg, who closely studied the sources of employee motivation in the 1950s and 1960s. What he discovered was that the things that demotivate people are different from the things that motivate them. Consequently, his theory is known as the Herzberg Two Factor Theory.
Herzberg’s “Hygiene Factors” (the things that made people unhappy and demotivated) were obstructive company policy, unhelpful administration, intrusive supervision, bad working relationships, poor conditions, uncompetitive salaries, low status and job insecurity.
And just as these things demotivated the people who Herzberg studied, they may be the things that demotivate you. Take them seriously!
The Need-Effort Bridge – Link action to motive Establishing a clear motive for the actions you undertake is one of the best ways to create motivation. Remember the old ‘What’s In It For Me’ principle? You can apply it to yourself to create motivation.
Once you have figured out that the effort you make fulfils a need that you have, the effort will automatically become much more worthwhile.
The need-effort bridge can work at several levels.
At one level, the very basic level, you make an effort at your job because it fetches you money and helps you fulfill your material needs. At another level, you make an effort at your job because you feel that by performing it well, you are helping your company achieve a better goal and this makes you feel good about yourself.

Background:
Remember Frederick Herzberg above? The things that he discovered motivated people were quite different from the things he found demotivated people.Herzberg’s motivators were achievement; recognition for that achievement; an enjoyable job; responsibility; growth; and advancement.
Now, Herzberg didn’t particularly believe in the power of money as a motivator. Whether you do or not depends on the way you think (and may be cultural) – pick the motivators that most motivate you!

Now, let us go back to the demotivator lists that you drew up earlier. Let us say that after identifying the demotivators, you realize that you cannot do anything much about the majority of them. Then it is time to figure out why you are putting up with these demotivators. Is it because you have established a very strong, meaningful need for your effort, or is it inertia?
If you are not sure about the answer, try and conduct the need-effort establishment exercise:
Need-Effort Establishment ExerciseTake a paper and divide it in two halves. Head up one section ‘Needs’ and the other ‘Effort.’ List the needs you have – these could be anything from owning the new BMW to finding spiritual balance. Material rewards, professional standards, or personal targets are good thinking points to identify your needs. Next, list the efforts you are making – on your job, in your community, or whatever.

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Then link the effort to the need it serves. For instance, the effort you are making on the new job could link up to the need for buying the new BMW: Hopefully the extra effort will translate into a bonus, which would serve as the down payment on the BMW.
Just remember that the more meaningful the need you are seeking to satisfy, the more motivated you will feel.

Hopefully, after conducting the exercise, you can find strong motivation to justify your efforts. You may have to spend energy grappling with the killjoys, but you know the effort is worth it.
However, if you cannot find this motivation, then maybe it is time you contemplated channeling your efforts in a different direction. What should this different direction be? Our next tool, Passion Propulsion, helps you arrive at an answer to this question.
Passion Propulsion – Find your passion. Use it to inspire and enthuse.
“Nothing great is ever achieved without passion.”
—— Ralph Waldo Emerson
Passion is a great motivator. It is what gives the ultimate meaning to your actions. Being fiercely passionate about goals and targets helps give you an edge and helps you inch closer to your leadership position.
However, passion has to be handled with precision. You don’t want to fritter away the energy it gives you. A much better idea would be to identify it and then use it with laser sharp focus to achieve your goals. This tool helps you do this. It operates at two levels: Firstly, it helps you identify goals that you are passionate about; and secondly, it shows you how to direct your passion energy.

Step 1 - Define your passion:What “fires you up”? For some people the answer to this question is very obvious. For others, it is a little more difficult.
If you are facing difficulty giving a definite answer set aside 30 minutes to answer three questions:
What would I want my life to be like when I am 60?
What do I want to have accomplished 5 years from now?
What are the three things I would want to do if I only had 6 months to live?
Each question will have several answers. Choose the top three answers for each question.
Now out of the nine goals you have identified, cull out the three that look most important to you. Obviously, these three goals are things that are very important to you. You should naturally be passionate about achieving them: If not, you may need to set goals that are on a grander or more beneficial scale!

Step 2 - Harness Passion EnergyOnce you have set inspirational goals, work out what you need to do to achieve them.
Identify the key information and training you need to achieve them effectively, and think through the tools you’ll need and the people you’ll need support from on your way.
Make a professional, rational, well thought-through plan. And then use this plan to turn your goals into reality.

Tip:For more information on goal setting, go to our goal setting page. And for more on life and career direction, take a look at our Design Your Life course.

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These are just a few of the tools and techniques in Mind Tools’ “How to Lead: Discover the Leader Within You” course. This teaches the 48 essential skills needed to be an effective leader in today’s workplace. Click here to find our more about “How to Lead".

The next article explains how you can start to build the common sense and wisdom needed for effective leadership. To read this, click 'Next article' below.


Information GatheringInformation is Inspiration
Effective information gathering is the most basic perspective-widening tool an effective leader requires. Good quality information marks out the context in which the leader operates, creates the information patterns from which ideas emerge, and provides the criteria by which ideas are screened and assessed.

Effective leaders gather two main types of information:
Background Data, and
Task-Related Data
Leaders gather background data to build their view of the world in which they operate.

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This information is made up of the countless facts, trends and opinions that they encounter and the observations they make on a daily basis. The higher the quality of background data they gather and the more effectively they prioritize it, the more accurate their view of the world will be, and the better their judgment and “common sense”.
By contrast with the steady, slow gathering of background data, task-related information is gathered for a specific purpose. Perhaps you’re preparing a five-year business plan and you want a reliable growth forecast from your country’s central bank. Or maybe you want specific information about the number and disposable incomes of a certain group of consumers. Or perhaps you need to know projected labor market trends for people with a key skill on which you depend.
Gathering Background Information:What is certain, however, is that task-related information on its own is not enough: While arguments created with it can be persuasive, they are “brittle” and can often be knocked down with previously unknown facts that just don’t fit. This is where ideas need to be tested with the common sense that comes with diligently acquired background information.
There are a number of things you can do to build background information:
Read a newspaper or news website respected for the quality and accuracy of its journalism (for example, “The Economist”);
Where possible, talk to your customers and get a deep understanding of what they want and don’t want from you, and what they’re getting or not getting from you and your competitors;
Read industry magazines and newsletters for both your own and your customers’ industries, keeping an eye on customers, competitors, suppliers, industry associations, activist groups, new technologies and so on;
Talk to experts in the fields in which you operate and knowledgeable people within your organization, and understand their perspectives on the key trends and features of interest;
Read brochures and talk to product teams to make sure you understand your organization’s products and services, their strengths and weaknesses, and what your customers like or dislike about them;
Have a good understanding of company or business unit strategy – i.e. what your company says it wants to do, who it wants its customers to be, and how it plans to serve them; and
Take the time to “tune in” to what’s going on in your organization: Through both the formal and informal “grapevines”.
What is necessary here is to take the time to gather this information: It’s all too easy for these activities to be lost under the pressures of a hectic schedule.
Gathering Task-Related Information:It’s much easier to justify the time spent gathering task-related information: Information-gathering actions are clearly identified steps in the projects you undertake.
There are three key factors here:
1. Understanding how much research you should do;
2. Making sure you ask the right questions; and
3. Gathering the information you need.
The amount of research you take depends on the scale of the decision, the time available, and the consequences of getting it wrong. If it’s a small decision, or the consequences of getting it wrong are small, then don’t waste too much time on it. On the other hand, if the consequences are severe, take time to make a good decision, and make sure you make an appropriate risk management plan in case things don’t work out.

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Making sure you ask the right questions is of key importance. Start by brainstorming these questions, ideally with your boss or client or with experts in the field or within your organization. Then make sure you draw on any predefined frameworks you can find, where people have tried to make a system or process for solving this type of problem. For example, if you’re gathering information as part of researching a business plan, then buy a good book on business planning from Amazon.com and adapt the framework it proposes for your own use.

Finally, make a plan for gathering the key information needed, and think about how much you’re prepared to spend to get it.

A lot of information is relatively freely available, within your organization or in good business, academic or institutional libraries. Some information is packaged and for sale (for example, detailed competitor financial reports).

Other information you may need to gather yourself, for example in interviewing clients or conducting market research surveys. And in other cases (for example, in taking legal advice) it makes sense to pay a qualified expert to answer your questions.

And at the end of all this research, make sure you take a step back and look at the answers you’ve gained through the filter of common sense. Ask yourself if any information seems to be missing, or if anything you’ve uncovered jars with your instincts and experience.

Finally, while information gathering is an essential skill for an effective leader, bear in mind that the information is not an end in itself. It is useful because it serves as an input towards generating ideas and building vision. Later on in this section, we’ll look at how to process information to build this vision.

This is one of the articles in Mind Tools’ “How to Lead: Discover the Leader Within You” course. This teaches the 48 essential skills needed to be an effective leader in today’s workplace. Click here to find our more about “How to Lead".

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In the next article, we look at how you can use the information you've gathered to build Expert Power, one of the most important positive power bases. To read this, click 'Next article' below.


Expert PowerLeading From the Front
There are many different power bases that a leader can use and exploit.

These include problematic ones such as the power of position, the power to give rewards, the power to punish and the power to control information. While these types of power do have some strength, they put the person being lead in an unhealthy position of weakness, and can leave leaders using these power bases looking autocratic and out of touch.

More than this, society has changed hugely over the last 50 years. Citizens are individually more powerful, and employees are more able to shift jobs. Few of us enjoy having power exerted over us, and many will do what they can to undermine people who use these sorts of power.

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However there are three types of positive power that effective leaders use: charismatic power, expert power and referent power.

This article teaches the technique of building expert power.

How to Use the Tool:
Expert power is essential because as a leader, your team looks to you for direction and guidance. Team members need to believe in your ability to set a worthwhile direction, give sound guidance and co-ordinate a good result.
If your team perceives you as a true expert, they will be much more receptive when you try to exercise influence tactics such as rational persuasion and inspirational appeal.
And if your team sees you as an expert you will find it much easier to guide them in such a way as to create high motivation:
· If your team members respect your expertise, they'll know that you can show them how to work effectively;
· If your team members trust your judgment, they'll trust you to guide their good efforts and hard work in such a way that you'll make the most of their hard work; and
· If they can see your expertise, team members are more likely to believe that you have the wisdom to direct their efforts towards a goal that is genuinely worthwhile.
Taken together, if your team sees you as an expert, you will find it much easier to motivate team members to perform at their best.
So how do you build expert power?
· Gain expertise: The first step is fairly obvious (if time consuming) – gain expertise. And, if you are already using tools like the information gathering tool in the previous article, the chances are that you have already progressed well ahead in this direction.
But just being an expert isn’t enough, it is also necessary for your team members to recognize your expertise and see you to be a credible source of information and advice. Gary A. Yukl, in his book “Leadership in Organizations,” details some steps to build expert power. A summary of these steps follows:
Promote an image of expertise: Since perceived expertise in many occupations is associated with a person’s education and experience, a leader should (subtly) make sure that subordinates, peers, and superiors are aware of his or her formal education, relevant work experience, and significant accomplishments. One common tactic to make this information known is to display diplomas, licenses, awards, and other evidence of expertise in a prominent location in one’s office – after all, if you’ve worked hard to gain knowledge, it’s fair that you get credit for it. Another tactic is to make subtle references to prior education or experience (e.g., “When I was chief engineer at GE, we had a problem similar to this one”). Beware, however, this tactic can easily be overdone.
Maintain credibility: Once established, one’s image of expertise should be carefully protected. The leader should avoid making careless comments about subjects on which he or she is poorly informed, and should avoid being associated with projects with a low likelihood of success.
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· Act confidently and decisively in a crisis: In a crisis or emergency, subordinates prefer a “take charge” leader who appears to know how to direct the group in coping with the problem. In this kind of situation, subordinates tend to associate confident, firm leadership with expert knowledge. Even if the leader is not sure of the best way to deal with a crisis, to express doubts or appear confused risks the loss of influence over subordinates.
· Keep informed: Expert power is exercised through rational persuasion and demonstration of expertise. Rational persuasion depends on a firm grasp of up-to-date facts. It is therefore essential for a leader to keep well-informed of developments within the team, within the organization, and in the outside world.
Recognize subordinate concerns: Use of rational persuasion should not be seen as a form of one-way communication from the leader to subordinates. Effective leaders listen carefully to the concerns and uncertainties of their team members, and make sure that they address these in making a persuasive appeal.
Avoid threatening the self-esteem of subordinates: Expert power is based on a knowledge differential between leader and team members. Unfortunately, the very existence of such a differential can cause problems if the leader is not careful about the way he exercises expert power.Team members can dislike unfavorable status comparisons where the gap is very large and obvious. They are likely to be upset by a leader who acts in a superior way, and arrogantly flaunts his greater expertise.In the process of presenting rational arguments, some leaders lecture their team members in a condescending manner and convey the impression that the other team members are “ignorant.” Guard against this.
This is one of the articles in Mind Tools’ “How to Lead: Discover the Leader Within You” course. Not only does the course explain how to use the other "good" power bases, it teaches you how to use a range of honest influence tactics and powerful motivational techniques. Click here to find our more about “How to Lead".

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The next article moves into leadership tactics, explaining how to pick a winning team. To read this, click 'Next article' below.

Task Allocation Picking the right player for the right job
In any team sport, a lot of time is spent choosing the players who will play in each game. The selection process also involves deciding the position where each team member will play, based on the player’s skill, form (current ability to perform well) and the likely opposition that the team will face.
Just as this is true in sport, it is true in business. Leaders need to select the right people for the right jobs, and assign them tasks that fit with their skills and proficiencies. This provides structure.
So how do you do this? To field a match-winning team, first you need to understand the game that has to be played and the skills and abilities required to play it: There’s no point asking a football team to play baseball if you want to win at the top level.

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Then you have to place the correct player in the correct position. Mere common sense, you would think - but then, as the old quip goes, “common sense is often quite uncommon”.

How to Use the Tool:Here we give you the four-step “BALM” method to achieve correct role allocation:
· Break down the broader team goals into specific, individual tasks. List all tasks, and then rank each task in terms of importance;
· Analyze and list the competencies required to perform each task;
· List the competencies of each team member;
· Match individuals to task competencies.
Tip:An easy way of doing this is to write down the competencies needed for each task on one color of Post-It® Note, and the competencies of each team member on another color of Post-It Note. You can then move these around as you match people to roles.Post-It® is a trademark of 3M Corporation.

This is great as a starting point, but in the real world you’ll most-likely find lots of overlaps and lots of gaps. In such cases you have to take considered decisions.
Overlaps and Gaps:Where you have overlaps, you have two choices: Either allotting better qualified individuals to more important tasks, or allocating the task to the person at the lowest organizational level who is qualified to do the job. Both approaches have their virtues, but in different situations: One allows you to do the job with a higher level of certainty, the other allows you to do it more efficiently and at a lower cost.
Where you have a gap, you may need to train existing team members, or recruit to fill the gap. Often, training is the best option: Not only is it usually cheaper, you also know more about the individual’s talents and working methods. On the downside, a newly trained person usually has plenty of theory, but lacks the experience of putting that training into practice.
Recruitment often takes a very long time (time to agree the role internally, advertise it, screen resumes, interview candidates, select, wait for notice periods to be served, train the individual in organizational methods, and so on) and can be very expensive. It is also risky: Even using the best interviewing and testing methods, it’s possible for candidates to cover up failings that only become obvious once someone’s been in a role for several months.

Tip 2:A useful piece of advice handed down from generation to generation of manager is to “never underestimate the value of team spirit, motivation and hard work”. (This advice usually also concludes “And never over-estimate people’s knowledge and understanding”.)
Tip 3:However if someone is letting the team down, you need to be active in managing this. Non-performers set a poor example to the team, and block performance of activities that are essential for success.

Make sure that you talk to the person who is failing to perform to make them aware of the situation. And make sure that you quickly understand and remove any blocks on performance. Give a controlled number of short but fair opportunities to perform as required (being “hard nosed” about this, correcting a situation bears results much more quickly than recruiting new team members). However, if performance doesn’t improve to satisfactory levels, then the non-performer needs to be moved off the team.

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Briefing Each Team Member:Having decided which team member will fill each role, you have to communicate the decision to your team.

Each team member should know his or her position within the team. The roles of each person should be clearly defined, with individual responsibilities, authority and accountability clearly spelled out (it’s often best to do this in writing).
A hint to remember is that no member of your team should be thinking:
What are we here for?
· What are we supposed to do?
· What part can I play?

Tip 4:Keep your team lean, but make sure you have back-ups or substitutes for key roles. It is important to have ‘a few good people’ rather than have ‘too many people’. But remember to have back-ups in case you lose key people.
Tip 5:Research shows that diverse teams can be more successful than teams with a very similar background. People in diverse teams bring different experiences, are less prone to “group-think” and tend to suffer less from the conflicts that can arise when similar people work together.
(That said, be careful with some of the team design schemes in common use – the research base for some them is quite weak).

This is one of the articles in Mind Tools’ “How to Lead: Discover the Leader Within You” course. This teaches the 48 essential skills needed to be an effective leader in today’s workplace. Click here to find our more about “How to Lead".


Leadership stylesUsing the right one for your situation
From Mahatma Gandhi to Jack Welch and Martin Luther King to Rudolph Giuliani, there are as many leadership styles as there are leaders. Fortunately, business people and psychologists have developed useful, shorthand ways of describing the main leadership styles that can help aspiring leaders to understand and adapt their own styles and leadership impact.Whether you are managing a team at work, captaining your sports team or leading a major corporation, you leadership style is crucial to your success. Consciously, or subconsciously, you will no doubt use some of the leadership styles featured, at least some of the time. Understanding these leadership styles and their impact can help you develop and adapt your own leadership style and so help you become a more effective leader.



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This article helps you understand 10 of the most frequently talked-about leadership styles, some good, some bad.

Tip:
We're stressing that in this article we're looking at "popular" leadership styles, not necessarily those that fit within a particular system.

For a systematic approach, check out Mind Tools’ leadership system “How To Lead: Discover the Leader Within You.”
Understanding Leadership Styles
The leadership styles we look at here are:
Autocratic leadership
Bureaucratic leadership
Charismatic leadership
Democratic leadership or Participative leadership
Laissez-faire leadership
People-oriented leadership or Relations-Oriented leadership
Servant leadership
Task-oriented leadership
Transactional leadership
Transformational leadership
Autocratic Leadership
Autocratic leadership is an extreme form of transactional leadership, where leader has absolute power over his or her employees or team. Employees and team members have little opportunity for making suggestions, even if these would be in the team or organization’s interest.Most people tend to resent being treated like this. Because of this, autocratic leadership usually leads to high levels of absenteeism and staff turnover. For some routine and unskilled jobs, the style can remain effective where the advantages of control outweigh the disadvantages.
Bureaucratic Leadership
Bureaucratic leaders work “by the book”, ensuring that their staff follow procedures exactly. This is a very appropriate style for work involving serious safety risks (such as working with machinery, with toxic substances or at heights) or where large sums of money are involved (such as cash-handling).
Charismatic Leadership
A charismatic leadership style can appear similar to a transformational leadership style, in that the leader injects huge doses of enthusiasm into his or her team, and is very energetic in driving others forward. However, a charismatic leader tends to believe more in him- or herself than in their team. This can create a risk that a project, or even an entire organization, might collapse if the leader were to leave: In the eyes of their followers, success is tied up with the presence of the charismatic leader. As such, charismatic leadership carries great responsibility, and needs long-term commitment from the leader.
Democratic Leadership or Participative Leadership
Although a democratic leader will make the final decision, he or she invites other members of the team to contribute to the decision-making process. This not only increases job satisfaction by involving employees or team members in what’s going on, but it also helps to develop people’s skills. Employees and team members feel in control of their own destiny, such as the promotion they desire, and so are motivated to work hard by more than just a financial reward.As participation takes time, this approach can lead to things happening more slowly, but often the end result is better. The approach can be most suitable where team working is essential, and quality is more important than speed to market or productivity.

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Laissez-faire Leadership
This French phrase means “leave it be” and is used to describe a leader who leaves his or her colleagues to get on with their work. It can be effective if the leader monitors what is being achieved and communicates this back to his or her team regularly. Most often, laissez-faire leadership works for teams in which the individuals are very experienced and skilled self-starters. Unfortunately, it can also refer to situations where managers are not exerting sufficient control.
People-Oriented Leadership or Relations-Oriented Leadership
The style of leadership is the opposite of task-oriented leadership: the leader is totally focused on organizing, supporting and developing the people in the leader’s team. A participative style, it tends to lead to good teamwork and creative collaboration.
In practice, most leaders use both task-oriented and people-oriented styles of leadership.
Servant Leadership
This term, coined by Robert Greenleaf in the 1970s, describes a leader who is often not formally recognized as such. When someone, at any level within an organization, leads simply by virtue of meeting the needs of his or her team, he or she is described as a “servant leader”.In many ways, servant leadership is a form of democratic leadership, as the whole team tends to be involved in decision-making.Supporters of the servant leadership model suggest it is an important way ahead in a world where values are increasingly important, in which servant leaders achieve power on the basis of their values and ideals. Others believe that in competitive leadership situations, people practicing servant leadership will often find themselves left behind by leaders using other leadership styles.
Task-Oriented Leadership
A highly task-oriented leader focuses only on getting the job done, and can be quite autocratic. He or she will actively define the work and the roles required, put structures in place, plan, organise and monitor. However, as task-oriented leaders spare little thought for the well-being of their teams, this approach can suffer many of the flaws of autocratic leadership, with difficulties in motivating and retaining staff. Task-oriented leaders can use the Blake-Mouton Managerial Grid to help them identify specific areas for development that will help them involve people more.
Transactional Leadership
This style of leadership starts with the idea that team members agree to obey their leader totally when they take on a job: the “transaction” is (usually) that the organization pays the team members in return for their effort and compliance. You have a right to “punish” the team members if their work doesn’t meet the pre-determined standard.Team members can do little to improve their job satisfaction under transactional leadership. The leader could give team members some control of their income/reward by using incentives that encourage even higher standards or greater productivity. Alternatively a transactional leader could practice “management by exception”, whereby, rather than rewarding better work, he or she would take corrective action if the required standards were not met.Transactional leadership is really just a way of managing rather a true leadership style as the focus is on short-term tasks. It has serious limitations for knowledge-based or creative work, but remains a common style in many organizations.
Transformational Leadership
A person with this leadership style is a true leader who inspires his or her team constantly with a shared vision of the future. Transformational leaders are highly visible, and spend a lot of time communicating. They don’t necessarily lead from the front, as they tend to delegate responsibility amongst their team. While their enthusiasm is often infectious, they generally need to be supported by “details people”.

In many organizations, both transactional and transformational leadership are needed. The transactional leaders (or managers) ensure that routine work is done reliably, while the transformational leaders look after initiatives that add value.

The transformational leadership style is the dominant leadership style taught in the "How to Lead: Discover the Leader Within You" leadership program, although we do recommend that other styles are brought as the situation demands:
Using The Right Style – Situational Leadership
While the Transformation Leadership approach is often highly effective, there is no one “right” way to lead or manage that suits all situations. To choose the most effective approach for you, you must consider:
The skill levels and experience of your team
The work involved (routine or new and creative)
The organisational environment (stable or radically changing, conservative or adventurous)
You own preferred or natural style.
A good leader will find him- or herself switching instinctively between styles according to the people and work they are dealing with. This is often referred to as “situational leadership”. For example, the manager of a small factory trains new machine operatives using a bureaucratic style to ensure operatives know the procedures that achieve the right standards of product quality and workplace safety. The same manager may adopt a more participative style of leadership when working on production line improvement with his or her team of supervisors.

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Our next article deals with Conflict Resolution, an important skills for leaders in almost all situations. To learn this important skill, click "Next Article" below.


Conflict ResolutionResolving conflict rationally and effectively
In many cases, conflict in the workplace just seems to be a fact of life. We've all seen situations where different people with different goals and needs have come into conflict. And we've all seen the often-intense personal animosity that can result.

The fact that conflict exists, however, is not necessarily a bad thing: As long as it is resolved effectively, it can lead to personal and professional growth.

In many cases, effective conflict resolution skills can make the difference between positive and negative outcomes.

The good news is that by resolving conflict successfully, you can solve many of the problems that it has brought to the surface, as well as getting benefits that you might not at first expect:


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Increased understanding: The discussion needed to resolve conflict expands people's awareness of the situation, giving them an insight into how they can achieve their own goals without undermining those of other people;
Increased group cohesion: When conflict is resolved effectively, team members can develop stronger mutual respect, and a renewed faith in their ability to work together; and
Improved self-knowledge: Conflict pushes individuals to examine their goals in close detail , helping them understand the things that are most important to them, sharpening their focus, and enhancing their effectiveness.
However, if conflict is not handled effectively, the results can be damaging. Conflicting goals can quickly turn into personal dislike. Teamwork breaks down. Talent is wasted as people disengage from their work. And it's easy to end up in a vicious downward spiral of negativity and recrimination.If you're to keep your team or organization working effectively, you need to stop this downward spiral as soon as you can. To do this, it helps to understand two of the theories that lie behind effective conflict resolution techniques:
Understanding the Theory: Conflict Styles
In the 1970s Kenneth Thomas and Ralph Kilmann identified five main styles of dealing with conflict that vary in their degrees of cooperativeness and assertiveness. They argued that people typically have a preferred conflict resolution style. However they also noted that different styles were most useful in different situations. The Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI) helps you to identify which style you tend towards when conflict arises.

Thomas and Kilmann's styles are:

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Competitive: People who tend towards a competitive style take a firm stand, and know what they want. They usually operate from a position of power, drawn from things like position, rank, expertise, or persuasive ability. This style can be useful when there is an emergency and a decision needs to be make fast; when the decision is unpopular; or when defending against someone who is trying to exploit the situation selfishly. However it can leave people feeling bruised, unsatisfied and resentful when used in less urgent situations.
Collaborative: People tending towards a collaborative style try to meet the needs of all people involved. These people can be highly assertive but unlike the competitor, they cooperate effectively and acknowledge that everyone is important. This style is useful when a you need to bring together a variety of viewpoints to get the best solution; when there have been previous conflicts in the group; or when the situation is too important for a simple trade-off.

Compromising: People who prefer a compromising style try to find a solution that will at least partially satisfy everyone. Everyone is expected to give up something, and the compromiser him- or herself also expects to relinquish something. Compromise is useful when the cost of conflict is higher than the cost of losing ground, when equal strength opponents are at a standstill and when there is a deadline looming.Accommodating: This style indicates a willingness to meet the needs of others at the expense of the person’s own needs. The accommodator often knows when to give in to others, but can be persuaded to surrender a position even when it is not warranted. This person is not assertive but is highly cooperative. Accommodation is appropriate when the issues matter more to the other party, when peace is more valuable than winning, or when you want to be in a position to collect on this “favor” you gave. However people may not return favors, and overall this approach is unlikely to give the best outcomes.Avoiding: People tending towards this style seek to evade the conflict entirely. This style is typified by delegating controversial decisions, accepting default decisions, and not wanting to hurt anyone’s feelings. It can be appropriate when victory is impossible, when the controversy is trivial, or when someone else is in a better position to solve the problem. However in many situations this is a weak and ineffective approach to take.
Once you understand the different styles, you can use them to think about the most appropriate approach (or mixture of approaches) for the situation you're in. You can also think about your own instinctive approach, and learn how you need to change this if necessary.

Ideally you can adopt an approach that meets the situation, resolves the problem, respects people's legitimate interests, and mends damaged working relationships.
Understanding The Theory: The "Interest-Based Relational Approach"
The second theory is commonly referred to as the "Interest-Based Relational (IBR) Approach". This conflict resolution strategy respects individual differences while helping people avoid becoming too entrenched in a fixed position.

In resolving conflict using this approach, you follow these rules:
Make sure that good relationships are the first priority: As far as possible, make sure that you treat the other calmly and that you try to build mutual respect. Do your best to be courteous to one-another and remain constructive under pressure;
Keep people and problems separate: Recognize that in many cases the other person is not just "being difficult" – real and valid differences can lie behind conflictive positions. By separating the problem from the person, real issues can be debated without damaging working relationships;
Pay attention to the interests that are being presented: By listening carefully you'll most-likely understand why the person is adopting his or her position;
Listen first; talk second: To solve a problem effectively you have to understand where the other person is coming from before defending your own position;
Set out the “Facts”: Agree and establish the objective, observable elements that will have an impact on the decision; and
Explore options together: Be open to the idea that a third position may exist, and that you can get to this idea jointly.
By following these rules, you can often keep contentious discussions positive and constructive. This helps to prevent the antagonism and dislike which so-often causes conflict to spin out of control.
Using the Tool: A Conflict Resolution Process
Based on these approaches, a starting point for dealing with conflict is to identify the overriding conflict style employed by yourself, your team or your organization.

Over time, people's conflict management styles tend to mesh, and a “right” way to solve conflict emerges. It's good to recognize when this style can be used effectively, however make sure that people understand that different styles may suit different situations.

Look at the circumstances, and think about the style that may be appropriate.Then use the process below to resolve the conflict:Step One: Set the SceneIf appropriate to the situation, agree the rules of the IBR Approach (or at least consider using the approach yourself.) Make sure that people understand that the conflict may be a mutual problem, which may be best resolved through discussion and negotiation rather than through raw aggression.

If you are involved in the conflict, emphasize the fact that you are presenting your perception of the problem. Use active listening skills to ensure you hear and understand other’s positions and perceptions.
Restate
Paraphrase
Summarize
And make sure that when you talk, you're using an adult, assertive approach rather than a submissive or aggressive style.

Step Two: Gather InformationHere you are trying to get to the underlying interests, needs, and concerns. Ask for the other person’s viewpoint and confirm that you respect his or her opinion and need his or her cooperation to solve the problem.

Try to understand his or her motivations and goals, and see how your actions may be affecting these.

Also, try to understand the conflict in objective terms: Is it affecting work performance? damaging the delivery to the client? disrupting team work? hampering decision-making? or so on. Be sure to focus on work issues and leave personalities out of the discussion.
Listen with empathy and see the conflict from the other person’s point of view
Identify issues clearly and concisely
Use “I” statements
Remain flexible
Clarify feelings
Step Three: Agree the ProblemThis sounds like an obvious step, but often different underlying needs, interests and goals can cause people to perceive problems very differently. You'll need to agree the problems that you are trying to solve before you'll find a mutually acceptable solution.

Sometimes different people will see different but interlocking problems - if you can't reach a common perception of the problem, then at the very least, you need to understand what the other person sees as the problem.Step Four: Brainstorm Possible SolutionsIf everyone is going to feel satisfied with the resolution, it will help if everyone has had fair input in generating solutions. Brainstorm possible solutions, and be open to all ideas, including ones you never considered before.Step Five: Negotiate a Solution
By this stage, the conflict may be resolved: Both sides may better understand the position of the other, and a mutually satisfactory solution may be clear to all.

However you may also have uncovered real differences between your positions. This is where a technique like win-win negotiation can be useful to find a solution that, at least to some extent, satisfies everyone.

There are three guiding principles here: Be Calm, Be Patient, Have Respect…Key PointsConflict in the workplace can be incredibly destructive to good teamwork.

Managed in the wrong way, real and legitimate differences between people can quickly spiral out of control, resulting in situations where co-operation breaks down and the team's mission is threatened. This is particularly the case where the wrong approaches to conflict resolution are used.

To calm these situations down, it helps to take a positive approach to conflict resolution, where discussion is courteous and non-confrontational, and the focus is on issues rather than on individuals. If this is done, then, as long as people listen carefully and explore facts, issues and possible solutions properly, conflict can often be resolved effectively.

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In our next article, learn about how to use Mission Statements and Vision Statements to get people working together in the same direction. To read this, click "Next Article" below.



Mission Statements & Vision StatementsUnleashing the power of purpose
Vision Statements and Mission Statements are the inspiring words chosen by successful leaders to clearly and concisely convey the direction of the organization. By crafting a clear mission statement and vision statement, you can powerfully communicate your intentions and motivate your team or organization to realize an attractive and inspiring common vision of the future.

“Mission Statements” and “Vision Statements” do two distinctly different jobs.

A Mission Statement defines the organization's purpose and primary objectives. Its prime function is internal - to define the key measure or measures of the organization’s success - and its prime audience is the leadership team and stockholders.


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Vision Statements also define the organizations purpose, but this time they do so in terms of the organization’s values rather than bottom line measures (values are guiding beliefs about how things should be done.) The vision statement communicates both the purpose and values of the organization. For employees, it gives direction about how they are expected to behave and inspires them to give their best. Shared with customers, it shapes customers’ understanding of why they should work with the organization.

Tip:Mission Statements and Vision Statements usually refer to an organization or an organizational unit. Team Charters can have a similar role when briefing teams.

First we look at creating mission statements. Then we create vision statements.

Mission Statement Creation
To create your mission statement, first identify your organization’s “winning idea”.This is the idea or approach that will make your organization stand out from its competitors, and is the reason that customers will come to you and not your competitors (see tip below).
Next identify the key measures of your success. Make sure you choose the most important measures (and not too many of them!)

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Combine your winning idea and success measures into a tangible and measurable goal.
Refine the words until you have a concise and precise statement of your mission, which expresses your ideas, measures and desired result.
Tip:OK, so we’re a bit glib here talking about the “winning idea” – this is a prime subject of the discipline of business strategy, and it can take a lot of effort to find, shape and test. See our articles on USP Analysis, SWOT Analysis and Core Competence Analysis for starting points, and make sure you do the homework needed!

Example:Take the example of a produce store whose winning idea is “farm freshness”. The owner identifies two keys measures of her success: freshness and customer satisfaction. She creates her mission statement – which is the action goal that combines the winning idea and measures of success.

The mission statement of Farm Fresh Produce is:

“To become the number one produce store in Main Street by selling the highest quality, freshest farm produce, from farm to customer in under 24 hours on 75% of our range and with 98% customer satisfaction.”

Vision Statement Creation
Once you’ve created your mission statement, move on to create your vision statement:
First identify your organization’s mission. Then uncover the real, human value in that mission.
Next, identify what you, your customers and other stakeholders will value most about how your organization will achieve this mission. Distil these into the values that your organization has or should have.
Combine your mission and values, and polish the words until you have a vision statement inspiring enough to energize and motivate people inside and outside your organization.
Using the example mission statement developed for Farm Fresh Produce, the owner examines what she, her customers and her employees value about her mission.

The four most important things she identifies are: freshness, healthiness, tastiness and “local-ness” of the produce. Here’s the Vision Statement she creates and shares with employees, customers and farmers alike:

“We help the families of Main Town live happier and healthier lives by providing the freshest, tastiest and most nutritious local produce: From local farms to your table in under 24 hours.”

This article draws on information from Mind Tools' “How to Lead: Discover the Leader Within You” course, which teaches the 48 key skills needed to lead effectively. Click here to find out more about “How to Lead”.

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The next article helps you deliver on your mission statement, with tips on effective delegation. To learn more about this, click "Next article" below.


Successful Delegation:How, When and Why
Even "Super-You" needs help and support. There is no shame in asking for assistance. Push aside the pride and show respect for the talent others can bring to the table.And, remember that there is no such thing as a single-handed success: When you include and acknowledge all those in your corner, you propel yourself, your teammates and your supporters to greater heights. – Author Unknown.

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The most effective, respected, successful leaders realize early on that, just as they themselves must continue to grow, they must help their team members to reach their fullest potential.As we explain in “How to Lead: Discover the Leader Within You,” this requires ongoing coaching and delegation.

Delegate to Take Control of Your Time
Because of this, we take a closer look at delegation in this article. Delegation helps you by freeing you up to focus on the matters that really do require your attention (this is where it’s important for good time and stress management). And it helps you develop your people by freeing them up to use their abilities to the greatest extent (this is where it’s important for effective leadership).

And Delegate to Build Your People
As you probably already know, delegation means giving a certain amount of power to make decisions and complete activities to someone else. What you may not know is that by sharing this responsibility, you enable individuals to grow and to further develop their knowledge, skills and abilities.Sure, there will be times when, as a leader, you feel that you may save time or effort by simply completing a task or project on your own. After all, by delegating it, you know you’ll have to set aside the time to monitor progress, offer support, communicate, and so on. But, as any successful leader knows, you must resist the urge to do this, for it will thwart even your best leadership efforts and in the long run is sure to spell F-A-I-L-U-R-E!In the Develop Your Team section (Module 7) of “How to Lead: Discover the Leader Within You,” we explain the need to develop your team members and look at how to do this in a way that best suits the learning needs of each individual. And we share with readers the foundation for successful coaching and look at specific delegation strategies that ensure your success and your team’s success. So, let’s devote this article to discussing the nuts and bolts of delegation, or the How, When and Why behind this strong leadership tool.Perhaps it is best to start by explaining that good delegation (which takes a certain amount of know-how and practice) stimulates your team members, while allowing you to focus on the high value issues that only you can deal with. This is what we are referring to when we say delegation is a strong win-win tool, without which no leader can be truly successful.
Prepare to Delegate Effectively
Prior to delegating, you need to think some important things through. Use our free Delegation Log template to record the key points from:
1. The specifics of the task or job to be delegated.
The experience, knowledge and skills of the individual as they apply to the delegated task.
How this person works best (including what he or she wants from his or her job, how he or she views the work, and so on.)
The current workload of this person.
The project’s timelines/deadlines, including:a) How much time is there available to do the job?b) Is there time to redo the job if it’s not done properly the first time?c) What are the consequences of not completing the job on time?
Resources for this person as he/she works to complete the task.
Your expectations or goals for the project or task(s), including:a) How important is it that the results are of the highest possible quality?b) Is an “adequate” result good enough?c) Would a failure be crucial?d) How much would failure impact other things?
The role you play as the person who is delegating in ensuring the project’s success, through ongoing monitoring, support, coaching, the providing of resources, and so on.
Appropriate mechanisms for controlling the project: For example, precisely when should you set checkpoints and report-backs to make sure that things are going smoothly?
In thoroughly considering these key points prior to delegating, you will find that you will delegate more successfully.
Keeping Effective Control
Now, once you have worked through the above steps, make sure you brief your team member appropriately. Take time to explain why they were chosen for the job, what’s expected from them during the project, the goals you have for the project, all timelines and deadlines and the resources on which they can draw. And agree a schedule for checking-in with progress updates.
Lastly, make sure that the team member knows that you want to know if any problems occur, and that you are available for any questions or guidance needed as the work progresses.

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We all know that as managers, we shouldn’t micro-manage. However, this doesn’t mean we must abdicate control altogether: In delegating effectively, we have to find the sometimes-difficult balance between giving enough space for people to use their abilities to best effect, while still monitoring and supporting closely enough to ensure that the job is done correctly and effectively.

Providing that you stick to the checkpoints agreed, you should find out early on, for example, if tasks you are delegating to Team Member A would be better delegated to Team Member B. Alternatively, you may find that the deadlines set for the delegated project are not realistic: This means you have plenty of time either to accelerate the project (for example by allocating more effort to it) or to manage the expectations of the customer of the project to expect a later delivery.

The Importance of Full Acceptance
When delegated work is delivered back to you, set aside enough time to review it thoroughly.If possible, only accept good quality, fully-complete work. If you accept work you are not satisfied with, your team member does not learn to do the job properly.Worse than this, you accept a whole new tranche of work that you will probably need to complete yourself. Not only does this overload you, it means that you don’t have the time to do your own job properly.Of course, when good work is returned to you, make sure to both recognize and reward the effort.As a leader, you should get in the practice of complimenting members of your team every time you are impressed by what they have done. This effort on your part will go a long way toward building team member’s self-confidence and efficiency, both of which will be improved on the next delegated task; hence, you both win.Just a word of caution: When you first start to delegate to someone, you may notice he or she takes longer than you do to complete tasks. This is because you are an expert in the field and the person you have delegated to is still learning. Be patient, for if you have chosen the right person to delegate to, and you are delegating correctly, you will find that he or she quickly becomes competent and reliable.


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The next series of articles look at business problem solving - an essential set of skills needed by effective leaders. Click "Next Article" below to visit our problem solving section.


Problem Solving Techniques
The tools in this section help you solve complicated business problems.

By using these techniques you can start to tackle problems which might otherwise seem huge, overwhelming and excessively complex. These tools give you a starting point in problem solving where other people would just feel helpless and intimidated by the situation.

The section starts with some simple complexity skills and then moves on to more powerful, 'industrial strength" techniques like use of Systems Diagrams, SWOT Analysis, Cash Flow Forecasting and Risk Analysis. We conclude with four powerful business strategy tools: Porter's Five Forces, PEST Analysis, Value Chain Analysis and USP Analysis.

Enjoy using these tools!

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Introduction

Appreciation - Extracting All Most Information From Facts

Drill-Down - Breaking Problems Down into Manageable Parts

Cause & Effect Diagrams - Identifying Likely Causes of Problems

Systems Diagrams - Understanding How Factors Affect Each Other

SWOT - Analyzing Your Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats

Cash Flow Forecasting With Spreadsheets - Analyzing Whether an Idea is Financially Viable

Risk Analysis

Porter's Five Forces - Understanding the Balance of Power in a Situation

PEST Analysis - Understanding "Big Picture" Forces of Change

Value Chain Analysis - Achieving Excellence in the Things That Matter

USP Analysis - Finding Your Competitive Edge.
Problem Solving Resources

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5 Whys - Getting quickly to the root of a problem.

Affinity Diagrams - Organizing Ideas Into Common Themes

The Ansoff Matrix - Understanding the different risks of different options.

Using the Change Curve - Accelerating change, and improving project success.

Chunking - Grouping information so it's more easily understood.

Core Competence Analysis - Get ahead. Stay ahead.

Critical Success Factors - Identifying the things that really matter for success.

Impact Analysis - Identifying the "unexpected" consequences of a decision.

Inductive Reasoning - Drawing good generalized conclusions.

The Ladder of Inference - Avoiding "jumping to conclusions".

Reverse Brainstorming - A different approach to brainstorming.

Swim Lane Diagrams - Mapping and improving organizational processes.

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The first article explains the context into which these tools fit. To read it, click "Next article" below. Other relevant destinations are shown in the "Where to go from here" list underneath.


SQ3RIncreasing Your Retention of Written Information

SQ3R is a useful technique for fully absorbing written information. It helps you to create a good mental framework of a subject, into which you can fit facts correctly. It helps you to set study goals. It also prompts you to use the review techniques that will help to fix information in your mind.

By using SQ3R to actively read a document, you can get the maximum benefit from your reading time.

How to Use the Tool:
The acronym SQ3R stands for the five sequential techniques you should use to read a book:

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Survey:Survey the document: scan the contents, introduction, chapter introductions and chapter summaries to pick up a shallow overview of the text. Form an opinion of whether it will be of any help. If it does not give you the information you want, discard it.
Question:Make a note of any questions on the subject that come to mind, or particularly interest you following your survey. Perhaps scan the document again to see if any stand out. These questions can be considered almost as study goals - understanding the answers can help you to structure the information in your own mind.
Read:Now read the document. Read through useful sections in detail, taking care to understand all the points that are relevant. In the case of some texts this reading may be very slow. This will particularly be the case if there is a lot of dense and complicated information. While you are reading, it can help to take notes in Concept Map format.
Recall:Once you have read appropriate sections of the document, run through it in your mind several times. Isolate the core facts or the essential processes behind the subject, and then see how other information fits around them.
Review:Once you have run through the exercise of recalling the information, you can move on to the stage of reviewing it. This review can be by rereading the document, by expanding your notes, or by discussing the material with colleagues. A particularly effective method of reviewing information is to have to teach it to someone else!
Key points:
SQ3R is a useful technique for extracting the maximum amount of benefit from your reading time. It helps you to organize the structure of a subject in your mind. It also helps you to set study goals and to separate important information from irrelevant data.

SQ3R is a 5 stage active reading technique. The stages are:
Survey
Question
Read
Recall
Review
If you use SQ3R, you will significantly improve the quality of your study time.

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In the next article, we look at the popular topic of speed reading. To read this, click 'Next article' below. Other relevant destinations are shown in the "Where to go from here" list underneath.

Speed Reading Radically Increasing Your Reading Speed
Speed Reading helps you to read and understand text more quickly. It is an essential skill in any environment where you have to master large volumes of information quickly, as is the norm in fast-moving professional environments. And it's a key technique to learn if you suffer from "Information Overload."

The Key Insight
The most important trick about speed reading is to know what information you want from a document before you start reading it: if you only want an outline of the issue that the document discusses, then you can skim the document quickly and extract only the essential facts. If you need to understand the real detail of the document, then you need to read it slowly enough to understand it fully.

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You will get the greatest time savings from speed reading by learning to skim excessively detailed documents.

Technical Issues
Even when you know how to ignore irrelevant detail, there are other technical improvements you can make to your reading style which will increase your reading speed.

Most people learn to read the way young children read - either letter-by-letter, or word-by-word. As an adult, this is probably not the way you read now - think about how your eye muscles are moving as you read this. You will probably find that you are fixing your eyes on one block of words, then moving your eyes to the next block of words, and so on. You are reading blocks of words at a time, not individual words one-by-one. You may also notice that you do not always go from one block to the next: sometimes you may move back to a previous block if you are unsure about something.

A skilled reader will read many words in each block. He or she will only dwell on each block for an instant, and will then move on. Only rarely will the reader's eyes skip back to a previous block of words. This reduces the amount of work that the reader's eyes have to do. It also increases the volume of information that can be examined in a period of time.

A poor reader will become bogged down, spending a lot of time reading small blocks of words. He or she will skip back often, losing the flow and structure of the text and overall understanding of the subject. This irregular eye movement makes reading tiring. Poor readers tend to dislike reading, and may find it harder to concentrate and understand written information.

How to Use Tool:
Speed reading aims to improve reading skills by:
Increasing the number of words read in each block
Reducing the length of time spent reading each block, and
Reducing the number of times your eyes skip back to a previous sentence.
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These are explained below:
Increasing the number of words in each block:This needs a conscious effort. Try to expand the number of words that you read at a time: With practice, you'll find you read faster. You may also find that you can increase the number of words in each block by holding the text a little further from your eyes. The more words you can read in each block, the faster you will read!
Reducing fixation time:The minimum length of time needed to read each block is probably only a quarter of a second. By pushing yourself to reduce the time you take, you will get better at picking up information quickly. Again, this is a matter of practice and confidence.
Reducing skip-back:To reduce the number of times that your eyes skip back to a previous sentence, run a pointer along the line as you read. This could be a finger, or a pen or pencil. Your eyes will follow the tip of your pointer, smoothing the flow of your reading. The speed at which you read using this method will largely depend on the speed at which you move the pointer.
You will be able to increase your reading speed a certain amount on your own by applying speed reading techniques.

What you don't get out of self-study is the use of specialist reading machines and the confidence gained from successful speed-reading - this is where a good one-day course can revolutionize your reading skills.

Key points:
By speed reading you can read information more quickly. You may also get a better understanding of it as you will hold more of it in short term memory.

To improve the speed of your reading, read more words in each block and reduce the length of time spent reading each block. Use a pointer to smooth the way your eyes move and reduce skip-back.

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In the next article, we look at use of Reading Strategies, the second key technique you need to read faster and beat Information Overload. To read this article, click "Next article" below.


Reading StrategiesReading Efficiently by Reading Intelligently
Good reading strategies help you to read in a very efficient way. Using them, you aim to get the maximum benefit from your reading with the minimum effort. This section will show you how to use 6 different strategies to read intelligently.

Strategy 1: Knowing what you want to knowThe first thing to ask yourself is: Why you are reading the text? Are you reading with a purpose or just for pleasure? What do you want to know after reading it?

Once you know this, you can examine the text to see whether it is going to move you towards this goal.

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An easy way of doing this is to look at the introduction and the chapter headings. The introduction should let you know whom the book is targeted at, and what it seeks to achieve. Chapter headings will give you an overall view of the structure of the subject.

Ask yourself whether the book meets your needs. Ask yourself if it assumes too much or too little knowledge. If the book isn't ideal, would it be better to find a better one?

Strategy 2: Knowing how deeply to study the materialWhere you only need the shallowest knowledge of the subject, you can skim material. Here you read only chapter headings, introductions and summaries.

If you need a moderate level of information on a subject, then you can scan the text. Here you read the chapter introductions and summaries in detail. You may then speed read the contents of the chapters, picking out and understanding key words and concepts. At this level of looking at the document it is worth paying attention to diagrams and graphs.

Only when you need detailed knowledge of a subject is it worth studying the text. Here it is best to skim the material first to get an overview of the subject. This gives you an understanding of its structure, into which you can fit the detail gained from a full, receptive reading of the material. SQ3R is a good technique for getting a deep understanding of a text.

Strategy 3: Active ReadingWhen you are reading a document in detail, it often helps if you highlight, underline and annotate it as you go on. This emphasizes information in your mind, and helps you to review important points later.

Doing this also helps to keep your mind focused on the material and stops it wandering.

This is obviously only something to do if you own the document! If you own the book and find that active reading helps, then it may be worth photocopying information in more expensive texts. You can then read and mark the photocopies.

If you are worried about destroying the material, ask yourself how much your investment of time is worth. If the benefit you get by active reading reasonably exceeds the value of the book, then the book is disposable.

Strategy 4: How to study different sorts of materialDifferent sorts of documents hold information in different places and in different ways. They have different depths and breadths of coverage. By understanding the layout of the material you are reading, you can extract useful information much more efficiently.

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Reading Magazines and Newspapers:These tend to give a very fragmented coverage of an area. They will typically only concentrate on the most interesting and glamorous parts of a topic - this helps them to sell copies! They will often ignore less interesting information that may be essential to a full understanding of a subject. Typically areas of useful information are padded out with large amounts of irrelevant waffle or with advertising.

The most effective way of getting information from magazines is to scan the contents tables or indexes and turn directly to interesting articles. If you find an article useful, then cut it out and file it in a folder specifically covering that sort of information. In this way you will build up sets of related articles that may begin to explain the subject.
Newspapers tend to be arranged in sections. If you read a paper often, you can learn quickly which sections are useful and which ones you can skip altogether.

Reading Individual Articles:Articles within newspapers and magazines tend to be in three main types:
News Articles:Here the most important information is presented first, with information being less and less useful as the article progresses. News articles are designed to explain the key points first, and then flesh them out with detail.
Opinion Articles:Opinion articles present a point of view. Here the most important information is contained in the introduction and the summary, with the middle of the article containing supporting arguments.
Feature Articles:These are written to provide entertainment or background on a subject. Typically the most important information is in the body of the text.
If you know what you want from an article, and recognize its type, you can extract information from it quickly and efficiently.

Strategy 5: Reading 'whole subject' documentsWhen you are reading an important document, it is easy to accept the writer's structure of thought. This can mean that you may not notice that important information has been omitted or that irrelevant detail has been included. A good way of recognizing this is to compile your own table of contents before you open the document. You can then use this table of contents to read the document in the order that you want. You will be able to spot omissions quickly.

Strategy 6: Using glossaries with technical documentsIf you are reading large amounts of difficult technical material, it may be useful to photocopy or compile a glossary. Keep this beside you as you read. It will probably also be useful to note down the key concepts in your own words, and refer to them when necessary.

Usually it is best to make notes as you go. Effective way of doing this include creating Concept Maps or using the Cornell Note Taking System.
Key points:
This section shows 6 different strategies and techniques that you can use to read more effectively.

These are:
Knowing what you need to know, and reading appropriately
Knowing how deeply to read the document: skimming, scanning or studying
Using active reading techniques to pick out key points and keep your mind focused on the material
Using the table of contents for reading magazines and newspapers, and clipping useful articles
Understanding how to extract information from different article types
Creating your own table of contents for reviewing material
Using indexes, tables of contents, and glossaries to help you assimilate technical information.
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In the next article, we look at the review techniques which help to fix information in your mind. To read these, click 'Next article' below. Other relevant destinations are shown in the "Where to go from here" list underneath.


Review TechniquesKeeping Knowledge in Your Short-Term Memory
Normally people's memories of things they have learned are clearest immediately after they have learned them. They will then forget more and more knowledge as time goes on. After a few months they may only be able to recall only a tiny percentage of what was initially learned. This makes relearning information difficult when it needs to be done.

If you review knowledge frequently, however, then you will be able to keep it fresh and alive in your mind. This makes it easy to recall when you need it with a minimum of effort.

This section explains how to review material in a structured and effective way.

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How to Use the Tool:
The first step is to spend a few minutes reviewing material immediately after the learning session. This helps you to:
Confirm that you understand the material
Reduce the time needed to relearn information when you need it, and
Improve the quality of future learning, by building on a well-remembered foundation. This helps your mind to make connections and linkages that it would not otherwise make.
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A good way of carrying out this review is to rewrite or tidy up notes. You can do this effectively by putting the information learned into a Concept Map.

After this, reviewing information should be relatively easy and need not take long. Carry out reviews at the following times:
· After one day
· After one week
· After one month
· After four months
Review the topic by taking a few minutes to jot down everything you can remember about the subject, and compare this with your notes.
If you review information often, it should stay fresh in your mind, and will be easily accessible when you need it.

Key points:
By reviewing information you avoid forgetting information that will be difficult and time-consuming to relearn. You also ensure that you keep information fresh in your mind so that it acts as a foundation for future learning.

The first stage in reviewing information is to rewrite and tidy up notes immediately after learning has taken place. This confirms the structure and detail of information in your mind.

After this, periodically jot down what you can remember on a subject and compare it with your notes. This will show you what you have forgotten and refresh your memory.

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In the final article in this section, we look at learning styles. With a good understanding of these, not only can you learn more effectively, you can learn to communicate in a way that all members of your audience can understand. Click "Next article" below to read our article on learning styles.


Learning StylesLearn Effectively by Understanding YourLearning Preferences
Have you ever tried to learn something fairly simple, yet failed to grasp the key ideas? Or tried to teach people and found that some were overwhelmed or confused by something quite basic?

If so, you may have experienced a clash of learning styles: Your learning preferences and those of your instructor or audience may not have been aligned. When this occurs, not only is it frustrating for everyone, the communication process breaks down and learning fails. Once you know your own natural learning preference, you can work on expanding the way you learn, so that you can learn in other ways, not just in your preferred style.

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And, by understanding learning styles, you can learn to create an environment in which everyone can learn from you, not just those who use your preferred style.

Felder and Silverman's Index of Learning Styles
One of the most widely used models of learning styles is the Index of Learning Styles developed by Richard Felder and Linda Silverman in the late 1980s. According to this model (which Felder revised in 2002) there are four dimensions of learning styles. Think of these dimensions as a continuum with one learning preference on the far left and the other on the far right.

Figure 1: Learning Styles Index

Sensory
Intuitive

Sensory learners prefer concrete, practical, and procedural information. They look for the facts.

Intuitive learners prefer conceptual, innovative, and theoretical information. They look for the meaning.

Visual
Verbal

Visual learners prefer graphs, pictures, and diagrams. They look for visual representations of information.

Verbal learners prefer to hear or read information. They look for explanations with words.

Active
Reflective

Active learners prefer to manipulate objects, do physical experiments, and learn by trying. They enjoy working in groups to figure out problems.

Reflective learners prefer to think things through, to evaluate options, and learn by analysis. They enjoy figuring out a problem on their own.

Sequential
Global

Sequential learners prefer to have information presented linearly and in an orderly manner. They put together the details in order to understand the big picture emerges.

Global learners prefer a holistic and systematic approach. They see the big picture first and then fill in the details.

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Once you know where your preferences lie on each of these dimensions, you can begin to stretch beyond those preferences and develop a more balanced approach to learning. Not only will you improve your learning effectiveness, you will open yourself up to many different ways of perceiving the world. Balance is key. You don’t want to get too far on any one side of the learning dimensions. When you do that you limit your ability to take in new information and make sense of it quickly, accurately, and effectively.
Tip:This article describes one useful approach to learning styles. Other practitioners have different approaches.

See our article on 4MAT to find out about other useful approaches: Those of David Kolb, and of Peter Honey and Alan Mumford. And click here to find out about other styles.

Using The Learning Style IndexYou can us the learning style index to develop your own learning skills and also to help you create a rounded learning experience for other people.

(I) Developing Your Learning SkillsStep One: Identify your learning preferences for each learning dimension. Read through the explanations of each learning preference and choose the one that best reflects your style. Alternatively, use an Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire like the one at http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html. Step Two: Analyze your results and identify those dimensions where you are “out of balance,” meaning you have a very strong preference for one style and dislike the other. Step Three: For each out of balance area, use the information in figure 2 to improve your skills in areas where you need development.

Figure 2: Bringing Your Learning Styles Into Balance

Sensory Learners – if you rely too much on sensing, you can tend to prefer what is familiar, and concentrate on facts you know instead of being innovative and adapting to new situations. Seek out opportunities to learn theoretical information and then bring in facts to support or negate these theories. Intuitive Learners – if you rely too much on intuition you risk missing important details, which can lead to poor decision-making and problem solving. Force yourself to learn facts or memorize data that will help you defend or criticize a theory or procedure you are working with. You may need to slow down and look at detail you would otherwise typically skim. Visual Learners – if you concentrate more on pictorial or graphical information than on words, you put yourself at a distinct disadvantage because verbal and written information is still the main preferred choice for delivery of information. Practice your note taking and seek out opportunities to explain information to others using words. Verbal Learners – when information is presented in diagrams, sketches, flow charts, and so on, it is designed to be understood quickly. If you can develop your skills in this area you can significantly reduce time spent learning and absorbing information. Look for opportunities to learn through audio-visual presentations (such as CD-ROM and Webcasts.) When making notes, group information according to concepts and then create visual links with arrows going to and from them. Take every opportunity you can to create charts and tables and diagrams.Active Learners – if you act before you think you are apt to make hasty and potentially ill-informed judgments. You need to concentrate on summarizing situations, and taking time to sit by yourself to digest information you have been given before jumping in and discussing it with others.Reflective Learners – if you think too much you risk doing nothing… ever. There comes a time when a decision has to be made or an action taken. Involve yourself in group decision-making whenever possible and try to apply the information you have in as practical a manner as possible.Sequential Learners – when you break things down into small components you are often able to dive right into problem solving. This seems to be advantageous but can often be unproductive. Force yourself to slow down and understand why you are doing something and how it is connected to the overall purpose or objective. Ask yourself how your actions are going to help you in the long run. If you can’t think of a practical application for what you are doing then stop and do some more “big picture” thinking. Global Learners – if grasping the big picture is easy for you, then you can be at risk of wanting to run before you can walk. You see what is needed but may not take the time to learn how best to accomplish it. Take the time to ask for explanations, and force yourself to complete all problem-solving steps before coming to a conclusion or making a decision. If you can’t explain what you have done and why, then you may have missed critical details.
(II) Creating a Rounded Learning Experience for OthersWhenever you are training or communicating with others, you have information and ideas that you want them to understand and learn effectively and efficiently. Your audience is likely to demonstrate a wide range of learning preferences, and your challenge is to provide variety that helps them learn quickly and well.Your preferred teaching and communication methods may in fact be influenced by your own learning preferences. For example, if you prefer visual rather than verbal learning, you may in turn tend to provide a visual learning experience for your audience.Be aware of your preferences and the range of preference of your audiences. Provide a balanced learning experience by:Sensory - Intuitive: Provide both hard facts and general concepts.Visual - Verbal: Incorporate both visual and verbal cues.Active - Reflective: Allow both experiential learning and time for evaluation and analysis.Sequential - Global: Provide detail in a structured way, as well as the big picture.Key PointsLearning styles and preferences vary for each of us and in different situations.

By understanding this, and developing the skills that help you learn in a variety of ways, you make the most of your learning potential. And because you're better able to learn and gather information, you'll make better decisions and choose better courses of action.

And by understanding that other people can have quite different learning preferences, you can learn to communicate your message effectively in a way that many more people can understand. This is fundamentally important, particularly if you're a professional for whom communication is an important part of your job.Take time to identify how you prefer to learn and then force yourself to break out of your comfort zone. Once you start learning in new ways you’ll be amazed at how much more you catch and how much easier it is to assimilate information and make sense of what is going on.

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See our article on 4MAT to find out about other approaches to learning styles. And click "Next article" below to visit the Mind Tools Communication Skills section, which gives many more tips on how to be an effective communicator.