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However, business travel offers the time and space to tackle this issue – and the way to do this is not by ploughing through all the information you’ve been sent, but by starting to use a new strategy called INSEAK® which will help you assess the value of all the data, so that you spend time only on the information that is relevant to you.
INSEAK – the Intelligent Strategy for the Effective Acquisition of Knowledge – is a ‘3 state’ reading strategy which recognises that whenever we are faced with new documents we need sorting strategies and reading techniques to help us navigate our way through it. Some of these techniques are already widely used, but when combined together they add extraordinary benefit to people who want to harvest knowledge.
We define the three states as follows State 1: A document arrives and assessment is required - In this first state, you the reader, are in receiving mode. But you do not know whether the document, report or email that you have been sent requires your attention. So your first objective is to find out whether it needs to be read, needs to be delegated or can be ditched.
To help with this assessment you need to learn how to make a fast initial evaluation, how to conduct a rapid pre-read and how to draft a skeleton Mind Map - to establish what the documents are about and whether you need to give them further consideration.
State 2: You now have preliminary understanding of the document - Following this assessment you now have preliminary understanding of the documents that you have decided are relevant and, broadly, you know what they cover. You are still in assessment mode, however, and in this mode you now have to decide whether you need to read further and, if so, at what speed and depth.
Your strategies in this process are skimming, scanning and speed-reading including a detailed Mind Map. The critical understanding here is that while some documents may just need a skim read, you may also choose to go through others multiple times, building up greater knowledge each time.
State 3: New knowledge is assimilated - Your state when you have completed the process above is now one of knowledge assimilated. And importantly you will have generated, as part of this state, a robust review strategy (your detailed Mind Map), which will have clarified and coded all the key information you need for easy recall. The drafting of your Mind Map is also a signal that you have met your knowledge assessment objectives and have completed the task in hand.
As you will have noticed, the focus with INSEAK is specifically on assessment and evaluation of information. This is critical for managing overload. The majority of data you receive won’t be relevant but unless you have a reading strategy that helps you to find your way through it, you may well feel overwhelmed by the sheer quantity of data you receive. Once you know how to use INSEAK, you can use the time you have as a traveller, both to clear the data backlog and bolster your future success by capturing those key pieces of information that are important for business success.
Illumine Training provide courses and workshops that fill the gaps in your existing management and personal development programmes or address specific requirements and business needs... better brains for better business®
www.illumine.co.uk +44 (0)1753 866633 © Illumine Training
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