TRENDS,NETWORK AND CRITICAL THINKING

IN THE 21ST CENTURY

General Academic Strand

Ms. Rea Dith S. Sajulan
DEFINITION OF TREND
• A general direction in which something is
developing or changing.

• It indicates the development or change in a

situation or in the way that people are
behaving.

• It refers to be one of the words, subjects, or

names that is being mentioned most often on a
social media website or a news website at a
particular time.
• It is a conceptualized idea that has the prospect
of providing or having a continuing influence
for a longer period of time due to its increasing
and sustained presence and effect or even
demand among its consumers in the case of a
product.
5 TYPES OF TREND
• Microtrend - These are the little things that happen
all around us. Trends that are so common we get used
to it.
• Macrotrend - These are the trends that can endure for
surprisingly a long time. It's also the trends that affect
the society.
• Megatrend - These are the trends that can stay healthy for
decades or lasts for 10 years.
• Gigatrend - It is a megatrend that goes on for half a century or
more. These are the trends that are so general, they affect most
areas of human life.
• Nanotrend - These are the trends that are yet to be expected. It
can be an alternative trends that exists in trends.
WHAT ARE THE LATEST TRENDS?
• Lip tint • Walwal
• Social media: facebook, • Latest gadgets – Iphone,
Instagram, tweeter, Snapshot, mobile phones
tiktok
• Skin products
• Old fashion clothes
• Online gaming: Mobile
• Proud being Single legend, ROS, DOTA
• LGBTQR • Blogging
• Foreign language: korean • Online sale
• Kpop music
• Korean and Chinese drama
• Kilay is life
• Memes
WHAT ARE THE
CHARACTERISTICS OF
21ST CENTURY LEARNERS?
• Lazy
• Focus on the Technology
• Adventurous
• Lack of respect
• Advance thinking
• Social media influence
• More engage on pornography
• Fashion centered
• Emotional: engaging to Depression
• Engaging to Premarital sex
• Exploring new things
• Addicting to computer games
• Always complaining
• Easily bored and tired
• Hard headed
 PROCESS OF TRENDS
TRENDS,NETWORK AND CRITICAL THINKING
IN THE 21 ST CENTURY
STEP ONE: COLLECT SIGNIFICANT IDEAS
• The aim here is to find ideas that describe a
new sort of behavior that is happening today
with increasing frequency.
• Find real proof – Every trend I share comes
with multiple examples. I do use the principle
that you need at least three strong examples
before something is really a trend … but often I
find many more.
STEP TWO: GROUP IDEAS BY THEME
• In this phase, my goal is to find individual ideas
that have similarities and try to group them
into clusters.
STEP THREE: CONSOLIDATE IDEAS
• Multiple clusters may be related to the same
bigger concept – this phase is where I go from
over 50 ideas to my final 15.
STEP FOUR: NAME THE TREND
• Part of the fun of trend hunting is naming each
concept. My book Like comics, for example, was
a leading trend from 2011.
STEP FIVE: CREATE PRESENTATION
• A visual presentation is where I can share each
trend along with reach examples of visuals that
illustrate it.
SAMPLE SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS THAT MATTER
IN 2013
• Shoptimization – The growing suite of technology, apps
and business practices designed to make shopping
quicker, easier and more convenient.
• Friend Sourced Travel – Your friends are your greatest
source of inspiration for planning travel, and a suite of
apps and new travel services are making it easier to
make your travel more personal than ever.
• Degree-Free Learning – The eLearning trend starts to
take shape as more than a way to learn about hobbies –
and begins to finally present itself as a viable
alternative to a college education for some.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A
TREND FROM A FAD
TRENDS,NETWORK AND CRITICAL THINKING
IN THE 21 ST CENTURY
TRENDS SOLVE PROBLEMS AND GET
STRONGER OVER TIME
• A trend, gets stronger over time and does stick
around. Trends have identifiable and explainable
rises that are driven by audience needs. They help
solve a problem for people.
• In the words of the forever-awesome Seth Godin,
“A trend gains power over time, because it’s not
merely part of a moment, it’s a tool, a connector
that will become more valuable as other people
commit to engaging in it.”
• The increasing use of social networks is a trend (that
connects us to one another).
• These are things that have grown – and continue to
grow – in market penetration:
• So is quitting smoking (which lengthens our lives),
• evidence-based medicine (that removes the
guesswork in medical-related situations), and
• the use of mobile devices (that allow us to look up
information in real time)
• It solve problems and represent new ways of life.
FADS COME FAST AND FADE AWAY
• It is any form of collective behavior that develops within a culture,
a generation or social group in which a group of people
enthusiastically follows an impulse for a finite period.
• Fads on the other hand, is any form of behavior that is intensely
followed by a population for a short period of time. The behavior
will rise relatively quickly once the perception of novelty is gone.
• It certainly have value and they can profoundly change
organizations- consider the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge!
• Utilizing fads in marketing and programs can increase top-of-
mind awareness, demonstrate the timeliness of your organization,
and serve as a gateway for new audiences.
• Trends inevitably affect some form of the organization’s
engagement strategy, but fads usually influence tactics.

• Fads can inform your tactics and help you to maintain the
perception of being “current,” but ignoring trends can lead to
irrelevance and create a divide between organizations and
their audiences.
 FAD TREND
• Appear Suddenly • Appear Suddenly
• Enormously Popular • Enormously Popular
• Disappear Suddenly • Doesn’t Disappear

• It usually stay within • It can cross over into

one industry many industries
ELEMENTS THAT MAKE UP A TREND
TRENDS,NETWORK AND CRITICAL THINKING
IN THE 21 ST CENTURY
1. BASIC NEEDS -These are the forces that have
been shaping human behavior for years (if not
forever!). Think status, fairness, community
and more.
2. DRIVERS OF CHANGE - On the other hand,
there are no trends without change. To analyze
change, think in terms of Shifts (long-term,
slower) and Triggers (specific factors or
events).
3. INNOVATIONS - Innovations aren’t trends. But
without examples of customer-facing
innovations, a trend can’t be said to exist fully
yet.
 TRENDS EMERGE AS
INNOVATORS ADDRESS
PEOPLE’S BASIC HUMAN
NEEDS AND WANTS IN
NOVEL WAYS.
PICTURE ANALYSIS
CHARACTERISTICS OF A TREND
TRENDS,NETWORK AND CRITICAL THINKING
IN THE 21 ST CENTURY
1. HUMAN NEEDS

• Driven by a
basic human
need on that is
catalysed by
new
technology.
2. TIMELY

• Timely, but
it persists.
3. EVOLVES/EVOLVING

• Evolves as it
emerges.
4. MAINSTREAM
• Materialized as
a series of
disconnected
dots which
begin out on
the fringe to
move to the
mainstream.
• How each characteristics
of trend affects our day to
day life?
ACTIVITY: SLOGAN MAKING
• Choose one characteristics of a trend and make a
slogan out of it.
IDENTIFYING PARTS OF A WHOLE AND
EMERGING PATTERNS
TRENDS,NETWORK AND CRITICAL THINKING
IN THE 21 ST CENTURY
INTERPRET THE TIME LINE OF VARIOUS
GLOBAL TRENDS FOR THE PAST 3 YEARS IN:

1.Technology
2.Education
3.Social media
4.Fashion
5.Medicine
WHAT ARE THE CHANGES TAKEN PLACE FOR THE
PAST 3 YEARS IN TERMS OF THE DIFFERENT GLOBAL
TRENDS?
“To predict the future we
have to learn from the
past”

Diana V. Caprico
EXPLAIN THE STATEMENT WITH THIS
QUESTIONS:
1. What do you think is the meaning of the
given thought?

2. What can you say about the statement?

PATTERN
• It is a series of data that repeats in a recognizable
way.
• It can be identified in the history of the asset
being evaluated or other assets with similar
characteristics.
• It often include the study of sale volume, as well
as price.
• It can occur within a downward or upward
trend, or they can mark the beginning of a new
trend.
• "FOLLOW-THROUGH DAY" PATTERN is an
example of a pattern used by some analysts to
identify market bottoms.
• "HEAD-AND-SHOULDERS“ TOPPING
PATTERN is popular among day and
swing traders.
• CONTINUATION PATTERNS include the "cup-
and-handle," "flat base" and "three weeks tight."
"FOLLOW-THROUGH DAY" PATTERN
• A concept develop to identify an important change in
general market direction from a definite downtrend to
a new uptrend.
• Occurs during a market correction
• Happen day 4 or later of an attempted rally
• An index closing sufficiently above 1% on increased
volume, positive behavior of leading stocks, and
improved market action regarding support vs.
resistance levels.
• A rally is a period of sustained increases in the prices of stocks, bonds or
indexes. This type of price movement can happen during either a bull
or a bear market, when it is known as either a bull market rally or a bear
market rally, respectively.

• A bull market is the condition of a financial market of a group of securities in

which prices are rising or are expected to rise. The term "bull market" is
most often used to refer to the stock market but can be applied to anything
that is traded, such as bonds, real estate, currencies and commodities.
Because prices of securities rise and fall essentially continuously during
trading, the term "bull market" is typically reserved for extended periods in
which a large portion of security prices are rising. Bull markets tend to last
for months or even years.
• From the beginning of any attempted market rally during a
definite downtrend, a 'follow-through' day is identified
when a major index closes significantly higher, over 1% for
the day, on a strong increase in volume from the day before.
• The first two or three days of a rally are normally
disregarded, as the rally has not yet proven it will succeed
and 'follow through' with power and conviction. 'Follow-
through' days therefore generally occur the fourth through
seventh day of the attempted rally. They serve as a
confirmation that the market has really changed direction
and is in a new uptrend.
HEAD AND SHOULDERS PATTERN
• It describes a specific chart formation that predicts a bullish-to-
bearish trend reversal.
• it is believed to be one of the most reliable trend reversal
patterns. It is one of several top patterns that signal, with varying
degrees of accuracy, that an upward trend is nearing its end.
A HEAD AND SHOULDERS PATTERN IS
COMPRISED OF THREE COMPONENT PARTS:

1. After long bullish trends, the price rises to a peak

and subsequently declines to form a trough.
2. The price rises again to form a second high
substantially above the initial peak and declines
again.
3. The price rises a third time, but only to the level of
the first peak, before declining once more.
• It can also signal that a downward trend is about to
reverse into an upward trend.

• In this case, the stocks price reaches three consecutive

lows, separated by temporary rallies. Of these, the second
trough is the lowest (the head) and the first and third are
slightly shallower (the shoulders).

• The final rally after the third dip signals that the bearish
trend has reversed and prices are likely to keep moving
up.
CONTINUATION PATTERNS

• It occur mid-trend and are a pause in the price action of

varying durations. When these patterns occur, it can indicate
that the trend is likely to resume after the pattern completes.
• A pattern is considered complete when the pattern has formed
(can be drawn) and then "breaks out" of that pattern,
potentially continuing on with the former trend.
• It can be seen on all time frames, from a tick chart to a daily
or weekly chart. Common continuation patterns
include triangles, flags, pennants and rectangles.
• It can be important to spot for both long-term and short-term
traders.
COMMON CONTINUATION PATTERNS
INCLUDE:
• Triangles: Triangles can be easily mistaken for wedges and also form the basis
for pennants. In a triangle pattern the resistant and support lines have opposite
slopes with one reporting a negative slope and the other a positive slope. In a
triangle continuation pattern the sloping lines will distinctly join at the
convergence point. Triangles can be symmetric, ascending or descending. The
bars of the sloping lines typically represent a slightly longer timeframe than a
pennant.
• Pennants: Pennants are a form of a triangle, also reporting opposite sloping lines.
However, pennants will have shorter trendlines. Typically, pennants will have
connecting bars that span over approximately 20 days. This compares to triangles
which have longer sloping lines.
• Flags: Flags are represented by two short-term parallel lines. Flags can be either
ascending or descending. Flags show the volatility that can occur within a
price trend.
• Rectangles: Rectangles are a common continuation pattern that show a pause in
the price series trend with price action moving sideways. A rectangle pattern is
drawn from two zero sloping parallel trendlines. These trendlines drawn at the
resistance and support levels identify sideways movement which infers that the
series trend is only paused and likely to continue.
WHAT ARE THE GLOBAL AND EMERGING
TRENDS OF 21ST CENTURY?
1. mobile age
2. Crisis in water and food
3. technology race
4. competing brick and beyond
5. Influence of me and we
6. rise of new power brokers
7. interdependence and competition across industries
8. own the new consumers
9. generation gap
10.tension of globalization and fragmentation
• A
• How to face the new challenges brought by global and
emerging trends of the 21 st century?
• Go with the flow with it.
• Control the situation in setting limitation
• Apply the positive side not the negative side of it
• Need to learn and observe
CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF A TREND

TRENDS,NETWORK AND CRITICAL THINKING

IN THE 21 ST CENTURY
REASONS WHY OUR SOCIETY CREATES
SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS:
Why we use it ?
• allows us to be connected with our friends, peers and
celebrities.
• school-projects, sharing, communicate with each other

Why Business use them?

• promote their products and services
• easily update their customers with new information
• sales, promotions, new products
POSITIVE EFFECTS FROM THE SOCIAL
MEDIA TREND

• The ability to interact with different types of

people

• To keep updated with events, happening around

the world

• It can easily share and spread information across

the world
NEGATIVE EFFECTS FROM THE SOCIAL
MEDIA TREND

• The cyber-bullying is increasing because

it can occur easily.

• It is easier to hide your identity from

others.
REASONS WHY TRENDS AFFECTS THE
SOCIETY

• It affects everything we do - what we buy, think

and our action

• It affects us physically, socially and

psychologically
PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS SOCIETY

• It changes the way why you buy things

• You buy it because it is “ in” or because it is
popular
• Buy something because you want them
• Majority of us will follow it almost everyone has
the same idea, product etc.
• We’re afraid to stand alone so we follow trends
PHYSICAL EFFECTS ON SOCIETY

• dress, look differently to “ fit in” with the crowd

• change of attitudes and behavior

THE EFFECTS FROM TRENDS TOWARDS
MEDIA / BUSINESS INDUSTRY

• It influences the products and advertisements

they use and produce
• It use trends to their advantage
• It tries to make their product a trend “ trend-
setter ”
• To gain revenue and more attention
 "Don't be into trends. Don't
make fashion own you, but you
decide what you are “
Gianni Versace
DEFINE STRATEGIC ANALYSIS AND
INTUITIVE THINKING
TRENDS,NETWORK AND CRITICAL THINKING
IN THE 21 ST CENTURY
ACTIVITY: “BUILD A TOWER/ BRIDGE GAME”

• The class will be form a groups. Using

newspapers and masking tape, the group will
produce the highest tower or the strongest
bridge will win.
• What did you feel about the
activity?
• What did the group do to
accomplish and finish the task?
• Video Presentation : What is Strategy?
• What is a strategy according to the video?
• What are the important characteristics/
elements/abilities necessary to have a
good strategy?
ACTIVITY: “THINK-PAIR SHARE”
Create an analogy by doing the following:
• Think of a current problem or challenge and describe it in terms
of a story, a symbol, a natural phenomenon, etc, For example:
“That client is like a tornado – he gets us going round and round
and causes nothing but destruction.”
• After describing the problem, determine the steps to be done.
• Problem:_____________________________________________________________
• Story/Symbol:_______________________________________________________
• Abstraction and Analogy:__________________________________________
• Creative Solution:___________________________________________________
• Was it easy or difficult to use analogy?
Why?
• Is having a strategy and using analogy
helpful in coming up with good solutions?
STRATEGIC ANALYSIS

TRENDS,NETWORK AND CRITICAL THINKING

IN THE 21 ST CENTURY
STRATEGIC ANALYSIS
• Strategic – Analysis involves the individual’s capacity for thinking
conceptually, imaginatively, systematically, and opportunistically
with regard to the attainment of success in the future. The process
requires you to follow a pattern to creatively address a situation
and understand the environment in which an organization is
operating.
• Why use it?
• To take advantage of the path of least resistance to achieve
your goal.
• When to use it?
• When you are planning to make a change in your organization,
and you need to determine the best path to take.
TOOLS OF STRATEGIC ANALYSIS
• A number of tools are used in the process
of strategic analysis, including:
• PEST,
• SWOT analysis,
• Michael Porter’s five forces model
• Value chain analysis
PEST ANALYSIS
• It is stands for “Political, Economic, Social, and
Technological analysis”, and describes a framework of
macro-environmental factors used in the
environmental scanning component of strategic
management.
PEST ANALYSIS FACTORS
• POLITICAL FACTORS, are how and to what degree a government intervenes
in the economy. Specifically, political factors include areas such as tax policy,
labor law, environmental law, trade restrictions, tariffs, and political stability.
• ECONOMIC FACTORS include economic growth, interest rates, exchange
rates and the inflation rate. These factors have major impacts on how
businesses operate and make decisions. For example Exchange rates affect
the costs of exporting goods and the supply and price of imported goods in
an economy.
• Social factors include the cultural aspects and include health consciousness,
population growth rate, age distribution, career attitudes and emphasis on
safety. Trends in social factors affect the demand for a company, products and
how that company operates. For example, an ageing population may involve a
smaller and less-willing workforce (thus increasing the cost of labor).
• Technological factors include ecological and environmental aspects, such as
R&D activity, automation, technology incentives and the rate of technological
change. They can determine barriers to entry, minimum efficient production
level and influence outsourcing decisions.
SWOT ANALYSIS
• It is a strategic planning method used to evaluate the
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats
involved in a project or in a business venture. It
involves specifying the objective of the business
venture or project and identifying the internal and
external factors that are favorable and unfavorable to
achieving that objective.
PORTER FIVE FORCES ANALYSIS

1. The threat of substitute

products
2. The threat of the entry of new
competitors
3. The intensity of competitive
rivalry
4. The bargaining power of
customers
5. The bargaining power of
suppliers
VALUE CHAIN ANALYSIS
• Value chain analysis is based on the principle that
organizations exist to create value for their customers.
In the analysis, the organization and activities are
divided into separate sets of activities that add value.
• The three steps for conducting a value chain analysis
are:
• operations into primary and support activities
• Allocate cost to each activity.
• Identify the activities that are important to
customer’s satisfaction and market success.
STRATEGIC PLANNING
1.Identify mission and purpose
2.Identify goals
3.identify objectives— specific,
measurable, attainable, realistic, time-
bounded (SMART)
4.Implement objectives to meet goals
5.Evaluate process.
SCENARIO PLANNING

• Addresses the weakness of strategic planning

to see multiple futures
• It identifies multiple possibilities
• Think the unthinkable
• Discuss each scenario and plan accordingly
STRATEGY FORMULATION
• It is a combination of three main processes which are as follows:
• Performing a situation analysis, self-evaluation and
competitor analysis: both internal and external; both micro-
environmental and macro-environmental.
• Concurrent with this assessment, objectives are set. These
objectives should be parallel to a timeline; some are in the
short-term and others on the long-term. This involves crafting
vision statements, mission statements, overall corporate
objectives, strategic business unit objectives, and tactical
objectives.
• These objectives should, suggest a strategic plan. The plan
provides the details of how to achieve these objectives.
STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION
• Allocation and management of sufficient resources (financial, personnel,
operational support, time, technology support)
• Establishing a chain of command or some alternative structure (such as
cross functional teams)
• Assigning responsibility of specific tasks or processes to specific
individuals or groups
• It also involves managing the process. This includes monitoring results,
comparing to benchmarks and best practices, evaluating the
effectiveness and efficiency of the process, controlling for variances, and
making adjustments to the process as necessary.
• When implementing specific programs, this involves acquiring the
requisite resources, developing the process, training, process testing,
documentation, and integration with (and/or conversion from) legacy
processes.
STRATEGY EVALUATION

• Measuring the effectiveness of the organizational strategy, it’s

extremely important to conduct a SWOT analysis to figure out the
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (both internal
and external) of the entity in question.
• In corporate strategy, strategic options are evaluated against
three key success criteria:
• Suitability (would it work?)
• Feasibility (can it be made to work?)
• Acceptability (will they work it?)
• STRATEGIC ANALYSIS
provides us a clear view of the company’s
business operations, their objectives, goals and
how they achieve their targets. The SWOT,
PEST, Value Chain analysis and Porter’s five
forces model helps in measuring the success
or failure of the strategies implemented in
the company.
“GREAT QUOTES FROM GREAT
PERSONALITIES”:
• Albert Einstein : “There is no logical way to the discovery of these
elemental laws. There is only the way of intuition, which is
helped by a feeling for the order lying behind the appearance.”

• Steve Jobs: “Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out
your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to
follow your heart and intuition.”

• Alexis Carrel: “All great men are gifted with intuition. They know
without reasoning or analysis what they need to know.”

• Lao Tzu: “The power of intuitive understanding will protect you

from harm until the end of your days.”
• What is common in their sayings?
• What are the key words
mentioned in describing intuition
and intuitive thinking?
• Video presentation - Should You Trust Your Gut Instinct
INTUITIVE THINKING
TRENDS,NETWORK AND CRITICAL THINKING
IN THE 21 ST CENTURY
• Video presentation - Learned Intuition
ARE YOU AN INTUITIVE OR ANALYTICAL
THINKER?
1. it takes 5 machines 5 minutes to make 5 widgets, how
long would it take 100 machines to make 100 widgets?
_______ minutes
2. In a lake, there is a patch of lily pads. Everyday, the
patch doubles in size. If it takes 48 days for the patch to
cover the entire lake, how long would it take for the
patch to cover half the lake? _________ days
3. A bat and ball together cost $1.10. The bat costs $1.00
more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?
_________ cents
ARE YOU AN INTUITIVE OR ANALYTICAL
THINKER?
1. Analytical answer: 5 minutes
Intuitive answer: 100 minutes

2. Analytical answer: 47 days

Intuitive answer: 24 days

3. Analytical answer: 5 cents

Intuitive answer: 10 cents
ARE YOU AN INTUITIVE OR ANALYTICAL
THINKER?
1. Analytical answer: 5 minutes
Intuitive answer: 100 minutes

2. Analytical answer: 47 days

Intuitive answer: 24 days

3. Analytical answer: 5 cents

Intuitive answer: 10 cents
WHAT IS INTUITION?
• A Hunch
• Gut Feeling
• Sudden Insight
• Tacit Knowledge
• Perception of the Unconscious
• Foresight
• Synthesis
• Language of Metaphors, Symbols & Analogies
 Intuition is the event which occurs
when an individual reaches a
conclusion on the basis of less
explicit information than is
ordinarily required to reach that
conclusion. - Malcolm Westcott
Intuition allows one to draw on that vast storehouse of
unconscious knowledge that includes not only
everything that one has experienced or learned,
either consciously or subliminally, but also the
infinite reservoir of the collective or universal
unconscious, in which individual separateness and
ego boundaries are transcended. - Frances Vaughan
• INTUITIVE THINKING is “quick and
ready insight”. Intuitive decision making
is far more than using common sense
because it involves additional sensors to
perceive and get aware of the information
from outside. Sometimes it is referred to
as gut feeling, sixth sense, inner sense,
instinct, inner voice, spiritual guide, etc.
INTUITIVE THINKING CONTRASTING
QUALITIES:
• it is unfocused,
• nonlinear,
• contains "no time,"
• sees many things at once,
• views the big picture,
• contains perspective,
• is heart centered,
• oriented in space and time, and
• tends to the real or concrete.
LIMITATION OF INTUITIVE THINKING

• where the task is complex and

uncertain,

• where the observer lacks experience, or

the observation is distorted by biases or
fixed ideas.
WEAKNESS OF INTUITIVE THINKING
• It is a tendency to produce a fixed
attitude or mindset that ignores new
data;

• It is ineffective for predicting the stock

market, or for discovering that the heart
is a pump, or for dissecting a legal
problem.
STRENGTHENING INTUITION
TRENDS,NETWORK AND CRITICAL THINKING
IN THE 21 ST CENTURY
INTUITION IS THE ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND A TOPIC, A
SITUATION OR A PERSON WITHOUT THE NEED FOR CONSCIOUS
THINKING OR LOGICAL REASONING

A Formula and Framework: If you could boil all of these

contradictions down, you might get a recipe like this.
Strategy + Experience + Senses + Feelings = Intuition
• Strategy: What am I trying to accomplish?
• Experience: What do I know about the topic, situation
or person?
• Senses: What is my mind experiencing?
• Feelings: What is my body experiencing?
Strengthening Intuition

TEN STEPS TO STRENGTHEN INTUITION

1. EXPAND YOUR EXPERIENCE.
• Either in your current role or through personal
interests, seek out and offer yourself to new
opportunities or special projects.
• Challenge yourself with growth opportunities which
both add to your expertise as well as allow you to
engage with others. (See #2 below.)
• Immerse yourself in different, new or unusual
experiences. Look for opportunities to get out from
behind your desk and walk in the real world.
2. BROADEN YOUR NETWORK AND YOUR
EXPOSURE.
• You can’t always experience something directly. Even if you
do, another person’s point-of-view can be as insightful as
witnessing it for yourself. Build your network – in person,
on social media – to feed and nourish your intuition.
Mentors are a perfect place to start if you’re not sure how to
begin.
• Join a club, or attend a talk or debate. Link to/follow
influencers on platforms like Twitter, Snapchat, Webo,
Wechat or LinkedIn. Subscribe to RSS feeds from
journos/bloggers in consumer, news, trade and tech in your
relevant areas. Use apps like Pocket, Flipboard and Evernote
to help manage information, if not the bookmark features
on key websites. Comment on posts to engage and stimulate
your analytical thinking.
3. LEARN, OBSERVE AND LISTEN.
• As necessary as experience, intelligence must be kept
fresh to be of use. Read as much as you can on topics
which are relevant to you, and preferably, challenge
what you think you know.
• Continue to educate yourself in training workshops
and hands-on learning opportunities. Look for an
online training courses to take. MOOCs are ideal for
this.
4. BE AWARE OF WHAT YOUR SENSES TELL
YOU.
• Your unconscious brain perceives information significantly more than
your conscious mind. It’s important to pay attention and recognise
these non-verbal cues to stimulate your intuition.
• Here’s an example I use in my creativity workshop – which is also a
fun/easy distraction during your morning/evening commute. Use
your senses to ‘examine’ your fellow commuters. Consider their body
language, cologne, snippets of conversation, carry-alls and
accessories. What’s your intuition tell you about their back story?
Make up stories in your head which stokes your intuition further. The
trick – besides not staring and getting an earful – is to isolate any
specific action or behaviour. Think about why your intuition has
connected a behaviour and a decision about that behaviour. It’s good
practice for when the real need for using your intuition comes along.
5. FOCUS ON ‘FEELING’ AND NOT
‘THINKING.’
• If senses influence how your mind thinks, your emotions influence how your body
behaves. You can strengthen your intuition by being more receptive to how and
why your body reacts physically to new situations, people or topics. In a new
situation, notice your energy levels and behaviors. What caused a specific positive
or negative reaction, and why? Think about why certain concepts, thoughts or
ideas return to you over and over. What makes the idea attractive to you from a
physical point-of-view? Think of the AHA! reaction when you get a good idea.
What’s your variation for both good and bad ideas? Learn to understand how
your body reacts will give you clues on how your intuition presents itself.
• If you don’t have an immediate situation or topic at hand, you can try this same
technique using a magazine, website, even Google Images. While you’re
flipping/scrolling pages, consider how you react: what do your eyes do, how does
your body change, do you get tingles on your skin, is your mouth dry? The point is
not what you’re looking at. The point is how you react. Understanding your actions
on a general topic will help you understand them better and faster in real
situations. You might even find yourself connecting dissociative thoughts to
something real in your unconscious.
• That said, for tip #5 to be effective, you need to simultaneously …
6. QUIET YOUR MIND.
• Because your thinking brain is typically in control, you need to
quiet the cognitive mind to allow the intuitive mind to speak.
Meditation is the best solution (see below). If that’s not for you,
try physical actions which can also stop the mind from thinking.
Your focus should be on the here and now. As your mind quiets,
your intuition connects with greater knowledge. Because your
intuition doesn’t appear like a conscious thought, you need to be
more aware of your feelings and emotions, perhaps even symbols,
to help understand what they might tell you.
• To quiet my mind, I swim, cook, garden or play the piano. For you,
stick to things you ‘automatically’ do – not something new,
because your mind will focus on performing correctly instead of
just doing without thinking.
7. TRY TO SOLVE PROBLEMS.
• Like any skill worth learning, you need to practice
using your intuition. Similar to the creative exercises in
#4 above, look for problems around you. Ask yourself
how you might solve them. Come up with as much
solutions as possible.
• If you can solve the problem, great – but that’s not the
purpose here. You’re primarily looking to exercise your
intuitive muscles. Focus always on your reactions and
process, not the outcome itself.
8. IMMERSE YOURSELF, THEN TAKE A STEP
BACK.
• The worst researcher I ever worked with was a master of printing
out pages of data that she’d gathered, but at no point took the
additional step of reducing the information to her top 10
conclusions.
• Try doing this yourself. Take any large volume of reading
materials. Perhaps something on your desk now, or pick up a
lengthy article from a magazine, blog or website. Read it from
start to finish. Write down any notes you want. When finished, put
away the research and your notes. Without plagiarising, outline or
prioritise in 10 steps what the material recommends. Focus on
specific actions, not general statements. What does your intuition
tell you through your responses, emotions and experiences?
9. CAPTURE YOUR INSIGHTS.
• As you do with creative ideas, write down your
intuitions. The physical act of writing forces
more areas of your brain to fire up. By doing so,
it can trigger intuitive thoughts.
• You can never stress enough the need to keep a
journal, either a physical one on a notebook or
a digital one on a smartphone or tablet. Most of
all, don’t censure what you write!
10. SCHEDULE TIME TO PROACTIVELY
THINK.
• In other words, daydream. Sadly, it’s a word that
triggers many negative stereotypes. Yet, in a world
where we create and are bombarded with more and
more information, we rarely stop.
• We need to turn off the noise and let our brains
perform it’s most amazing function: to think and
imagine. Don’t let it be a casually determined effort.
Plan for it. Put it in your diary. Keep the date with
yourself.
• What is common in the answers of the groups?
• Is it hard to use intuitive thinking in solving problems? Why or why not?
• Should we always use intuitive thinking in solving our problems? Why or why not?
• What are your additional learnings about intuitive thinking?