Multiple Thinking Focuses

In an earlier post, we discussed the importance of thinking Focuses, as shown by Edward DeBono in his book Serious Creativity: Using the Power of Lateral Thinking to Create New Ideas.

We now move to the topic of breaking down the thinking Focus into various Subfocuses, or subtasks. This is simply a case of seeing what the components (or pieces), of the thinking Focus might be. Thus if I was to focus on "Romance with my wife", then a few subfocuses might be "places to take her", "Things to write her", "Things to buy her", "Activities to do with her"...you get the idea!

Advantages of Subfocuses
Subfocuses can be very powerful. A few advantages of subfocuses are as follows:

1) They give sharp focus to specific tasks
The best thinking is clear thinking. And the way to get clear thinking is by being precise and specific (as opposed to hazy and unclear). A subfocus will give you more clarity and precision in your thinking, as the item that you think about will be clearer and discrete.

2) They open up new things to think about
If you break a Focus down into subfocuses, you may well come up with new areas to think about, that you would not have seen otherwise. For example, if you thought of a Focus such as "Romance with my her", then some subfocuses could be: "Making her feel special", "Places to take her", "Things to give her", "Activities to do together", "Things to buy for her".

By simply breaking down this Focus into the subfocuses, you now have new things to think about, and potentially many new ideas within those subfocuses

3) Subfocuses make thinking easier
Thinking about big, complex matters is more difficult than thinking about simpler, more discrete items. So to use the above example, thinking about "Romance with my wife" is not as easy as, say, "Places to take her". And dare I say it, often we don't think, because we're daunted by the complexity of what we're trying to think about: if it's too hard, too complex, then we don't think as clearly, or as well, as we should. That is why the best thinkers are those that are able to take complex, difficult problems, and turn them into understandable concepts (subfocuses), as well as explaining them in simple to understand terms to others.

Make it a habit to turn a Focus into Subfocuses
If you consistently turn a Focus into Subfocuses, you will gain clarity and insight into your thinking. Even if you don't need subfocuses, it is still a helpful exercise, as it helps you look at the thinking Focus from new angles.

4 Occasions for Using Focus Thinking

According to de Bono in his book Serious Creativity: Using the Power of Lateral Thinking to Create New Ideas, there are 4 distinct occasions when the use of focus thinking is applicable.

1) Defined Need or Purpose
This is when there is a specific purpose or task that needs completion. The task may have been selected by an individual or group, or assigned to them. Given such a task/purpose, how then do you use the skill of focus? Here is my suggested use of focus in such situations:

a) You firstly define exactly what the task is. For example:

- We need to do a find a new way of helping our students learn their subject matter.

b) You can next pick out various sub-focuses, and define them, with a view to thinking about them separately:

- We need to clarify what subject material they need to learn
- We need some new ways of making the subject material interesting
- We need some ideas in the area of memorising.

c) Once the sub-focuses have been defined, you can then go ahead and apply some creative thinking (or analysis) to these sub-focuses.

The advantage of clarifying the various focuses up front is that your thinking can remain clear and disciplined. I think that as a general rule, it's better to define your thinking focuses up front, and to make them broad and general to begin with, before "drilling down" into more narrow focuses. So in the above example, when thinking about "making subject material interesting", you could break that down into different subjects: e.g. "how to make mathematics interesting".

2) Routine review
In a routine review there is no specific task or problem that needs "fixing". Rather, there is a need to review certain procedures, processes, goals, etc. As with the above occasion, you can divide up the procedure into convenient attention areas and attention focuses. The focus thinking can be both purpose focus, and general area focus.

I must stress, however, that when thinking about procedures and processes, always ensure that you are clear about what the purpose of the procedure is. If that purpose is no longer necessary, then the easiest thing is to ditch the procedure, rather than trying to rehash it in some way. Good, clear thinking is required in such situations!

3) Idea-sensitive point (i.s.p)
An "idea-sensitive point" (i.s.p) is a point at which a new idea or concept would have a very significant effect. Just like that proverbial straw that breaks the camels back, an idea at this point would significantly change things.

So you as a thinker set out to find those points which would respond to a change in idea or concept. Now this search is an operation in itself - it requires good, solid, clear thinking.
When you have found what seems to be an idea sensitive point, then you try to develop new ideas at that point.

It differs from a review in that when you review something, you don't automatically assume that a new idea will make a huge difference.

So, taking a fairly obvious (engineering) example, an idea sensitive point might be the way that calculations are carried out for an engineering report. If they have always been carried out by hand, you might feel that some new idea at that point might bring about rapid improvement in both efficiency and accuracy. Thus "engineering calculations" might be an idea sensitive point.

4) Whim
There is where you just pause and focus on something just because you want to - not because there's any particular reason to do so. This is a very important skill to have, because if you are able to focus on things when there is no reason to, then you'll be able to pick up on matters that other people might have missed.

I think its probably better, though, to set aside time to think on a whim, so that it does become regular and deliberate, rather than accidental and infrequent.


To do:
Next time you have to do a review of something, take 2 mins to write down all the elements that you could focus on. Once you have these intial focuses, break them down into more narrow and specific subfocuses.