If you don't want to sound like sophistry, you must make good use of the MECE law to control the whole.
Have you ever had such an experience, you are full of enthusiasm to persuade others, but the other party is not willing to accept your opinion; or, you think you have fully prepared for the speech, but you are overwhelmed by unexpected questions Caught off guard?
When the frequency of similar experiences is too high, it means that you have fallen into a predicament that lacks logical thinking ability. Just because others deny your opinion, or deny your proposal with weird questions, does not mean that the other party intends to deliberately make things difficult for you. It is precisely because you have failed to connect your statements logically, or there are omissions in important items, that when the omission is pointed out, you will feel that the other party's problem is unexpected.
The first thing to be clear in this chapter is that sophistry is different from logical thinking. Once you try to convince the other party by listing your advantages, your statement will become sophistry.
Next, you will learn the key points to pay attention to in the process of broadening your horizons and eliminating blind spots in your thinking. Moreover, in order to prevent repetitive thinking from falling into a deadlock of whack-a-mole, we also need to learn how to use the MECE (No Omission and Repetition) law to grasp the whole. Readers who do not understand the MECE law, please understand its meaning step by step in the process of solving the problem usage method.
After grasping the overall situation, establish the order of priority
As long as the MECE rule is used to prevent the omission or repetition of thinking, the whole can be grasped. Once you get the whole picture, you won't be intimidated by unexpected questions. At that point, for each question, you will be able to find a part of your brain that can explain it, as if you have a map of the world in your mind.
Seeing that I said "use the MECE rule to grasp the whole", some readers may think that even the working hours are limited, how can I grasp all of them. However, I don't mean that you use the MECE law to capture all the details.
What I want to say is, please use the MECE rule to grasp the whole and then establish the priority. You can compare with your original goals, assess what is needed and what is not needed in the process of achieving the goal, how much time you have to invest in what you need, think about their priorities, and judge the return on investment .
How can we broaden our horizons?
If you want to broaden your horizons to develop a holistic view, then when you identify your goals, the key word of the first question you ask should be the MCEC rule.
I think readers who have realized the importance of the MECE law will be curious at this time: How can the MECE law be achieved? There is a trick to achieve the MECE law, that is, "thinking in reverse". Reverse thinking is a way of thinking that can help you find dead ends.
Here are three methods that can be learned and used now to help you achieve the MECE rule.
One is "to eliminate dead spots, don't just think about positive factors, you must also consider negative factors." For example, if you can grasp both advantages and disadvantages, you can easily find dead spots.
The second is "boldly thinking about the opposite alternative to eliminate dead ends". If you have a pile of work in front of you, it must be done. At this time, you think about it in reverse, what will happen if you don't finish it. After thinking about it, I believe you will not do those low-return jobs.
The third is to "complete the thinking in the order of the time axis". If you think in the order of "initial investment---maintenance expenses---withdrawal expenses" and "beginning---process---result", the vision will be able to expand. In addition, organizing the stages of the work according to the order of the time axis can also prevent the omission of steps.
The whole defined by the MECE law is called a "framework". For example, the "mind-body-skill" in sports is a kind of framework, which will be described in detail later.
Example: Is the advertisement that constantly emphasizes the advantages really effective? When we look at advertisements, we will find that advertisements often emphasize the advantages of products one-sidedly. Especially the advertisements on TV channels make people feel that the businessmen's emphasis on "first" is too strong. So how do you keep your ad from coming off too contrived and turning into sophistry?
Explanation 1: Also explain the shortcomings, leaving no dead ends.
The difference between sophistry and logical thinking:
The practice of one-sidedly emphasizing the advantages and deliberately concealing the disadvantages will make the audience feel too deliberate. At this time, you should also show the shortcomings and explain them generously, and consciously put on an upright posture.
When expressing, only emphasizing the advantages and hiding the disadvantages, what is said becomes sophistry. If you want to be logical, you have to remember not to hide shortcomings like sophistry, but to leave dead ends.
The so-called logicality refers to "the regulations are clear and not self-contradictory." You need to be coherent and communicate your ideas clearly to the listener. In these principles, there must be no contradictions that do not correspond to each other.
To be able to explain logically, one must be aware of the "why" at all times. If you can't clearly answer "why", you can't be called logical. For example: From my experience, this sentence is not a logical explanation, because only those who have experienced that experience know the content of experience. This kind of explanation that cannot be communicated to others cannot be regarded as a logical explanation.
In this chapter, first of all, please focus on the major premise of logical thinking, "eliminating dead ends", and think with me.
Use the MECE rule to grasp the whole and avoid omission or repetition.
No missing or duplicate status:
It is very important to grasp the whole and think about what kind of balance can make the team achieve results. Moreover, when grasping the whole, it is first necessary to ensure that there is no omission and no repetition. This state of no omission and no repetition is called the law of MECE in logical thinking.
Omissions will cause dead ends, and it is easy to lose opportunities. For example, suppose you made a real estate investment and bought a second-hand apartment with a 5% annual rental income under the recommendation of a real estate salesperson. However, if you do your research beforehand, you might be able to find a newly built apartment with a 7% annual rental yield. Omissions like this result in lost opportunities.
Another thing to keep in mind is that "repetition creates waste and confusion". For example, what would happen if both the finance department and the HR department were responsible for calculating payroll? Secondary operations will not only bring waste, but sometimes there will be situations where both parties shirk their responsibilities.
The MECE law can be used in many situations, such as when starting a new business, when you lose control of the overall situation, when you work hard but can't get results and solutions, when you want to exchange less energy for more results, and so on.