Mining Information from the World — A Menta-Morphosis Competency

Introduction

This refers to information that exists on it’s own, without the need to consult someone else to interpret it.  Typically, this would be files of some kind:  Spread sheets, surveys, spec sheets, computer files, etc. The challenges here are:

1. To find and access the right information.  If we gather all the wrong information we cannot possibly make an informed decision.  And, if there is information out there that could inform our process, but we don’t find and access it, we’ll limit the likelihood that our process produces great results.

2.  To assess it’s validity.  Once we have the data, we need to make a decision as to how reliable it is. It is much like “Fake news.”  Read the tactic of “Assigning validity” to review how to do this.

Used for  

Sifting through information in order to unearth the important bits and pieces of it

Input/Output

The starting point is a beginning question, often the end result of the Start Right competency.

The output of this component process is a list of nuggets.

How to

1. Collect information — Determine which information is desirable and  available.
2. Methodically study that information to uncover Nuggets.

1.  Collecting information

If we are going to dig a successful mine, we must first determine where to dig. So, too, in mining information, our first question is “What information should I consider?”

The starting point in the process of mining information is to begin with a question,  and then develop a series of component questions which look at specific pieces of the beginning question. Let’s use our Start Right example – the small business person with the cash flow problem.

First, look at the question that was the output of our Start Right process, and then develop some component questions, the answers to which will add to the answer to the beginning question. One way to do that is to ask the beginning question and then this question:  “What information would we like to have in order to answer this question?”

Remember, the beginning question is “How do I create a situation such that  I can pay my bills on the 17th and meet my payroll on the 25^th. and not have  to continually worry about cash flow?”

As we think about it, before we jump to a conclusion, we methodically list possibilities for potential solutions.  Here’s an application for the Sledge Hammer tactic.    We break the question up into component pieces, and realize that our eventual solution will come from some combination of our customers, our vendors, our employees, our contractors and lenders.  So, we formulate the ‘component questions.’

What potential is there within our customers?

          What potential solutions are there within our vendors?

          What potential solutions are there with our employees?         

          What potential solutions are there with outside contractors and lenders?

Now that we have these questions, we can create a list of the information we’d like to have.  As we write this down, we come up with this:

What potential is there within our customers?

Information I’d like to have in order to answer the question:

1.  An idea of how much potential there is within our current customers that we might be able to realize.
2. The same information for our market in general — the prospects and customers we might reasonably reach.
3. What prevents us from more fully penetrating our current customers?

We proceed that way with each of the questions, until we have a list.  This is the ideal information set that we’d love to have.  However, we very rarely get everything we want, and we need to adjust to what is available. We bring the real world into our process, and identify the information that we can actually obtain and that comes the closest to our ideal.

Focusing on the first component question, as an example, we come up with this information that we can access:

• A spreadsheet of our customers, and how much they spent with us during the year.
• The results of a focus group we did to find areas of additional potential within our customers. (See Mining Information – Other People)
• A spreadsheet of how much we spent with each vendor.
• Our notes from a conversation with two lenders about a future line-of-credit. (See Mining Information – Other People)

When we have identified and gained access to all the information noted above, we have completed the “gathering information” part of the process, and are now ready to move onto ‘gleaning nuggets.”

2. Mining information to glean nuggets

The second part of this process is digging nuggets of useful information out of the data we can access.

On a trip to South Africa, as we flew over the city of Johannesburg, we noticed huge piles of dirt spread around the city.  The pilot explained that these were mine dumps.  In the gold mining for which the area was famous, large amounts of dirt were removed from the ground, sifted for gold nuggets and dumped on the ground in big heaps.  Some were 30 – 40 feet high and extended for blocks.

That’s the process to keep in mind as we sift through the information to find the nuggets buried within.  A nugget is a fact, an observation or a conclusion about the information that may be useful in answering the question. We are going to dig through lots of information to find the few nuggets within it.

So, we consider each piece of information and try to pry out any information that may be useful. For example.

1. When we looked at the spreadsheet of our customers, we notice that some customers, even though they are the same size as others, purchase a great deal more from us. If they could purchase more, couldn’t other customers of the same size also have the capacity to purchase more? That leads us to project that there is more potential for purchases in most of our customers than we are currently enjoying. That statement become a nugget.
2. As we pour through the notes of the focus group, it becomes apparent that many of our customers would prefer to reduce the number of vendors be conolidating their purchases into more items from fewer vendors.  That become nugget #2.
3. As we reflect on our conversations with a couple outside lenders, we note that it is possible to secure a lne of credit, using our receivables as collateral. nugget #3.

A tip….

When you are looking for nuggets, look for what is missing and not said as much as what is said. So for example, a spread sheet that indicates that 47% of your customers prefer X to Y is a good piece of information.  Think a little deeper, and you will realize that 53% don’t prefer either.

          That’s the process — mining and exposing nuggets until you have exhausted the information and assembled a group of nuggets.

So, in this competency, we start with a beginning question (which is the end result of the Start Right competency) and end with a list of nuggets.

Variations

Creating Good ideas from a learning experience

Introduction

This is a variation on the Mining Information — the World competency that addresess a specific situation — you are engaging with some content in order to improve your performance — you want to find things you can do better.

Used for  

Generating good ideas from any learning experience.

A learning experience is any experience that causes you to engage with new ideas, new insights into ideas you may already have had, or reminders of positive behaviors that you want to emphasize.

So, going to a seminar, listening to a podcast, a live presentation or video, attending a webinar, reading a book, having a conversation with a knowledgeable person, reflecting on a past experience — these are all learning experiences.

When you engage with a learning experience, your job is to generate good ideas.  It’s like a nugget, but has some specific characteristicsl  A good idea is one which meets these criteria:

• Focuses on the future.
• Focus on your behavior, not someone else’s behavior.
• Describes action.

Input/Output

The input is the learning experience.

The output is a list of good ideas.

How to

Understand the criteria for a good idea.  It is a written idea that…

• Focuses on the future.
• Focus on your behavior, not someone else’s behavior.
• Describes action.

So, for example, if you have just watched a video on “rating your customers by their potential, ” you could generate an idea like this:  “Collecting certain information is a good idea. My company should do that.”

That is not a ‘good idea” because it describes action that someone else should take. Instead, you could change it to this, ” Collecting certain information is a good idea.  I could do that.”

That statement meets the three criteria for a good idea.

In order to create a list of good ideas, as you engage with the material in the learning experience, ask yourself these questions.

                 What can I do differently?

                Stop doing?

                Do better?

                 Do more of?

                 Begin doing?

                 Do in a different way?

In order to do this better, generate as many ideas as you can, even if they seem unlikely.

Other Menta-Morphosis links

https://www.davekahle.com/start-right-a-menta-morphosis-competency/https://www.davekahle.com/brainstorm-a-menta-morphosis-competency/https://www.davekahle.com/mine-information-a-menta-morphosis-competency/https://www.davekahle.com/mining-information-from-yourself-a-menta-morphosis-competency/https://www.davekahle.com/sledgehammer-a-menta-morphosis-competency/https://www.davekahle.com/prioritize-a-menta-morphosis-competency/https://www.davekahle.com/consolidating-nuggets-into-bars-a-menta-morphosis-competency/https://www.davekahle.com/precisely-prescribe-a-menta-morphosis-competency/https://www.davekahle.com/take-action-a-menta-morphosis-competency/https://www.davekahle.com/reflect-and-refine-a-menta-morphosis-competency/https://www.davekahle.com/deepen-the-discontent-a-menta-morphosis-competency/https://www.davekahle.com/consolidating-a-menta-morphosis-competency/