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The following is a white paper synopsis
of Part 5. For the complete white paper, contact Dennis Heindl dj@nthdegreesoft.com
FIT White Paper
Part 1: Problem, Need, and Solution – Working
in a hyper-changing world
Part 2:
Intelligence and Thinking Defined - A critical success factor
Part 3: FIT Platform – Intelligence Activator Apps
Part 4: FIT Ecosystem – Like an assembly-line for your mind
Part 5: Turn Theory into Practice - Example how Intelligence Activator Apps work
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I. Vision
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The past favored workers who were good at
routine jobs, remembering, and processing information. The present favors
smarter workers.
FIT’s
vision is to help create a more intelligent workforce.
A workforce who “thinks for a
living.” A workforce who can quickly adapt to a globally competitive
workplace.
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Workplace
leaders like Bill Gates use their natural-born intelligence to instinctively
know their thinking is directly related to
their ability to:
·
Clearly identifying thinking goals.
·
Acquire the right information to think with.
·
Ask the right questions.
·
Apply the right cognitive tools.
·
Follow the right sequence of tasks to achieve goals.
·
Take intentional actions.
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Few of us are born with gifted intelligence. We need to learn exceptional
thinking skills. Unfortunately,
education does not formally teach thinking skills. It’s
assumed skills come automatically from learning content.
Now, any average
worker using FIT technology can out-think and out-perform workers with
exceptional natural born thinking abilities.
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While exceptional thinkers naturally master these
5 workplace intelligence disciplines, FIT Apps puts them into everyone’s
hands.
1)
Process “flow” Thinking: The ability to follow the right
sequential thinking tasks to achieve goals.
2)
Contextual “critical” Thinking: The ability to acquire valid
information to think with.
3)
Work/Life Thinking: The ability to apply cognitive tools to enhance productivity
of thought.
4)
Conscious & Subconscious Thinking: The ability to take either
intentional/conscious or automatic/subconscious actions.
5) Self-assessment Thinking: The ability to improve one’s own
thinking skills.
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Before embarking on any extensive
research and development work, FIT was validated with a proof-of-concept
SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) grant from the US Dept of Education.
A typical research participant response: “I have a tendency to scatter my thinking,
the software got my thinking focused and more quickly got me to a good
solution.”
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II. Theory
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Billions have been spent researching Artificial
Intelligence (AI) technology to make machines smart. But little on technology
research to find ways to make people smarter.
A new book, Our Final Invention, even
describes how machines could put an end to the human era are we know it.
Well, it is time for Facilitated Intelligence
Technology (FIT). It’s time technology helps humans use our brains 10-50
times better.
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While AI is designed to replace human thinking, FIT
amplifies natual human intelligence. It’s designed to help people find
their own best ideas and solutions that best fit their unique situations.
FIT is based on a new Thinking Emulation Technology that captures
the way exceptional thinkers,
THINK. The questions asked,
thinklets used and processes followed.
FIT is like an assembly-line for the mind that boosts thinking productivity. It works in much the same way the invention
of the factory assembly-line boosted manual labor productivity.
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FIT comes with a comprehensive Thinking BOK that
includes 28 skillsets and 36 Intelligence Activator Apps.
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Personal Intelligence Apps
1.
Problem Solving
2.
Decision Making
3.
Creative Thinking
4.
Goal Setting
5.
Collaborative Thinking
6.
Scientific Thinking
7. Conscious
(intentional) Thinking
8. Subconscious
(automatic) Thinking
9. Personal
Change Management
10.
Time
Management
Contextual Intelligence Apps
1. Critical Thinking
2. Systems Thinking
3. Socratic Thinking
4. Personal Beliefs
Awareness
5. Shared
Collective Wisdom
Self-Assessment Intelligence
Apps
1. Metacognitive
Assessment
2. Formative
(rubric) Thinking Assessment.
3. Personal
Performance Assessment
4. Personal
Character Assessment
5. Mental
Muscle Building
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Organizational Intelligence
Apps
1. Foresight Thinking
2. Organizational
Innovation
3. Root Cause Analysis Thinking
4. Strategic Planning
5. Organizational
change Management
6. Professional Meeting Facilitator
7. Project Management
8. Tacit
Knowledge Management
9. Facilitative
Leadership and Teamwork
10. Community Transformation
11. Process Re-engineering
(Six-sigma)
Process Intelligence Apps
1.
Linear Process Thinking
2.
Non-linear Process Thinking
3.
Universal
Process Questions
4.
Universal
Process Tools (Thinklets)
5.
Thinking Process App Builder
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FIT is not rocket-science.
Its Intelligence Activator Apps use a just-in-time approach to deliver
within a precise thought process; the right questions to ask, the correct
thinking tools to use, and the proper thinking methods to enhance personal
or team thinking performance.
Apps serve two purposes:
1. Teaches thinking skills … but more importantly
2. Used on the job to improve real-time thinking
effectiveness
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III. Practice
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One of FIT’s 36 Apps is Question-It Professional
Meeting Facilitator. This app is
designed to be used by any
or all meeting
participants.
It works by delivering the facilitation
skills needed to achieve great meeting results.
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Question-It is a concept App. It’s a rudimentary
developed App that demonstrates how workplace intelligence disciplines can
be used to improve meeting productivity.
MindSights Question-It can be downloaded free
from Apple store, Android Google Play store and Amazon Apps store.
The following shows how it works.
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Thinking Process
Flow
Intelligence
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This intelligence discipline
is about running meetings with a Facilitator’s Mindset.
As exceptional meeting
leaders know, the secret to running good meetings is following a Thinking
Process. In the absence of process, meetings can become aimless with participants’
thinking wandering and creating unproductive results.
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Question-It uses a basic 6 step and 21 task
“Thinking Process.”
Step 1: Define current state (What’s the meeting purpose.)
Step 2: Indentify goal state (What’s the desired meeting outcome.)
Step 3: Acquire relevant facts & data (What’s participant’s understanding
of the current state.)
Step 4: Develop ideas & solutions (What do participants think is
the right idea, solution or action.)
Step 5: Make decision (What is the consensus on the meeting outcome.)
Step 6: Identify actions to take (What actions are needed after the
meeting.)
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The Quick Start feature selects the meeting’s first thinking task (Intelligence
Activator Point).
It is at these intelligence
activator points (IAPs) that facilitator questions and tools are applied.
It’s as if a professional facilitator were personally providing
intellectual guidance.
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After the first task, the Locator feature is used to
determine the next task (IAP).
The Locator allows anyone in the
meeting to determine if an important thinking task was missed, or helps decide
the next task to work on.
In essence, this feature keeps the meeting
participants’ thinking flowing correctly.
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Contextual “Critical”
Thinking Intelligence
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This intelligence discipline is about acquiring good meeting
information and knowledge for participants to thinking with. It does little good to apply exceptional
thinking upon incomplete or inaccurate information.
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As situations and problems become
more complex, shared collective wisdom becomes more important. Process
step 3 facilitates shared understanding.
Example: Complex situations may
require understanding from a systems perspective, but meeting participants may
lack these thinking skills. Question-It delivers systems questions that
stimulate participants’ minds to instantly become capable systems thinkers.
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When a meeting needs outside expertise and information,
the “Expert Connect” feature provides accessing of resources during the
meeting.
Resources like external expert-knowledge or machine-content
are tied to Intelligence Activator Points. This facilitates getting the
right information to meeting participants.
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Work/Life
Thinking
Intelligence
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This discipline is about finding and
using the right cognitive tools.
Selecting the right cognitive tool is no different than
selecting the right manual tool: choose the one appropriate for the
thinking task at hand.
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Asking the right questions
gives participants’ minds the best chance to find the right ideas,
solutions and actions to take. When we ask the right questions, we succeed
as effective thinkers. When we don’t ask questions, we greatly diminish our
thinking capabilities.
Question-It offers over 550 universal questions that can be applied
to any problem, issue or challenge. Questions are organized into three
categories
·
Prime
Questions: Facilitates basic thinking
·
Fundamental
Questions: Facilitates creative
thinking
·
Nutcracker
Questions: Facilitates deep thinking
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Since we don’t remember everything,
our mind defaults to using routine or scripted thinking patterns.
Unfortunately, this prevents us from seeing things differently.
Finding and using the right
thinklets (cognitive tools) activates thinking patterns not commonly used.
These tools trigger our mind to create different mental associations and
leads to new innovative ways of thinking.
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Conscious/Subconscious
Thinking Intelligence
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You might be thinking
that Question-It just entered the “woowoo world.”
It didn’t. This is real-world thinking that most of us don’t know how to
do.
Conscious and subconscious thinking
are both action oriented. Conscious thinking allows humans to intentionally
respond to situations and control our actions. Subconscious thinking uses dominant thinking
patterns to instinctively respond to situations, and takes automatic
actions.
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Conscious thinking does not happen
by chance. It is mindful and purposeful thinking. Many meetings fail because they end wihtout Conscious Thinking. That means there was little
or no intentiional thought given to what actions need to be accomplished.
Like all disciplines,
conscious thinking is enhanced by simply asking questions like:
·
Is
everyone clear about his or her action items and responsibilities?
·
Does
everyone agree that action items align with their current job priorities?
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In general, thinking
is significantly shaped by our beliefs and biases. Without realizing it,
meeting participants can SUBCONSCIOUSLY use erroneous and biased thinking
in ways that jeopardize meeting results.
Getting meeting
participants to understand their subconscious viewpoints can be very
productive. FIT does this by asking questions like: Do you “know” this situation is true
from your own direct experience? Do
you “believe” this situation is true
because someone told you it was? How reliable is
you source?
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Self-assessment
Thinking
Intelligence
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This intelligence discipline
assesses thinking skills based on a person’s ability to “ask the right questions.” It contrasts with educational assessment
that measures ability to “give the
right answers.”
Note: This discipline is not included
in the current Question-It version. See next section, IV Future.
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IV. Future
The following four enhancements are
not only for Question-It, but all 36 Intelligence Activator Apps.
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Some
meetings are magical. They are filled with energy, thoughts come freely,
and powerful ideas and solutions
easily created. These meetings occur
by being in a state of Thinking Process Flow.
Games naturally put players in a flow. It’s what makes playing them
so pleasurable.
It’s time
to design productive tasks to induce flow states. It’s time to gamify Question-It
and all of FIT’s Intelligence Activator Apps.
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As the future continues to bring rapid-fire changes, the most important
guarantor of success is our ability to “think through change.” That means
becoming our own teachers.
Question-It needs a feature to keep track and give feedback on the
thinking process used, questions asked, and tools applied. Assessment
questions that stimulate self-reflection will empower the necessary
Metacognition skills to do this.
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An Automated
Consultant function offers a significant breakthrough in smartphone and wearable
apps.
It
allows an App to “listen” to a meeting conversation and respond
back with intellectual guidance. It’s as if the App was a skilled human
expert who was personally participating in the meeting.
Note: This technology could
be applied to virtually all types of consulting services.
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Many workers have acquired expert
specialty knowledge and skills. FIT’s ecosystem has to be built to allow
those experts to turn their “Tacit” knowledge into “Automated Consultant” Apps.
These “Living” Apps also need
the functionality to continuously grow and change as work changes.
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