Analytical mindset - what does it mean? Features and development

Each person in the process of life develops his own - unique, one-of-a-kind type of thinking. That is, to put it more simply, everyone thinks about the same things in their own way. From childhood, a system of strategies, skills, and techniques for processing information entering the brain and summing up is built. The style of thinking does not depend on the level of intelligence.

There are 5 main styles of thinking, each of them has its own characteristics:

• idealistic thinking;
• synthetic thinking;
• pragmatic thinking;
• analytical thinking;
• realistic thinking.

Individual style allows a person to make decisions by choosing his own methods of solving a problem. People with a “pure” type of thinking simply do not exist; most often, one or two leading types predominate in an individual.

What is a mindset and its types

If the chosen profession corresponds to the mentality, a person reaches unprecedented heights in his career, it is easier for him to achieve goals, and his merits become more significant.

There are:

1. Humanitarian. Before making a decision, a person first imagines everything and tries to feel it. Here, the emotional way predominates in understanding the world around us. When studying any phenomenon, an individual passes everything through himself. Those with a humanitarian mindset are more theorists than practitioners.
2. Synthetic is a universal mindset. People, as a rule, have good abilities to comprehend both mathematical and humanities. The advantage may go in one direction, in which case it is necessary to pass a special aptitude test.
3. Analytic mind. It is characterized by continuous mental work of the brain. Gives the ability to connect links into logical chains of the thought process and reason correctly.

Let's take a closer look at the latter.

Analytical mindset - what does it mean?

Analytical skills are the art of thinking logically and correctly expressing your ideas. A person with this type of thinking is able to collect all the facts, analyze them and lay out a chain from them leading to the correct conclusion, leading to the most accurate conclusion.

Analytical mindset - what is it? This is not just the ability to reason and express your opinion - you need to build a logical conclusion. Usually, a reflective person reacts emotionally to any twists of fate, using intuition, which does not obey logic. Emotions are different from logical scientific knowledge. An individual whose thoughts have a strong emotional coloring and is succumbing to instincts cannot arrange facts in the right direction without error. This is illogical thinking, hence the disparity of opinions about the same event.

No, this does not mean that people with analytical thinking are not susceptible to emotions and instinctive behavior. Their brains are designed in such a way that when making decisions, processing and analyzing facts, they do not use emotions and intuition. And yet, an analytical mindset - what does it mean?

Types of Strategic Thinking

There are 4 types of basic models of strategic thinking:

1. "Feedback". It is necessary to learn how to correctly perceive criticism and compliments, as well as how to criticize and praise correctly. On the one hand, by sharply expressing your opinion, you can hurt people and turn them against you, on the other hand, false compliments do not bring any benefit.
2. "Conflict Resolution." There are several options - run, fight, give up, abdicate responsibility, compromise, come to a consensus. Each of them has its pros and cons, depending on the specific situation.
3. "Professional Guide". Life often brings us to crossroads where we need to make a specific choice about where to go next. By developing new strategic thinking, choice management becomes easier.
4. "Flow". “Flow” is possible when a person concentrates on his activity, is engaged in a task that he himself has chosen, has a clear goal, and his work receives an immediate and direct response.

Let's reveal the essence of the term

In simple words, it is a natural gift, but it can be developed. Just first you need to decide whether you need it. As a rule, an analytical mindset is necessary for people who are engaged in science, writing, medicine, various investigations, lawyers, accountants, political scientists, and so on. The product of their labor will be examined by other people, so the result must be flawless and error-free.

Thus, we have lifted the curtain on the question of what an analytical mindset means. Let's say you decide to develop these abilities, let's figure out how to do it. Or maybe they already exist? How to recognize them?

Analytical mindset - what does it mean and how to define it?

There are many tests. But you shouldn’t hope that there will be a 100% result, because, having a mathematical mind, you will successfully complete tasks with puzzles, but gaps in your knowledge of the Russian language will give a disappointing assessment of the level of your analytical abilities. There are no universal tests. It is better to seek help from a specialist who will help you understand this issue step by step.

Try to determine their presence using a simple practical exercise. It is necessary to take any text and try to break it into fragments, grasp the idea, recognize the intent of each part, and learn something new for yourself. If any difficulties arise during the training, analytical skills need to be developed.

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As a results-oriented person, I prefer to convey experiences that I have personally experienced and the results of which I have felt.

In fact, the algorithm for all my actions was and is now quite simple. Awareness of the problem - search for a solution - implementation of the solution. And the criteria for choosing a method for me have always been maximum simplicity and efficiency.

Below I will try to describe one of the episodes in the development of analytical thinking and the ability to build cause-and-effect relationships in my daughter, when she was about 3 years old. Now she is already 13. One of her favorite subjects at school is logic, although she copes with other subjects easily, despite a rather busy schedule and not the most ideal learning conditions (by accepted standards). At the same time, I have not been involved in the school process since the second grade, I only come to meetings 2 times a year at the beginning and end of the school year - in order to find out what is expected in the new year and what needs to be purchased additionally for training. There are different situations. When my miracle was born, I went to work from 2 months old. And, since I clearly realized that I could not give my daughter enough attention and communication, I decided to take quality.

And since I had difficulty with emotionality during my work, I decided to pass on what I was good at at this stage - the ability to analyze and find cause-and-effect relationships - something that I had developed in connection with my professional activities.

At the same time, I took into account the age of 3 years, when children’s attention, memory and thinking are involuntary, they imitate a significant adult, and behavioral skills are being laid that can be developed later. I tried to give it a playful twist. Due to the limited time to communicate with my daughter, we used the time intervals for this while we were running to a stop on the way to the garden, on public transport, at any time when we had a free minute.

The most amazing thing is that I deliberately used this method no more than 5-6 times. Then the little girl herself happily told me about her conclusions. But the results of the seed planted then sprouted later, at 7-8 years, and to this day my beauty amazes everyone and me, first of all, with her ability to see the root causes of events and the consequences of actions that even I am not always able to see.

Using the “what I see, I sing” technique, we took some object/case that caught our eye and began to build logical connections as to why this was so. Starting simple.

For example: look, the sun is reflected in a puddle! What does puddle mean? The fact that it rained at night. That's why it's fresh outside now, do you feel it? What does the sun in a puddle mean? Come on, let's look at the sky - it's stretching! This means the weather will be warm.

The next morning: where is our puddle? No - because the sun dried it out. Because the sun evaporated the water in the puddle. This means that water in heat begins to disappear - evaporate, etc.

Then she began to plan our exit from the house: “Today we left at 7.45 and didn’t catch the bus. This means that we were either slow or left late.”

Tomorrow I tell her, “Let’s go for a run?” We caught the bus. She is already beginning the process of analysis in her wonderful head: “We went out the same way, but we have time to catch the bus. This means that we can do the same thing faster and we have more time for other things.”

At the same time, there are no ready-made scenarios; we simply take the situation we are faced with and develop it, laying out why it arose and what it will lead to.

All of these are seemingly obvious things, and for the most part we, parents, present our own ready-made conclusions to the child as authoritatively correct knowledge that is not questioned. I was interested in raising a thinking person who is ready to make decisions and have his own opinion. Although, sometimes this brings its own inconveniences - since with a thinking person, even if he is a child, a completely different level of communication is required. Here you won’t lazily shout “because it’s the right thing to do!” For example, at the age of 6, my daughter very cogently explained to me why she desperately needed a mobile phone (which I had previously vetoed until she was 9 years old). “You have a lot of work, it’s a responsible job, sometimes you earn money and don’t have time to pick me up from ballet classes on time. All the parents could leave, and I could be in danger here alone. But if there’s a phone, I’ll call you and remind you that it’s time to pick me up.” And since cases where I forgot to pick up the child on time had already happened before, the arguments were accepted unconditionally.

I will be glad if it is useful to anyone. Happiness to everyone and the joys of parenthood!

Author: Elena Bozhko, especially for “Succeed with Children!” Source

How to do it?

In simple words, you need to train your brain. The left hemisphere is our logic and analytical abilities. Therefore, in order to strengthen it, you need to work on increasing the load on the right side of the body. These are physical exercises and, of course, solving various problems.

The right hemisphere is our emotions, intuition. Responsible for fantasy. And in order to develop this part, you need to include all thought processes when performing tasks.

You need to work every day. There are exercises that will help you build, trace and compare your thought process with the way of thinking of another person.

The exercises are as follows:

1. After listening to your opponent’s opinion, which does not coincide with yours, try to mentally share his point of view and arrange events in such a way that the logical chain leads to conclusions similar to his conclusions. This way you can identify the rough edges in his presentation of the position, and perhaps you will find mistakes in your own.
2. Analyze any situation. Come up with many options for getting out of it, several possible favorable solutions.
3. Read novels and detective stories, where halfway through, try to figure out the criminal.
4. Solve logical and mathematical problems, puzzles, puzzles, and crosswords. It's entertaining, exciting and useful.
5. Watch educational TV programs, videos on the Internet on geography, history, and some scientific channels. Listen to political debates. Follow the dialogue, how the speech is structured, what arguments are given.
6. Play chess, checkers, billiards.

A trained analytical mind is like a natural thought process in which you don’t have to strain your brain. There is no trace of any intellectual load. Then you can consider that you have acquired this unique gift.

What else will help in developing analytical skills?

There are a lot of special trainings that help with this. It offers models of situations from which you need to find a way out and propose a solution. And based on the answer, his behavior is corrected; the specialist works to develop thinking. The classes are interesting and relaxed.

Improvisation role-playing games are successfully practiced. There is no time to think about the decision. You need to describe your thoughts momentarily. After which a collective analysis is carried out.

If you can’t attend trainings, you can invite a friend with analytical thinking to visit and do the same exercise with him.

You can practice on your own in complete silence. It is necessary to project some situation in your thoughts and come up with ways out of it. After which you need to analyze your thought process and the actions performed in your imagination. You can practice with friends.

So, we have understood the concept of “analytical mindset” and what it means. Forgetful individuals who find it difficult to concentrate and complete a task need to develop their memory and improve mental activity.

How to develop analytical thinking - effective exercises

To improve your analytical mind, constant training and exercises are necessary. Let's learn how to develop analytical thinking. For a normal workout, follow these steps:

• at least once a week, spend some time on very simple activities - a brain workout - this could be a crossword puzzle or logic games, puzzles or charades, and so on;
• University students are recommended to devote more time to solving problems in the field of exact sciences;
• watch the news every day - not in order to share emotions or express an opinion about the next scandal, but in order to carry out analytical work with facts, find connections between actions, look for ways to solve problems;
• devote time to computer games from the category of quests and strategies; online games are useful, developing the speed of analysis and decision-making;
• read detective stories and science fiction (Agatha Christie is ideal);
• try to collect puzzles;
• Spend time playing board games—those that require tactical moves and strategy, such as Monopoly; this, in addition to analytics, gives experience in recognizing the application of other people’s logic;
• in your daily life, try to see a natural process in any action;
• develop habits that are good for your brain - comparing objects, actions or people, counting in your head, and so on;
• For all events - good or bad - determine the reason for what is happening.

For better action, you can do exercises to simulate situations. You can come up with a supposedly real goal - for example, a plan to build a business. Or take on a completely fantastic task - fly to Mars. And build a future flight or development of your own enterprise in detail, taking into account the smallest details.

Another situation from the category “What will happen if...”. You need to very clearly imagine yourself in the role of a scientist who, being in deep isolation since birth, studies life through a glass that makes everything black and white. That is, you know theoretically what color is. And they almost never saw him. Describe the situation when you go outside and see the real, living colors of the real world. This is where you will need all your analytical thinking to justify the likely options for color recognition.

With regular practice, you will soon begin to notice that analytical thinking has developed - it becomes more flexible, strives to analyze any situation without coercion. Along with these exercises, it is recommended to do those that develop other types of thinking.

Practical recommendations

How can we improve it? Expert advice:

• A healthy, full sleep is necessary, at least seven hours, and under heavy loads, you need to set aside time for rest during the day.
• You should not start the work process immediately after eating; a short break is necessary.
• Instead of a cup of coffee, it is better to do morning exercises. This is a charge of vivacity and energy.
• "Reminder". This exercise will allow you to use all types of memory if you constantly remember and scroll in your head, and also speak out loud, for example, a plan of affairs for the day.

All these recommendations will help develop your analytical skills. But, most importantly, as in any business, do not overdo it: you should always find time to rest.

What does it mean to think strategically?

The word "strategy" comes from the Greek strategia, which translates as "skillful leadership." Does it follow from this that strategic thinking is the prerogative of managers? Yes and no. Any ordinary performer must also have at least the rudiments of strategic thinking - they may be needed not only at work, but also in private life.

Strategic thinking is the ability to think in terms of the future. A systematic approach allows you to plan/forecast/anticipate new opportunities and make efforts to implement interesting options.

In simple words, strategic thinking is the ability to pose a hypothetical problem, the solution of which will contribute to the realization of the main goal.

The consciousness of a strategically thinking person is flexible and objective. The “strategist” easily moves into the future, makes plans, and identifies key points. The most important tool for strategic thinking is analysis.