There are several methods that can be employed to think and reason about things. There is inductive reasoning which draws a probable conclusion based on evidence of a truth, and deductive which provides a necessary truthful conclusion following the premises.
An inductive conclusion may say, “all living things generate heat, therefore the the next living thing discovered will generate heat”.
A deductive conclusion may say, “all known forms of life generate heat, therefore if a form of life does not generate heat, it is not alive”.
In the first example, there is a strong probability that the next thing discovered generates heat, so a search for life could be based on heat signatures. In the second example the set of known life forms generate heat, so an infrared camera could be used with certainty to find life.
One method of thinking through a problem or issue is to develop a framework to process the information. We usually either think about something in a big picture way, or focus on the details, but usually not both at the same time. The forest and trees analogy is often used to describe how a person is approaching a problem. If we break down the issue into its component parts and examine each one in detail, we can have a full picture in drawing a conclusion. The framework known as MECE, meaning mutually exclusive and comprehensively exhaustive was developed by Barbara Minto and used by many large consulting firms such as McKinsey and Company.
One of the most difficult tasks in problem solving is defining exactly what the problem is. If the problem is ill-defined then chasing an answer may draw the wrong conclusions. One method to avoid this is to use SMART tools to help in problem definition. SMART is an acronym for Specific – Is the question specific enough?, Measurable – Is the answer measurable so you know with certainty the problem has been resolved?, Actionable – The problem question should point to the action(s) needing to be done (what, how, why), Relevant – The problem question should be relevant to everyone involved, Time-bound – A period of time defined up front for the analysis.
another approach according to author and teacher, Arnaud Chevallier, is to use why and how trees.
