Text/Tian Zhigang Excerpt from "The Code of Excellence: How to Become an Expert"
01
Bob wrote in his essay "My Ideal":
Although I am only in the second grade, I must study hard. Only by studying hard can I afford toys for Transformers and Lego in the future, these toys are very expensive, and my mother is reluctant to buy them for me.
Then there are too many toys to buy, there must be a place to put them, and the house we rented can't fit at all, so we have to buy a house. It is best to buy a 3-storey house like Xiaoli's family, and have a puppy.
When Mom wasn't home, Dad always loved to look at aunts in winged clothes. In the future, I will also look for a girlfriend like that, the little flower in our class is too fat, not good at all.
The teacher's comments are: well written, money and beauty, the teacher also likes! But it is recommended to change it to career and love.
This is actually a joke, which says that money, beauty, career, and love are all concepts!
On the afternoon of November 9, 2016, the 72nd "Langrun Gezheng" forum was held at the National Development Research Institute of Peking University, and two well-known economists, Lin Yifu and Zhang Weiying, held a debate in the Langrun Park of Peking University that can be written into history.
The debate between these two has a long history, but before it was "fighting around" in articles and papers, this is the first face-to-face "contest", and the theme of their debate is "industrial policy". At the beginning of the debate, it is very interesting, Lin Yifu first began to speak, and after saying the polite words, he continued,
"In preparing this report, they gave me a task, you define what industrial policy is before you talk about your point of view, I think the definition is very important, otherwise you will say different things, and there will be no passion in the process."
Then he will talk about his definition of "industrial policy". Zhang Weiying's speech is also such a rhythm, and he said, "First clarify the two basic concepts." The first is about the implications of industrial policy..."
The 11th printing has been listed on JD.com
Concepts, in addition to making you profound, are the basis for all discussions and exchanges: if there is no conceptual consensus between the two sides, even if the same word is used, it may not be the same thing.
02
So what is a concept?
Concepts are forms of thinking that reflect the general and essential characteristics of things, and are the most basic units in cognitive thinking, usually expressed in words or phrases. In China's national standard GB/T15237.1-2000, "concept" is defined as "a unit of knowledge formed by a unique combination of features".
German Industry Standard 2342 defines a concept as "a unit of thought that reflects the common characteristics of a group of things extracted from a group of things by using abstraction".
Any concept includes connotation and extension, that is, its meaning and scope of application. If both aspects are clear, the concept is clear.
For example, the "man" thing, whether tall, short, fat, thin, male, female, Japanese, American, Chinese, its essence is the same: there is language, can work, can think (this is the essence of man), all animals that have language, can work, can think we give him a term called "man", which forms the concept of "man".
The concept must be clear, which is the minimum requirement for abstract thinking, and it is also the starting point and basis for correct abstract thinking.
If it is not clear, individuals have no way to make judgmental reasoning, and groups have no way to communicate and communicate.
The most common way to define the concept is to define it, and when the definition is clear, the concept is clear, and Lenin once said: "What does it mean to define it?" This starts with putting one concept in another broader one.
For example, when I define a donkey as an animal, I put the concept of "donkey" in a broader concept. Lenin's so-called broader concept here actually refers to the superior concept of the donkey, the "animal."
But just saying that the donkey is an animal is not a defining concept, but also to find the core characteristics of the donkey and horses, cattle, sheep and so on.
There is already a well-established system for the naming and classification of plants and animals: species of the family Phytopodidae, horses and donkeys belong to the same genus of horses, but different species.
Knowledge workers are often confronted with definitions that are much more complex than physical objects such as plants and animals, and more of a non-material definition, such as management, motivation, and collaboration.
03
How to form conceptual thinking?
Although everyone learns various concepts from elementary school, conceptual thinking is only possible after having a deep insight into events, things, and thoughts, and this ability can usually be found in high-level experts, and this ability is also an external manifestation of whether a person's thoughts are profound.
Whether you can use a few basic concepts to lead a large number of events, things, phenomena, and problems when learning, and whether you can express a book or even a profession with several concepts, this is the way to measure whether you have really learned and mastered.
When solving specific problems, whether it is possible to start from a more abstract level (large concepts and viewpoints), while at the same time being able to actively ignore all kinds of interferences when analyzing problems, pointing directly to the core of the problem, is also an expression of the level of conceptual ability.
The aforementioned mentors of Robin Li, Feng Tang, Xu Xiaonian and Bao Zheng are undoubtedly leaders in their respective fields, and through their language and writing, we can glimpse that they are also thinking conceptually in their own areas of concern.
So how can you think conceptually and form your own conceptual ability?
First: Although it can be difficult to read, in order to train your conceptual skills, you must calm down and read classic theoretical books.
Through the reading of these books, we can know what mature concepts have been established.
Most of the concepts of Chinese are about the material of the object, and these figurative contents are relatively easy to understand; and there are fewer relatively "virtual" concepts of things and thinking, and the corresponding training is also less.
Therefore, it is necessary to supplement the basic knowledge of this through classic books, and to understand whether the concepts used by others are already understood and whether they are consistent with your understanding through "traversal".
When you need to summarize the complex things into concepts, it will be relatively easy if you already know the mature concepts of the predecessors, and if you do not know, you need to define a "new concept" (this concept is new to you), which is very difficult.
Second: In practice, there is sensitivity to concepts and is good at classification when encountering complex problems.
In the process of solving problems, you can take the initiative to think about one more step, and whether things of different dimensions can be attributed to a higher concept.
As detailed in the following section on how to classify them, taking the initiative to think of higher-level concepts at the end of the problem-solving process is one way to improve conceptual competence.
04
Of course, the study and understanding of concepts cannot be completed in one go, and the establishment of relationships between concepts also needs to be refined through continuous polishing and many deep reflections (this process may last for several years).
Only through the training of learning, practicing, reflecting and refining, and consciously trying to conceptualize, can we finally form large concepts and viewpoints.
For example, with regard to the concept of knowledge management, many people often talk about it and think they know it.
But how do you master this concept? We believe that at a minimum, we need to be able to answer the following questions:
1. What is it and what it is not?
– Because many people are not clear about the connotation of knowledge management, they will put things that have nothing to do with knowledge management into it, resulting in unclear scope, and they will be confused.
2. Why do it and why not?
– If you know the former, you can write an article on the "necessity" of knowledge management, and if you know the latter, you need to understand the relationship between management and competition, social environment, strategy. You can also add such thinking as "when is suitable to do" and "when is not suitable to do".
3. Who is suitable for doing it and who is not suitable for it?
– If you know the former, you can choose KM professionals, but if you want to know the latter, you must build a model of the competency qualities of knowledge managers.
4. How to do it, what is the wrong practice?
- Learn about the steps of knowledge management implementation and push, you may be new to it. But if you can know the wrong practices of knowledge management in China and even the world, and you can reduce them to three points, you must be a very senior expert.
If you try it, if you can really answer the above questions easily, is it a clear grasp of the concept? This method can be used to determine whether you really grasp a concept, that is, 5w1h plus a negative word, to see if you can clearly explain it.
In short, to truly understand the connotation and extension of concepts, and to be able to combine different concepts to form a framework, model for judgment and reasoning, for decision-making and improvement, so as to finally form their own conceptual thinking, you need to continue to temper from the three angles of learning, practice and thinking.
(This article is excerpted from "The Code of Excellence: How to Become an Expert", which is sold on JD.com, Dangdang and Taobao.)
(The author of this article is Tian Zhigang, a well-known knowledge management expert, director of KMCenter, and the author of "Excellent Password: How to Become an Expert" and "Your Knowledge Needs Management".)