Many of us will get a lot of organizing ideas to execute a plan or to solve a problem. But, the common problem that everyone faces is organizing those ideas and the collected information into a common theme. Hence It’s not a bad thing to get too many ideas to solve a problem. Whenever we try to solve a brainstorming problem, we will get many ideas to solve or to overcome that.
Without a proper plan, we can’t execute any task and we can’t solve any problem. To organize ideas into a common theme, it takes a lot of time without a proper plan. Sometimes, our hard work and time will get wasted if we don’t follow a proper plan. Usually, Proper planning can save us valuable time. Hence a proper plan and perfect execution of a plan always make us succeed in the task of organizing.
There are many ways suggested by the experts, which were followed by our ancestors for many decades. Hence, those ideas can help us overcome the problem of organizing too many ideas and information into a common theme.
WHAT’S IN IT
METHOD 1: AFFINITY DIAGRAMS OR KJ METHOD
Affinity diagrams have been the most preferred method by many experts since the 1900s. This is also known as the KJ method. Hence, Affinity diagrams help in Organizing ideas more easily and make the path easier to develop and execute a plan.
ABOUT THE METHOD
Kawakita Jiro, a Japanese anthropologist developed Affinity diagrams. the KJ method was named after him. Usually, This method helps to synthesize the larger amount of data by finding relations between them. Hence, helps in organizing into a common theme.
USAGE
STEPS TO USE AFFINITY DIAGRAMS:
STEP 1: THINK ABOUT THE IDEAS
Organizing ideas by brainstorming. Think about the problem that you have and the reason for your planning. Hence, this makes you get the ideas inclining towards the solution of the problem. Don’t worry about the count of the ideas that you have been getting in this organizing idea task. Usually, Try to get the maximum information regarding the task or problem for which you are going to find the solution. This can help you get the right thoughts to find the solution and can help you eliminate the unnecessary thoughts and to get proper thoughts to plan a solution.
TIP
Try to note down immediately whenever you get thoughts in a particular or specific period. Because some precious thoughts can’t come to our minds every time. Hence, we have to note down and we have to utilize those thoughts immediately.
STEP 2: MAKE A STICKY NOTES
Irrespective of the count of the ideas, copy all your ideas into separate notes. Now, write each idea into each sticky note to paste on the wall or table in your room or office. Hence this can make your plan more efficiently and effectively.
TIP
Try to use different coloured papers for different thoughts. This can make you recognize easily and this method can work effectively in organizing ideas and information into common themes.
Be patient while making note of your thoughts. Give your complete dedication and determination while listing the ideas. Hence patience and perfection is the key to success.
TIP TO BE EFFECTIVE
While making notes, make sure that there will be no disturbance to you and try to complete all the tasks that you have to do before starting the making note of your ideas. Hence this will help you to make proper planning without any disturbance and for finding an effective solution.
STEP 3: FINDING CONNECTION BETWEEN IDEAS
After making sticky notes of Organizing ideas, try to find a link between the thoughts.
To find the link between the thoughts, the effective method is:
Now, all the ideas or thoughts were listed in smaller groups. Usually, You can make the plan easier now.
TIP
This is the most essential step in the whole procedure. Don’t miss link the wrong thoughts. Always try to be conscious and be attentive while making the thoughts separated into smaller groups. Your patience will be tested a lot here while Organizing ideas. Although Be patient till completion of the grouping. Usually, Don’t lose your patience anywhere. Hence, Use separate and different coloured papers for each grouping to avoid confusion.
STEP 4: MAKING SMALLER GROUPS INTO LARGER GROUPS
After listing the thoughts into smaller groups, merge the smaller groups which consist of similar thoughts and make larger groups by following the same procedure by following the same method which has been followed earlier in the previous steps of Organizing ideas.
Now, we will have a certain number of groups which are having similar kinds of thoughts.
TIP
Don’t merge the thoughts while Organizing ideas that were not similar or which were unique. This spoils the whole planning and makes you get failed in the planning and execution of the task. Try to do the planning alone. Because you may get disturbed or the people around you can become a disturbance to you and your work. Usually, This may reduce the perfection in the planning.
STEP 5: GIVE AN APPROPRIATE TITLE TO EACH GROUP
Name each group with an appropriate heading or title with at least 3 to 4 words. This may make it easy to recognize or identify each task and avoids confusion. Hence this can separate each larger group of thoughts or ideas from the other larger group. So, title each group with a three to the five-word description which makes you easy to recognize.
These titles or headings can be called in many ways. Usually, they will be called as Theme cards or Affinity cards or Header cards.
According to the situation, if more clarity is required in the planning, we can use more sub headers wherever necessary. Hence the super header also can be used whenever it is necessary to group the themes.
TIP
Use the keywords or the words which were related to the group to identify the group of thoughts easily. To be brief, use the words as a heading that were related to the ideas in the group. Use different colored papers to title the different groups. Hence this can make you identify each group easily and can show you the difference between each group.
It is preferred to use a separate colour for all the groups, separate colour for all the headers, separate colour for all the super headers and separate colour for all the subheaders.
STEP 6
Now, everything is clear. You have prepared all the list of ideas and information and organized them into common themes. Now, paste these sticky notes on your wall or table and execute your task. Your task will be completed successfully Organizing ideas or the plan will be executed successfully by this method.
In this way, we can organize our ideas and information into the common themes using the Affinity diagrams. We can organize too many ideas and information simply into common themes using the Affinity diagrams.
METHOD 2: MIND MAPPING OR TREE METHOD
This is also a method to organize information and ideas into a common theme. It is similar to Affinity diagrams. But, it is quite different from the Affinity diagrams.
STEP 1: LISTING THE THOUGHTS
This step is similar to the 1st step in the Affinity diagram method. Make a note of all the ideas and information that you get by storming your brain to make thoughts into common themes.
STEP 2: SEARCH KEY IDEAS
Search for the key ideas which have links with the most number of other ideas. This is the most confusing step in the tree method or mind mapping method. Try to follow this step sincerely to get perfection.
STEP 3: BUILD THE TREE
Now, you have the keywords. Those keywords have links to other ideas. So, the List the ideas like a flowchart to identify and to make the work easier. Now, there is a chain of ideas and information that were organized into common themes.
TIPS FOR TREE METHOD
Conclusion
Affinity diagrams are the great tools to analyze, synthesize, and organize the ideas and information into common themes. Affinity diagrams are most preferred when compared to the tree method.
Whenever you face problems in organizing ideas and information into common themes, these two methods can help you a lot.
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