Improving note-taking with Mind Maps
Appreciation
Appreciation is a very simple but powerful technique for extracting the maximum amount of information from a simple fact.Starting with a fact, ask the question 'So what?' - i.e. What are the implications of that fact? Keep on asking that question until all possible inferences have been drawn.
Appreciation is a technique used by military planners, so we will take a military example:
Fact: It rained heavily last night
- So What?
The ground will be wet - So What?
It will turn into mud quickly - So What?
If many troops and vehicles pass over the same ground, movement will be progressively slower and more difficult as the ground gets muddier and more difficult. - So What?
Where possible stick to metalled roads or expect movement to be slower than normal.
While it would be possible to reach this conclusion without the use of a formal technique, appreciation provides a framework within which inferences can be extracted quickly and effectively.
