Introduction: 5 Steps to Get the Most Out of Reading Books

Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action

Reading appears to be a lost art. These days, there are so many things vying for our attention, so professionals get easily distracted. They flitter from one activity to another without giving any the attention they may deserve. Deep reading and thinking seem to be a thing of the past. A blog post on Ebookfriendly inspired this one. When I first saw their blog post, 7 Steps to Get the Most Out of Your Reading, I thought that I could have written that blog post. And if you have been hanging around here for a while, you know the topic is dear to my heart, and I write about reading all the time.

If you look at Ebookfriendly’s awesome post, you will notice some similarities with this one, but you will also notice some major differences as well. Because someone has written about a topic that you know very well, that does not mean that you shouldn’t write about. You could have a very unique approach and I would like to think that’s what I bring to the table. When I talk about reading books, I also talk about taking notes and picking out the big ideas. I want my readers to profit from reading, and profit is not necessarily about money.

Have you read?

Profit Reading: Make Money from Books Worth Reading

7 Steps to Get the Most Out of Your Reading

Start with Why by Simon Sinek, Book Review

Before I dive into the post, I thought it was worth mentioning that Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace had some similar thoughts on evolution. So people are thinking the same thoughts at the same time. Let the work of others inspire you to share your unique perspectives.

Here are steps to get the most out of reading books. To get the most out of reading books, make sure that you schedule time for reading, and make sure that you are reading for a cause. In other words, have a compelling reason for reading.

Since I have written about the first few points on the infographic so frequently, I will not repeat the information here. My focus is primarily on the last two points.

Have you read?

You Can Always Find the Time to Read Books and Other Musings

Non-Obvious: How to Think Different, Curate Ideas and Predict the Future by Rohit Bhargava

How to Spot Great Ideas During the Strategic Reading Challenge

Abraham Maslow and the Hierarchy of Needs

Gamestorming: A Playbook for Innovators, Rulebreakers, and Changemakers

The more I read good books and think about what I read, the more I am able to refine my thoughts about ideas that I may have. In the book Gamestorming, the author mentions a paper in the Journal of Marketing, titled, HIT: Heuristic Ideation Technique: A Systematic Procedure for New Product Search by Edward M. Tauber. On the website for the book:

Object of Play

In this simple game, participants use a matrix to generate new ideas or approaches to a solution. The game gets its name from three heuristics—or rules of thumb of idea generation:

• A new idea can be generated from remixing the attributes of an existing idea.

• A new idea is best understood by describing its two essential attributes.

• The more different or surprising the combination of the two attributes, the more compelling the idea.

In the paper, there is a tested technique to generate product ideas. All the examples are in the food industry. The Heuristic Ideation Technique sounded intriguing, but I had a very difficult time trying to figure out how to use it to generate ideas from books. After reading the paper several times, I became extremely frustrated.

Looking at the matrix in the paper, HIT: Heuristic Ideation Technique: A Systematic Procedure for New Product Search by Edward M. Tauber, as an example, they use the type of food packaging and food forms to generate new product ideas in the industry. In the example in Gamestorming, once again, in the matrix, to generate toy ideas, it is type of toys (vehicles, dolls) by form (simulation, construction).

I want to use concept in a way that was never intended. What I am looking for in the Heuristic Ideation Technique is a way to use the information from the books to generate profitable product ideas. Typically when people use HIT to generate ideas, the focus is on an industry. That is not what I am trying to do, my focus is on a book, and what is contained in he books.

What You Need to Know About Heuristic Ideation Technique

To try and grasp what I was reading in HIT: Heuristic Ideation Technique: A Systematic Procedure for New Product Search, I had to start breaking things down. These are the rules of thumb for Heuristic Ideation Technique.

• Ideas are simply a combination of two or more concepts.
• Locate factors that could be associated with a given product area (example food processing industry).
• Total set of ideas is the set of all possible combinations (power set).

What does this have to do with generating ideas from books? What does this have to do with profiting from the ideas in a book? I started to break down my thoughts this way.

• Every book is comprised of core concepts. When you combine two or more concepts, you can generate innovative ideas.
• Books have common themes they fall into. These include: Opportunity, Equality, Leadership, Compassion,
  Community, Inclusivity, Integrity, Excellence, Persistence, Choice, and so on.

After spending hours studying HIT, I realized that I could not do what I was trying to do. It is too broad. I am thinking that the model would work for a specific topic. For instance, say you focus on problem solving, what are the types of problem solving and what are the different forms of problem solving? To get started, a good place to start is with the curated post on problem solving.

What I discovered, is that to do what I was try to get the Heuristic Iddeation Technique to do, is what I have be using the SWOT Matrix to do.

Have you read?

If You Read One Article About Complex Problem Solving Skills Read This One

Final Thoughts: 5 Steps to Get the Most Out of Reading Books

I am very disappointed that I was unable to use the Heuristic Ideation Technique the way that I wanted to. I will keep on thinking about the model to see if there is indeed a way. If you can solve the puzzle, please let me know.

 Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation Make Your Idea Matter: Stand out with a better story Non-Obvious 2017 Edition: How To Think Different, Curate Ideas & Predict The Future Become An Idea Machine: Because Ideas Are The Currency Of The 21st Century The Idea Hunter: How to Find the Best Ideas and Make them Happen

The post 5 Steps to Get the Most Out of Reading Books (infographic) appeared first on The Invisible Mentor.