If one was to ask you to spell out your exact thoughts at this very moment, what would they be? It would certainly be something revolving around your daily schedule or routine life. most of the time, our ‘brain attic’ is saturated with agendas such as 'How should I make this presentation more attractive?' 'What targets should I focus on now?' or 'Why was my colleague rude to me today?'.
The exact nature of thoughts could vary from person to person but undoubtedly will pertain to an internal agenda. None of us today, has the time to invest in thoughts like, 'What is the colour of the sky today?' 'What colour was my colleague wearing today?' 'What made my otherwise cheerful boss grumpy today?' In today’s busy world, none of us have the time to stand and stare. None of us want to or feel the need to exercise our observation skills.
There is so much going on around us, there is so much to be learned from. Unfortunately, engrossed and chained in the web of our hectic schedules, we all fail to observe and appreciate the beauty and lessons that our exterior surroundings have to offer. We have almost lost touch with any external observations. We, along with today’s generation, have forgotten to harness a very crucial life skill of turning our attention domain from the inside hassles to the outside world.
IMPORTANCE OF OBSERVATION SKILLS IN THE WORKPLACE
Noticing tiny details of your surroundings, igniting innovative thoughts, becoming open to observing the triggers of positive and negative behaviour in the people around you will help you emerge as an individual who notices change in the environment and acts accordingly. You will be amazed to see how this was always in your very own hands - whether you want to evoke smiles or sure-shot irritant factors. Once you decide to observe what annoys a person and what makes them happy, establishing a healthy relationship with everyone in your workplace becomes as easy as breathing.
Not only does observation skills help an individual to avoid conflicts from taking place, but it also improves overall efficiency, productivity & positive output. This is because the more keenly you observe yourself and your surroundings, the more you understand where gaps exist and how those gaps need to be filled. Once you begin observing people and their responses, it also enables you to become a better communicator, enabling you to structure your message in a better manner such that it establishes a connection with the listener.
TIPS TO IMPROVE OBSERVATION SKILLS
Here are some tips and steps that will come in handy to help you improve your observation skills:
A lot of times, you might have noticed you seem to be losing your 'memory-retention' abilities. Well, that is because rather than observing your surroundings, you are focusing too much on your daily schedule.Studies have proven that active observation can lead to significant memory enhancement. Even observing something as simple as the number of flights you climbed that day and being able to remember that piece of information at the end of the day means that you are making an active effort to observe information and retain it in your head.
Do small exercises that cultivate your observation skills such as, 'What’s new about that plant in the garden?', 'What’s new about my work-station today?', 'Do you notice something different about your colleague today?'. All you need to remember is thatobservation is how your brain exercises. Remember the points below to inculcate observation skills:
what makes people happy/annoyed.
What actually makes observation skills so valuable is the person’s ability to add meaning to their observation.Don’t say- ‘I don’t know’. This single phrase can turn out to be very dangerous to your to your professional growth.Observe unique things everyday and ask yourself relevant questions related to that observation.
Once you start feeding your curiosity by asking yourself ‘self-posed’ questions, you will see your observation skills improve.
Observation is about addressing the ‘WHY’?
Challenging yourself with problems that extend beyond that hard to figure out project and complicated data charts would truly help you hone your problem-solving skills.Take up real-life problems, situational simulations and solve these and see how you grow by leaps and bounds.
Observation is about ‘PRACTICING PROBLEM SOLVING’:
You never even realize that you use the ‘observe and deduct’ technique everyday when you listen to a presentation & mute out all the background noise.When you are deeply focused on a task, you don’t pay attention to the sound of the air conditioner or any other disturbance. Most of the times, you don’t even realize when someone speaks to you - that’s how engrossed you are.
Imagine if this inherent quality to focus on one thing and one thing only at a particular point in time is guided in the right direction, how successful would you be in everything that you do!
‘OBSERVE & DEDUCT’ TECHNIQUE can also be used to:
Observation is all about focusing on the right things and taking the right actions to better the present situation. This could be practiced anywhere starting from the office to solving real-life problems or even improvising relationships.Just like the 'Observe and Deduct' technique, you can also use something called the ‘Observe and Enhance’ technique. Observe and identify what things you do unknowingly that works in your favour, and narrow down what you need to do more of.
This gives you an understanding of what you need to enhance in your day to day behaviour, actions and career too. It’s all about knowing to enhance what works and deduct what doesn’t work from your professional life to be successful.Practicing this technique in your day-to-day life is what makes you a master problem-solver, irrespective of the situation.
‘OBSERVE & ENHANCE’ TECHNIQUE can also be used to:
CONCLUSION
Observation, deduction, intuitiveness are all impressive characteristic traits that we as humans seem to be gifted with. Saying that only a few people have it and others don’t would be unfair. No one really realizes that all of these traits only encompass one simple common element - the ability to notice and be aware of our surroundings. Awaken the sharp observer in you and you will see a lot of things that were always in front of you, yet you somehow failed to see them before.
Which step are you going to apply to improve your observation? Drop it in the comments below.
