Conceptual Thinking: Use these examples for setting employee performance goals. Help your employees master this skill with 5 fresh ideas that drive change.

Conceptual Thinking is the ability to recognize a situation or problem by identifying patterns or connections while addressing the underlying issues.

Conceptual Thinking: Set Goals for your Employees. Here are some examples:

  • Review outcomes of own projects in order to understand where problems occurred and plan to anticipate them
  • Check the impact of any proposed solution and idea to both the employees and customers
  • Learn to identify the real key factors in a problem one is working on in order to effectively solve the problem
  • Increase one's own range of models and frameworks by reading, attending courses and asking colleagues what they use
  • Work closely with one's manager during performance discussions in order to see how own targets are derived from the company's objectives
  • Learn to apply new theories, constructs, and models while translating complex ideas or information in order to communicate clearly and precisely
  • Periodically test how the current state of operations in one's department compares with own core purpose
  • Suggest ideas and generate an operational plan for the achievement of own team's objectives
  • Always ask oneself what the context is around the task or project at hand, before handling it
  • Always cluster information into related areas and review for trends during data gathering exercises

Conceptual Thinking: Improve and master this core skill with these ideas

  • Observation - Observe others see how they handle their situations especially the challenging ones. Learn what factors to consider while taking such decisions and analyze their outcomes.
  • Identify any emerging problems within the enterprise and use them as case studies - Study every situation that comes up in the organization and look for solutions to settle them. Discuss the situation with your colleagues to get to hear their perspectives.
  • Discuss ideas with colleagues - Our thoughts can be wrong sometimes that's why we need to hear from others as well.
  • Ask provocative questions - Jog your colleague's memory by asking them those queries that make each of them rack their brain to bring out their conceptuality.
  • Look past the duties and take the time to learn - Sometimes goals just blind us. By taking the time to find out how to use simple tools like drawings, flowcharts, mind maps, etc. assist us in conceptual thinking.