## CONTENT

We can now look at the content. Below are listed some of the aspects of practical thinking that would be covered; the headings used do not signify watertight compartments and several of the areas blend one into the other.

Judgement (according to absolute criteria); choice (between possible courses of action); selection (to fit specifications); decision (and implementation); planning (short and long term); time-scales (appreciation, estimation and use).

Observation (focused and wide scan); analysis (reduction, transformation and identification); interpretation (of circumstances and changes in circumstances); functional analysis (extraction of basic function); information (sources, access, comparison, validation, probability, precision and overlap); systems diagnosis (characteristics of basic systems); questions (forming and directing to elicit information).

Interaction (with people in structured groups or in loose groups); controversy (alternative views); conflict (alternative courses of action requiring resolution); agreement and disagreement (mechanisms, procedures and strategies).

Discovery (making hypotheses, designing experiments, extracting conclusions); dealing with unknowns and semi-knowns (when action is required but information is insufficient); dealing with immeasurable (factors that are well known but cannot be quantified).

Effectiveness (practical use of ideas); communication (expression, transferring and presenting ideas); projection (running a situation, decision or idea forward in time); simplification (trimming off the superfluous and reducing to essentials both in perception and in action); mistakes (characteristics patterns of error in thought and in action).

Organization (appreciation, planning and building); management (operating organizations); complex systems (modes of action, sensitive points, follow-through of disturbance).