Even if you’ve secured a corner office and a good job, that doesn’t mean you can stop learning. You’ll need to develop strategies for business growth and continually assess your projects and teams. While you might think boardroom meetings will be where you hone these habits, you can find inspiration by looking to the next generation of leaders: students. The best high school or college students use long-established techniques to comprehend new material, study for exams, and enhance focus.
If you’re an entrepreneur, new business owner, analyst, or marketing specialist, you can learn a lot from looking at the study habits of students. In this article, we’ll explore five research habits students use to sharpen their strategies that can be applicable to a business setting.
1. A Structured Approach to Note-Taking Methods
Note-taking is an art form. And the best students have mastered it. They are mindful of how they structure their notes to create clear blueprints of information on anything from chemistry to art history. Outlines and mind maps are among the formats that can reap the greatest benefits for students eager to build an understanding of concepts.
Business leaders hoping to innovate and grow their businesses can adopt the same strategy through competitor scans. When a team member conducts a competitor scan, they’ll gain lots of information about a competitor’s products, pricing strategies, customer reviews, and market position. But that information can float as a series of disconnected facts unless you take the time to organize it, as students would with the information they learn from a lecture or textbook.
It’s wise to create a spreadsheet that sorts information according to different categories. A spreadsheet might have headers for pricing, strengths and weaknesses, and other pertinent details. There should be a column in the spreadsheet for insights gleaned from analyzing the information, as well. Structured information can help businesses find patterns and glitches, just as structured notes can help students see gaps in understanding. And with strategic decisions on the line, deeper insights from structured notes are critical.
2. Flashcards to Help with Recall
It’s common for students to use flashcards when prepping for an exam. Flashcards can help with the retention of vocabulary, facts, and other critical details. A flashcard maker can simplify the process of creating and organizing these cards efficiently. And using flashcards can boost recall, which helps understanding.
Business leaders can use flashcards to stay fresh with information relevant to their areas. Leaders can turn to flashcards to test team members on hypothetical situations or real-world scenarios. For instance, the front side of a card could ask what the top challenges are facing your niche in the SaaS industry. The backside could outline the three top barriers, like software costs or shifting priorities. Reviewing these cards can help team members remember the broader frameworks governing their work. Plus, it’s easy enough to update the cards as realities change.
Tools like Quizlet can be excellent resources for getting started. And looking at AP study sites can help provide a strong launching point for developing your own flashcards. Look at the style of questions and how the content is organized to gain inspiration as you work to keep your team’s minds fresh and agile.
3. Practice Exams to Build Confidence
The best students do more than read and study. They also make a point of testing their ability to recall and interpret information through test-taking experiences. When students take practice exams, they can identify lapses in their knowledge that enable them to refine their preparation efforts before the real test. Practice AP exams, including Knowt AP exams, can help students get ready for the format, time restraints, and content of the real exam.
Business strategists can use practice exams to inspire pre-mortem scenarios. With pre-mortems, leaders will outline an imagined situation where the business has failed. Then they’ll ask team members to brainstorm the reasons that led to that failure. In other words, with an exam-style strategy, business leaders can imagine the worst scenario to help find potential problems. It’s easier to address small problems than it is to let them grow into bigger, more destructive ones.
Strategists should ask teams to imagine situations where a product launch fails to meet expectations, or the supply chain hits a major snag. Pre-mortem brainstorming can happen at quarterly meetings, and it can be an excellent opportunity for teams to learn how to work together toward solutions. Teams can identify vulnerabilities in the process.
4. Reviewing Material with Spaced Repetition
High school or college students use a technique called spaced repetition to cement important concepts and information before an exam. The idea is simple. You look over materials at increasing intervals to help build ongoing retention. And, in doing so, you’ll be able to see unusual changes or patterns with each review session.
Business leaders can use spaced repetition to review data on a strict schedule. This can help leaders see shifts in revenue or other changes that may suggest it’s time to make changes to a marketing strategy, for instance. Rather than reviewing data every so often, committing to a consistent review schedule contributes to stronger awareness and perceptive thinking.
Maybe you’re concerned about customer churn or the value of investments in new ad campaigns. With a spaced repetition strategy, you can regularly review metrics related to these issues on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis with team members. As you continue checking metrics over weeks or months, you’ll be able to draw more meaningful conclusions. Use calendar reminders to ensure you’re always diligent about committing to reviews.
5. A Second Set of Eyes to Check for Bias
Peer review is a common practice in academic settings to check for bias. When another set of eyes looks over an essay, for instance, that reviewer can spot erroneous or biased statements. Bias can harm credibility in academic settings, and it can skew perspectives that go into big business decisions.
Businesses can learn from students who use peer review in their classes. Before a leader makes a presentation or decision, it’s wise to have other trusted team members review their ideas and statements. Even better, turning to reviewers less connected to the project or decision can offer an even more neutral vantage point. Leaving comments in a Google Doc or asking questions at a team meeting are simple ways to offer feedback quickly. Soliciting critiques from others is never easy. But for business leaders, it’s a must to help shape better decisions.
Building Better Strategies
Business leaders should look to the strategies of students as they hone their decision-making skills. Taking careful notes, using pre-mortem scenarios, and testing team members are among the strategies that can keep everyone sharp. Ultimately, any business leader must be diligent about pursuing intentional improvements. The methodical approaches used by today’s students offer a perfect source of inspiration.
