Categorize information
When you see patterns across supposedly unrelated information, you can more easily organize detailed information into categories—thereby reducing the number of details you need to pay attention to.
Consider a scenario about customers' comments on complaint forms. If you were unable to see patterns in the information on the forms, you might conclude that each comment represented a unique type of problem that customers were experiencing. And you'd probably feel overwhelmed by the degree of detail. Equally important, you'd find it difficult to design a solution that addresses each problem.
But what if you were able to recognize that many of the comments reflected a shared, underlying theme? You decide to contact the customers who wrote the ambiguous comments and ask for more detail. By doing this, you discover that many of these customers have experienced frustrations during their interactions with sales representatives.
You conclude that there are inadequacies in your representatives' competencies. By grouping the data into one category—employee competency—you create a more manageable degree of detail. And you focus your efforts on dealing with that one problem area.
Because the ability to see relationships, patterns, and trends helps you categorize detailed information, it enables you to process information more quickly—and therefore boosts your chances of arriving at effective solutions more speedily.