We all know I live in Excel Spreadsheets, yes? I love a good spreadsheet. I use spreadsheets for things you aren’t supposed to use them for, like taking meeting notes.
What can I say, something about a grid format really makes me feel calm and secure.

At work, when a client explains a challenge to me, my brain immediately starts turning it into an Excel formula. As I’m listening, I’m breaking down:

In my head, it starts looking something like an excel nested if statement:

=IF(condition1, value_if_true, IF(condition2, value_if_true, value_if_false))

Which is totally normal, and everyone thinks about problems this way.
End of newsletter.

Well, maybe there are a few different ways to think about something.
A friend of mine, who's a nurse, does something completely different.

If you describe a situation to her, she starts processing it almost like patient intake notes.

For example:

Patient, 53, presenting with road rage. Symptoms include excessive horn usage, elevated blood pressure, and frequent use of the phrase "Can you believe this guy?" Condition appears to worsen during rush hour. Recommended treatment includes deep breathing and avoiding the left lane.

Different lens than my excel formula of:
(IF(Driving Calmly, “No Rage”, IF(Shaking Fist, “Rage”, “No Rage”))

My husband has a completely different lens than I do.

We'll be talking about someone we've met, and I'll mention their name. We meet a lot of new people, so sometimes he’ll ask, "Who?"

So I'll give him a bit of context.

"That's the guy whose luggage got lost on the way to the conference."

Or, "She's the one who used to live in Colorado and was a ski instructor."

Immediately, he knows exactly who I'm talking about. Not only that, he often remembers details of the story that I've forgotten.

I've realized he doesn't organize people by names, job titles, or companies. He organizes them by stories. If I give him a narrative, he can place the person instantly.

It's as if his filing cabinet isn't arranged alphabetically. It's arranged by plotline.

If you're wondering what your own lens is, don't start by asking how you learn.

Ask how you explain.

Think about the last few times someone came to you with a problem, asked for advice, or wanted help understanding something.

What did you naturally reach for?

Did you tell a story? Draw a diagram? Create a checklist?

Compare it to something else? Turn it into a spreadsheet (just me?)?

Most of us have a default format that feels so obvious we barely notice we're using it.
It's the format you use when nobody tells you what format to use.

Now, we are all getting bombarded with more and more information each day. There’s a lot of noise and yes, AI is contributing to that.

I’ve been taking some AI Courses and trying to stay abreast of the latest and greatest in AI (an impossible task) but the best tip I’ve heard lately came from my Mom.
Whenever she's working with her AI and is trying to understand a new concept, she asks for an analogy. She's figured out that stories and comparisons are one of the formats that help her make sense of new information. It’s easy, works really well and helps to get the new information to stick.

If you're stuck trying to understand something this week, whether it's a new concept, a work challenge, or even a personal decision, don't just ask for more information.
Ask for the information in a different format.

If you're using AI, you can be surprisingly specific: "Explain this as an analogy," "Turn this into a recipe," or "Give me a simple checklist."

If you're not using AI, you can do the same thing yourself. Take the information you already have and translate it into a format your brain naturally understands.
Turn it into a checklist if you like step-by-step instructions.
Draw a flowchart if you like decision trees.
Or build a lesson plan if you learn best by teaching.

Sometimes the problem isn't that you don't understand.
It's that the information arrived in a language your brain doesn't naturally speak.

By figuring out your own lens, you can start asking the world (and your AI tools,) to speak it more often.