Deal World Rule #9 - Use A Knowledge Trap

I once knocked my wife’s wedding ring down the drain in our kitchen sink. It could have turned ugly. Good thing sinks have traps.

Knowledge can also go down the drain if we’re not careful. We often hear, read, or see outstanding content, have “aha” moments only to later let these key learnings slip away, lost in the sands of time. That’s why we need a knowledge trap -- to prevent today’s takeaways from becoming tomorrow’s drainaways.

At the Studio, we review a ton of content every day. In order to preserve the important takeaways, we use a knowledge trap. The trap is sprung through 3 questions:

1. What are the big ideas in this content?
2. How do these ideas apply to my business (my life) to create ROI?
3. What tools can be developed to utilize (i.e., use and teach) these ideas and their benefits?

We use the answers to these questions to draw a picture that captures the key learnings. (click here for an example).

This technique can take a large amount of content (e.g., an entire book), condense it down to its essence, and depict this in a picture that we can use over and over again to refresh it in our minds and for our clients.

Do you use knowledge traps? If so, congratulations. If not, start today.