Do You EIAG?

EIAG – A Simple Method for Turning Experiences into Insight

While it is often said that we learn from our experiences, it doesn’t necessarily happen. It is all too common to observe people making the same mistake repeatedly, with problem consequences every time. Turning our experiences into insight which leads to better outcomes is something that must be learned. One easy way to gain useful insight from experience is a proven training tool – the EIAG process, named for the steps in the learning process: Experience, Identify, Analyze, Generalize.

To use the EIAG method, ask “what”, “why”, and “how” questions to think through what happened, compare your view with someone else's, realize the importance of what happened, the causes, the effects, and what can be learned for the future.

·The “E” in EIAG stands for the experience itself. This can be any experience, with either a positive or negative outcome.

·“I” is the identification step. This is where we identify what happened. Ask:
“What happened?”
“What did I see?”
“What was important?”
“What was the sequence of events?”
In the “I” step you begin to understand the experienced and what was important about it. Avoid the temptation to make judgments about why it happened or what it means. Approach it like an anthropologist, seeking to identify behaviors, feelings, and reactions.

·In the “A” step we analyze the causal factors. If the experiment failed, we want to know what caused the failure. Same thing if it succeeded. Either way, we need to know what caused the results. Knowing why something happened the way it did is a necessary step if we are to learn from it. Ask questions like:
“Why was that important?”
“Why did it happen?”
“What does it mean?”
“What caused the results?”

·The final step is crucial, but often ignored: “G” – generalize. It is in the generalization that we name the learnings. We take a single experience and derive a learning that can be used in other similar situations. Without the generalization step, we do not improve our competence to understand, control, or alter a situation when it arises again. Ask:
“How can I use this?”
“How could I do it differently next time?”
“If I wanted to achieve a different result (or the same result) next time, what would I do?”

This process may seem awkward at first; it may surprise you how natural it can become. In fact, if you focus on this skill, you will find yourself using it over and over in a variety of situations.