Getting Started
When undertaking a new endeavour, depending on your familiarity with the subject matter, you may have your preferred rudimentary method of obtaining or confirming information. This past month, I once unintentionally heard a word spoken through the static on my Vtech phone; it said “Conductor.” I gleaned from the event that maybe my habitual/addictive technique of drawing references the instant I see them is a beneficial research technique.
While this may not be possible for everyone, there are some ways to illustrate how someone not familiar with good research techniques might attempt to ‘Conduct their sources’ and become a sorcerer of Sources.
What’s in your head? (Knowledge and Synthesis)
Before I look up anything, I remember where the topic may have become relevant daily. For example, if I have a dear friend named…let’s call her “Gia.” But I accidentally find out it’s just an online persona…and I want to know who this “Gia” is. I started to map out all our conversations and use all our social media direct messages (or not, as this is just an example) as clues of other previously confirmed instances. (youtube, Andrew Bustamante) I would visualize a map and call it a “Gia-graph.”
By doing so, I have caused the neurons in my mind to make associations between the “files” in my mind containing the words “Gia Kim,” “Geography,” and “Graphs.” By operating primarily within language construction, I’ve created a mental heuristic for myself. Some professionals like Andrew Bustamante get technical and will use the term Surveillance Detection Route (SDR). In my attempt to articulate and illustrate (so that one may “see” what I’m “saying“) a good research process, I would rename this SDR protocol as RDR (Research Detection Route or simply DMS (Detailing My Soul).
Naturally, as a result of this process, questions start to pop up. Consultants usually approach their clients with something called a “Needs Assessment.” (Love, 2016) What question am I trying to answer? Does “Gia” exist? Is she “Geopolitical”? In what way? What can I learn from the words she chose in our last conversations? Just like droplets eventually form a rain cloud, mapping sadness can be empowering when conducting research to uncover facts and truth and organizing them effectively.
Knowledge+Synthesis+Evaluation+Application=Research Journey
Analogies are incredibly effective when making equivocations. If you watch a conductor’s hands in an orchestra, he (or she) often sways them in front of the orchestra while they play their instruments. He has a small wand in his hand that seems to draw in the very air an invisible substance that allows everyone to jump in when they need to play their part. Many stare at their music sheets, but the conductor is there for them if they get lost.
The members of the orchestra are like articles, websites, news segments, quotes, primary and secondary research, peer-reviewed journals, music lyrics, disembodied clever voices, “focus groups” (Church and Waclawski, 2017) social media posts, GIFs, interviews…, and anything that can be seen as transparent presented information in a particular context that can be blended, re-imagined and referenced in a parallel context, blanketed reconstructed or regurgitated. For me, as the conductor with the wand (wanting research), the imagery in my mind turns research into search and rescue for information.
Now, I’m a conductor on a sea search for search and rescue, and when the lightning hits the lightning rod that my wand has become, the orchestra of information data annotating me has become my toolbox where I can pick any tool out at will. When lightning hits the lightning wand and is dipped in the seawater, searching for bits and pieces of relevant, perspicacious information pops up. My duty as a conductor waving my invincible wand in the air before the orchestra (and the audience) is to apply everything filtered in my five senses (and the 6th one) into clear, coherent information that resonates and educates.
Get Curious
The most important aspect of conducting research is to get curious about something and never stop until your knowledge base reflects the ‘ocean’ you were searching in it for. Instead of seeing perhaps an oil spill here, a leak there, a cruise ship somewhere else, a titanic or submarine, buried treasure, beautiful fish, or people enjoying a good scuba adventure, your research and its presentation should be cogent and appear as coalesced as every droplet in the blue waters of Cancun. The information sticks, it fits, and everyone gets it as plainly as they would observe the blue waters on the ocean’s surface in a tropical area. And that is how you conduct and present research!
World-class Acclaimed Transformational Coach Niurka (2022) states that the following avenues can be explored with “curiosity” by observing circumstances, body, mental and emotional states, reactions, responses, Environment, Relationships, friendships, interactions, Business results and Bank accounts. Getting curious and organized, articulated observation are undoubtedly super solid precursors to excellent research and results.
A Word of Caution
Sometimes, we have to limit how conscious we are about our curiosity about a topic. For example, Luc Besson, the Director of the movie Lucy, mentions in an interview that his research for the movie Lucy took him “10 years (laughs) to write just one draft (raises right thumb)…but I want to play with that.” (Besson, 2015) What he encountered during his ten-year undertaking to write a movie draft to understand the intelligence of the human brain could have inevitably drawn intelligence agencies’ attention. (Especially the aspect of cutting RIGHT after to a scene in the movie where they explore the possibility of reaching 100% brain power and being able to control other people.)
Though he does not state this specifically nor imply it, it can be inferred as he does mention that he worked with scientists who tend to be highly intelligent and involved in experimentation. It is also something to infer reasonably, as movies tend to have a wide range of audiences and a reach that most influencers can only dream of. People can rarely pay to sit down to something in a group setting and have all their belief systems put on standby for fantasy, escapism, and entertainment.
Inferences are a powerful way to tie up loose ends in research activities and help us grasp what isn’t openly said but can be readily understood with a broad and deep knowledge base. Inferences and intuition can act as the net we cast upon the sea in search of the RIGHT information.
References:
Church, A.H. and Waclawski, J. (2017). Designing and Using Organizational Surveys. Routledge.
NIURKA (2022). Formula For Conscious Creation: A Step-By-Step Strategy for Achieving Goals In Business & Life. [online] Niurka. Available at: https://www.niurkainc.com/formula-for-conscious-creation-a-step-by-step-strategy-for-achieving-goals-in-business-life/ [Accessed 13 Mar. 2024].
Lucy (2015) Directed by Luc Besson. [DVD, 538448]. Eurpopacorp.TF1 Films Production, Grives Production: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
www.youtube.com. (n.d.). CIA Spy: ‘Leave The USA Before 2030!’ Why You Shouldn’t Trust Your Gut! – Andrew Bustamante. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVVe2rCHtN0&t=5706s [Accessed 13 Mar. 2024].
www.td.org. Love, Sardek (2018). How to Conduct a Lightning-Fast Needs Assessment Clients Will Love | ATD. [online] Available at: https://www.td.org/insights/how-to-conduct-a-lightning-fast-needs-assessment-clients-will-love.
