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Organize and Facilitate the Group Genius
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Objectives:
l Introduce Edward De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats method to continuously develop ideas from Sawyer’s Group Genius book. This task aims to make people know how to use the Six Hats skill into their daily works in order to simplify thinking, to create more creative atmosphere and to improve communication in terms of the teamwork.
l Train people to use a clearer way of thinking. Make sure people know the benefits, meanings and sequence of Six Thinks Hats, and get a deep understanding on how to build ownership on the objectives and actions. Group members are not just told to do but are creating their own tasks and area of responsibility.
l By knowing how to develop the objectives and actions for themselves, the group members also to learn to tailor them to their knowledge and interests to execute them more efficiently and can be able to implement this creative thinking skill into future practical teamwork and initiate cross functional collaboration.
Course Content:
• Biggest enemy in good thinking
• Why Group Genius?
• How to facilitate?
• Parallel Thinking/ Six Thinking Hats
• Meanings of Hats
• Sequence of “Hats” creative process
• Exercises (easy-hard; daily- professional)
• Key Points
Introduction:
The difference between brilliant and mediocre teams isn’t so much in their collective mental capacity, but in how well they can tap into their collective wisdom and how well they function together.
Why?
To build ownership across the organization. When a group or an organization sets out new goals and directions it is crucial that their members fully understand the scope and consequences of the new goals. The better each group member understands and takes ownership of the new goals, the faster the group can reach them.
How?
Six Thinking Hats (Parallel Thinking Skills) – Created by Edward De Bono
Western model of thinking (adversarial thinking) is not sufficient to tackle all different problems. With the tradition of argument or adversarial thinking, each side takes a different position and then seeks to prove that the other side is wrong. Argument is relied on because we believe that if you remove what is wrong; you will be left with what is right. The reality is that most arguments, and therefore meetings, result in very little constructive output at all, only bruised egos.
Parallel Thinking offers a practical alternative. It encourages co-operation, exploration and innovation. With Parallel Thinking both sides, or all parties, are thinking in parallel, using the same style of thinking simultaneously. There is co-operative and co-ordinated thinking. The style of thinking used can be changed in order to give a balanced, objective view of the situation.
A simple and practical way of parallel thinking is to use the Six Thinking Hats method - this results in dramatically shorter meetings, and more constructive outcomes. The Six Thinking Hats let us focus our thought process and filter out ideas and outputs. It helps you make better decisions by forcing you to move outside your habitual ways of thinking. As such, it helps you understand the full complexity of the decision, and spot issues and opportunities to which you might otherwise be blind. When we think in the normal way, we try to do too much at once. We may be looking at the information, forming ideas, and judging someone else’s ideas all at the same time. The Six Hats method allows us to unbundle thinking. Instead of trying to do everything at once, we separate out the different aspects of thinking. This way we can pay full attention to each aspect in turn.
This method is now rapidly being taken up by corporations such as Du Pont, IBM, NASA Prudential Texas Instruments, NTT, Statoil, Shell and JP Morgan.
Benefits of Six Hat Thinking
l The hats are visual cues for us to allow an easy switch in our modes of thinking.
l Simplify thinking. Focus one thing at a time. Reduce the confusion.
l Reduce confrontation.
l Expand from one-dimensional to full-colored thinking.
l Explore subjects in parallel, explore each situation or problem and generate alternatives that go beyond obvious solutions.
l Increase the constructive output from group work and save time.
l Create, evaluate and implement action plans.
Meaning s of Six Thinking Hats
1. The Green Hat- Creativity, Possibilities
² Green Hat Role
² Takes us out of usual patterns of thinking
² Seeks new concepts and alternatives
² Brings momentum & breaks the rut, remove the faults
² Think “outside of the box”, don’t have to be logical
Ø Ask green hat questions
² Are there other ways to do this?
² What else could we do here?
² What are the possibilities?
² What will overcome our Black Hat concerns?
2. Yellow Hat – Positive Judgment
Ø Yellow Hat Purpose
² See the good parts of even a bad idea
There’s always a Bright Side
E.g. Bright Side of Global Warming? Bright Side of Marriage?
² Optimistic that a new idea will work
² Tend to see the valuable contributions in people’s ideas
² Usually positive and constructive
3. The Red Hat- Feelings, Intuition
Ø Red Thinking Hat Purpose
² See the emotional perspective to an issue
² Convenient to switch in and out of the feeling mode
² Never attempt to justify feelings or provide a logical base and reason
² Use of intuition and impression
² Hunches about the best decision
4. White Hat- Facts & Figures, Information
Ø White Hat Role
² Neutral and objective in presenting information - like a computer
² Distinguish facts. Exclude opinions& judgments
² Remove feelings and impressions
² Statistical evidence concerning a decision
Ø White hat questions
² What do we know? What do we don’t know?
² What do we need to know?
5. The Black Hat : Caution
Ø Black Hat Role
² Not argument; objective attempt to identify negative elements
² Project an idea into the future to see what may fail or go wrong
² Not to be used for negative feelings which should use Red Hat
² Quickly see why an idea will not work
² The “devil’s advocate”
Ø Black Hat in Meetings
² Timing of the Black Hat invocation
- if the devil jumps in at the earliest stage, the idea never has a hope in hell, or ends up having its sharp edges smoothed over
² Black Hat has to draw a fine line
- Big difference between someone crushing an idea based on spinning out possible negative scenarios, vs. someone who voices a genuine concern backed with real facts.
² Black Hat Overdone
- “We tried that before and it didn’t work.” is probably the fastest way to stop an idea.
6. The Blue Hat- Manager/Facilitator
Ø Blue Hat Role
² Sets the focus, defines the problems, shapes the questions, determines the thinking tasks
² Responsible for overviews, summaries, & conclusions
² Handle requests from the group. Monitors thinking, stops argument, enforces discipline
² Ensures the “rules of the game” are observed
² Ask for changes in the thinking
² Focus on the big picture
Ø Thinking Process
² Why we are here /what we are thinking about /Definition of the situation or problem /Alternative definitions /what we want to achieve /where we want to end up /The background to the thinking
(Ask which two hats participants feel most comfortable wearing, have them each share their preferred hats and talk about the learning)
Sequence of the thinking and creative process
The thinking hats sequence can be changed depending on what the process or meeting is target towards.
1. Facilitator (Blue Hat) Open and Clarify the problem
2. Present the facts of the case (White Hat).
3. Generate ideas, how the case could be handled (Green Hat).
4. Evaluate the merits of the ideas; List benefits (Yellow Hat).
5. List drawbacks (Black Hat).
6. Gets everybody’s gut feeling about the alternatives (Red Hat).
7. Summarize (Blue Hat).
Exercise 1: Which style is this...?
ü Let’s run it up the flagpole – yellow and green
ü Tread carefully - black
ü Let’s think out of the box – green
ü We should get all out ducks in a row – white, black, blue
ü Let’s pick through the bones of this - white
ü How do we pull all this together? - blue
ü Who dares wins - red
Exercise 2: What Would You Do as a Leader?
ü If the group is becoming jaded & seems to have fallen into a rut? Try a green hat
ü If the team is discussing a Sensitive/Emotional Issue and team members are not forthright with their emotions? Red Hat
ü If the team is cozy & in a ‘Yes Boss’ mood? Have a Black Hat session to discuss the pitfalls force the issue by randomly assigning the role of devil’s advocates.
ü If the team has got carried away by a host of ideas in a meeting! White hat. Make someone responsible for researching and presenting counter-arguments to the best of their ability.
ü If the team is become defensive & is not open to change? Blue Hat
Exercise 3: Fit the hats to the following statement on Business
ü I think the competitive environment in the UK is getting tougher for Tesco.
ü So far, Tesco has largely confined its overseas expansion to emerging markets.
ü Tesco's other mooted US takeover target is Meijer, a privately owned business in Michigan. It's smaller than Albertsons and there's always a danger that small operators could be crunched by the big boys. Meijer would be an unnecessary distraction for Tesco.
ü To try to take on Wal-Mart on its own home turf would be a foolish endeavor for Tesco, but there are plenty of niche opportunities in US retailing.
ü I feel Tesco is treating its suppliers very badly.
ü According to new research conducted by Fitch, today’s consumer expects unprecedented levels of integrity from the companies behind the brands they buy. The consultancy found that 83 percent of British consumers it surveyed believe brands should be more open in their actions; and 41 per cent believe transparency is the best way for a company to demonstrate its honesty.
ü We have considered all the options suggested before the meeting. Now let’s see if we can think of some further options.
ü Launching a fair trade brand will generate sales that will replace the loss of revenue we’re suffering due to the decline in the coffee market overall.
Key Points:
ü Six Thinking Hats is a good technique for looking at the effects of a decision from a number of different points of view.
ü It allows necessary emotion and skepticism to be brought into what would otherwise be purely rational decisions. It opens up the opportunity for creativity within Decision Making. The technique also helps, for example, persistently pessimistic people to be positive and creative.
ü Plans developed using this technique will be sounder and more resilient than would otherwise be the case. It may also help you to avoid public relations mistakes, and spot good reasons not to follow a course of action before you have committed to it.
References:
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Edward de Bono: Six Thinking Hats
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http://www.edwarddebonofoundation.com/sixthinking.htm
