Podcasts about Six Thinking Hats

In this episode, Mon-Chaio and Andy discuss the future of their podcast as they prepare for significant changes in their professional lives. They explore various ideas for continuing the podcast, including changing the format, inviting guests, or even pausing it. They use the 'Six Thinking Hats' technique to brainstorm and evaluate these options, aiming to find the best path forward.

"Creativity isn't about being artistic—it's about coming up with new and useful ideas. And guess what? That's a skill anyone can learn!" — Jackie Brown In this week's Her Leadership Coach podcast episode, Jackie Brown joins me to explore the crucial difference between creativity and artistic talent. Tune in as Jackie shares: Practical, fun exercises to flex your creative muscles (no paintbrush required). How creativity fuels innovation—no matter your role or industry. Why stepping outside your usual perspective can unlock innovation (hello, Six Thinking Hats!). You'll walk away ready to transform your approach to creativity, even if you've never seen yourself as the 'creative type.' Jackie has also generously shared a special resource for listeners: an article called Age of Innovation, which explains how your creativity can actually improve over time, even as you age [https://shiftingsuccess.com/2024/09/13/the-age-of-innovation/] Ready to dive in? Let's get creative! Connect with Jackie: LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jackie-brown-coach/ Website https://shiftingsuccess.com/ Don't forget to subscribe and share this episode with anyone who needs a creative boost!

In this replay form Season 2 of the Win Make Give Podcast, Ben Kinney, Chad Hyams, and Bob Stewart explore the concept of productive meetings using the "Six Thinking Hats" approach. This episode delves into strategies for improving meeting outcomes by wearing different metaphorical hats to guide discussions, foster creativity, and address challenges. Discover how this technique can transform chaotic meetings into focused conversations that lead to actionable solutions. Whether you're a team leader, committee member, or just interested in enhancing group dynamics, this episode offers valuable insights to make the most out of collaborative efforts. ---------- Connect with the hosts:     •    Ben Kinney: https://www.BenKinney.com/     •    Bob Stewart: https://www.linkedin.com/in/activebob     •    Chad Hyams: https://ChadHyams.com/     •    Book one of our co-hosts for your next event: https://WinMakeGive.com/speakers/ More ways to connect:     •    Join our Facebook group at www.facebook.com/groups/winmakegive     •     Sign up for our weekly newsletter: https://WinMakeGive.com/sign-up     •     Explore the Win Make Give Podcast Network: https://WinMakeGive.com/   Part of the Win Make Give Podcast Network

In a bid to help our coachees generate new thinking, it might be useful to introduce them to a coaching tool called ‘The Six Thinking Hats', which was created by Dr. Edward De Bono, a Maltese physician who is probably best known for introducing the world to the concept of lateral thinking.   In this podcast episode we explore what ‘The Six Thinking Hats' offers to the world of coaching and give our thoughts on why it is such a useful model to generate new thinking and new perspectives in the coaching room.   We even play out a little vignette of a coaching session for a GP looking to introduce a new initiative into her practice. I don't think we'll be winning any awards for our acting, but it might help to hear how the thinking hats could be used.   Edward De Bono's hats were, of course, metaphorical, but the use of actual hats is always optional.   Enjoy the podcast? If you're enjoying the podcast it would be great if you left us a review here or wherever you listen to your podcast.   Contact Details Find out about our Doctors' Transformational Coaching Diploma Connect with the hosts: Tom: www.linkedin.com/in/tomdillondoctorstranformationalcoachingdiploma/ Email: tomdillon@yourcoachingjourney.co.uk   Helen: www.linkedin.com/in/helenleathers/ Email: helenleathers@yourcoachingjourney.co.uk   Follow ‘Your Coaching Journey' on Instagram or Linkedin: www.instagram.com/yourcoachingjourney/ www.linkedin.com/company/your-coaching-journey/   Do You Have a Question? From time to time we will have an episode where we answer listeners' questions about coaching.   If you have a question, please send it to us using one of our email addresses above and you may get a mention in a future episode. (If you want to remain anonymous, that's absolutely fine, just let us know)

Garrett Kennell is the Chief Creative Officer for - and husband to - Michelle Khare. Garrett has been working on the channel since Michelle's very first video all the way back in 2016. Since that first video, their channel has grown to nearly 5 million subscribers and has over 740 million views, making it one of the most intense and complicated productions YouTube has ever seen. Their secret? They have a process for everything. In this episode, Garrett breaks some of those processes down, including brainstorming, decision-making, and how YOU can start to make bigger, better videos at any scale. Full transcript and show notes Garrett's Twitter / YouTube / Instagram *** TIMESTAMPS (00:00) The Most Insane Production on YouTube (01:33) How Michelle Khare's Channel Evolved (07:14) How Much a Michelle Khare Video Costs (10:19) Grow Your Podcast With Spotify (11:36) Bono's Six Thinking Hats (17:43) Getting Rejected (21:20) Thinking Big (23:51) How Challenge Accepted Gets Made (29:23) Making Content for Impact (32:34) When is Something Done? (34:07) Where Do Things Go Wrong? (39:44) Systems and Processes (43:48) Getting Sponsors (48:55) Advice to Grow Quickly *** RECOMMENDED NEXT EPISODE → #202: Zack Honarvar – What he learned from working with 10,000 creators *** ASK CREATOR SCIENCE → Submit your question here *** WHEN YOU'RE READY

In this reflection I start connecting the dots of my journey with authenticity, likeability, vulnerability and intimacy. Supporting themes: Therapy; Co- worker; Red Hat (and the Six Thinking Hats); Intellectual honesty; Passion; Patterns and eaning making; Social power and the matrix. Typology; INTJ8; NiTe; Healthy and unhealthy eight; Healthy and two.

In this reflection I explore the intimate me as relating to my judging functions. I called this episode "Breathing" because I'm learning how to relax in the process of growing. Supporting themes: Personality Hacker; Content engagement; Therapy; Race; Thanksgiving; Family; Six Thinking Hats; Introversion and intimacy. Typology: INTJ; TeFi Axis;

Do you feel like you're constantly forgetting important information? Are you struggling to focus and reach your full potential? In this episode, world-renowned memory expert Jim Kwik, who has worked with giants like Google, Virgin, and Nike, reveals the secrets to unlocking your limitless brain power. This episode explores: ● The 10 Keys to a Better Memory: Learn actionable strategies backed by science to enhance your memory and cognitive function. ● Overcoming Limiting Beliefs: Discover how to shatter the self-imposed limitations that hold you back from achieving your goals. ● Cognitive Types: Explore the four fascinating cognitive types (Cheetah, Owl, Dolphin, Elephant) and learn how understanding your unique type can help you thrive. ● Practical Techniques for Focus and Flow: Master techniques like the Six Thinking Hats method and the Feynman Technique to unlock peak performance in any area of your life. ● The Power of Reading and Learning: Understand the profound impact of reading on success and learn how to significantly enhance your reading speed and comprehension. Join us as Jim Kwik, a leading authority in memory improvement and brain training, shares his powerful insights and practical techniques to help you live a Limitless life. Don't miss this opportunity to upgrade your brainpower! Jim Kwik, a globally recognized leader in memory improvement, shares his incredible journey of overcoming a childhood brain injury to becoming a sought-after memory expert. He explains how our mindset, motivation, and the methods we use can either limit us or unlock our limitless potential. Subscribe now and unlock your limitless potential! Leave a review and share this episode with someone who needs a brainpower boost. For business inquiries contact us at: ryan@vertexmadiacorp.com --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ryan-kennedy-podcast/support

On this episode we explore Edward De Bono's mental framework of decision-making - what he calls the Six Thinking Hats. Each “hat” is a different mode or way to think about a problem or issue. To be resilient means we have to be able to think resiliently so we can lead resiliently.. . .Coaching is THE MOST SIGNIFICANT WAY leaders can grow in their leadership. Interested in kicking the tires for a free exploratory coaching call? Just visit http://www.kairospartnerships.org/coaching to schedule your call today.And if you are wanting to grow in your leadership, the best way to do that is to participate in a leadership assessment process. That's what we offer at KP. For more information contact J.R. at jrbriggs@kairospartnerships.org**Resilient Leaders is produced by the incredibly gifted Joel Limbauan. Check out his great video and podcast work at On a Limb Productions: www.onalimbproductions.com

Mike Bowler: Six Thinking Hats, An Agile Retrospective for Balanced Discussions Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. Mike defines a successful Scrum Master as a catalyst who drives the team towards continuous improvement and effective goal achievement. He discusses how to gauge success by examining data available from the team's processes and questioning whether true improvement is happening. Effective Scrum Masters facilitate discussions that challenge the status quo and encourage the team to reflect on their progress using data and insights. Self-reflection Question: What indicators do you use to measure your team's effectiveness? Featured Retrospective Format for the Week: Six Thinking Hats Mike shares the Six Thinking Hats retrospective as an effective format to dissect complex team issues. This method allows the team to view problems from different perspectives—logical, emotional, critical, etc.—encouraging balanced discussions and deep insights without conflict. He emphasizes how this approach can defuse latent conflicts and foster logical, collaborative problem-solving. [The Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast Recommends]

Real Estate Real Talk with Renee Funk! I'm beyond excited to share this week's episode of Real Estate Real World featuring none other than the amazing Renee Funk!

Unlock the power of strategic thinking in construction with the Six Thinking Hats approach. Learn how to make better decisions, spot risks, and find innovative solutions for your projects. Dive into each hat's unique perspective and transform your business mindset.#ConstructionSuccess #StrategicThinking #BusinessLeadershipWhat we cover on this episode: 00:00 - Introduction to Six Thinking Hats03:23 - White Hat: The Analyst05:54 - Red Hat: The Empath08:57 - Black Hat: Risk Manager11:38 - Yellow Hat: The Optimist13:56 - Green Hat: The Innovator17:16 - Blue Hat: The Organizer19:29 - Conclusion and Feedback RequestLINKSVisit the episode page at https://carpentercpas.com/sixhats for more details and a transcript of the show.Join the Profit First for Construction community!Find all episodes and related links at ContractorSuccessForum.com.Join the conversation on our LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/CarpenterCPAs FIND US ONLINEWade Carpenter, CPA, CGMA | CarpenterCPAs.comStephen Brown, Bonding Expert | SuretyAnswers.com

Unlock the power of strategic thinking in construction with the Six Thinking Hats approach. Learn how to make better decisions, spot risks, and find innovative solutions for your projects. Dive into each hat's unique perspective and transform your business mindset.#ConstructionSuccess #StrategicThinking #BusinessLeadershipWhat we cover on this episode: 00:00 - Introduction to Six Thinking Hats03:23 - White Hat: The Analyst05:54 - Red Hat: The Empath08:57 - Black Hat: Risk Manager11:38 - Yellow Hat: The Optimist13:56 - Green Hat: The Innovator17:16 - Blue Hat: The Organizer19:29 - Conclusion and Feedback RequestLINKSVisit the episode page at https://carpentercpas.com/sixhats for more details and a transcript of the show.Join the Profit First for Construction community!Find all episodes and related links at ContractorSuccessForum.com.Join the conversation on our LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/CarpenterCPAs FIND US ONLINEWade Carpenter, CPA, CGMA | CarpenterCPAs.comStephen Brown, Bonding Expert | SuretyAnswers.com

202 - Wear the Six Thinking Hats In this episode, we explore Edward de Bono's revolutionary framework, "The Six Thinking Hats." This method offers a structured approach to problem-solving and decision-making by encouraging participants to adopt different mindsets, each represented by a colored hat. We explore how this technique can be applied in various scenarios, from corporate meetings to family discussions, to foster better collaboration and innovative solutions. Blue Hat: The Blue Hat is all about control and organization. It sets the agenda, defines the problem, and ensures that the discussion remains focused. White Hat: Focused on facts and information, the White Hat calls for data-driven thinking. It eliminates biases, enabling a clear view of the situation. Green Hat: Creativity flourishes under the Green Hat. It encourages thinking outside the box, exploring new possibilities and ideas. Yellow Hat: This hat embodies optimism. It looks at the positives, seeking the benefits and opportunities in any scenario. Red Hat: The Red Hat allows for the expression of emotions and feelings, which are crucial but often overlooked in decision-making. Black Hat: Lastly, the Black Hat introduces caution. It highlights potential pitfalls, helping teams to avoid hasty, ill-considered decisions. Introduction to the Six Thinking Hats: We start by explaining the core concept of the Six Thinking Hats, detailing each hat's role in the decision-making process. Learn how the Blue Hat manages the flow of the discussion, while the White Hat focuses on facts, and the Green Hat unleashes creativity. Real-Life Applications: Discover how the Six Thinking Hats can be applied to everyday situations, like planning a vacation or making strategic business decisions. We share examples that highlight how this method can transform complex, contentious discussions into productive and inclusive decision-making processes. The Benefits of Using the Hats: We discuss why the Six Thinking Hats are effective in fostering balanced thinking. By separating emotions from facts and allowing space for creative ideas, this method ensures that all aspects of a problem are considered, leading to well-rounded solutions. Key Takeaways: -The Six Thinking Hats method encourages exploring different perspectives to enhance problem-solving and decision-making.-This approach fosters collaboration by ensuring that every viewpoint is considered in a structured manner.-Using the Six Thinking Hats can lead to more innovative, practical, and inclusive solutions, whether in a corporate setting or personal life. https://startwithsmallsteps.com/202-wear-the-six-thinking-hats/ https://www.debonogroup.com/services/core-programs/six-thinking-hats/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOMDQgjb360 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Thinking_Hats Jill's Links https://abetterlifeinsmallsteps.com https://affiliate.notion.so/NorthwoodsJill https://affiliate.notion.so/NorthwoodsAI https://www.youtube.com/@startwithsmallstepspodcast https://www.buymeacoffee.com/smallstepspod https://twitter.com/schmern Email the podcast at jill@startwithsmallsteps.com

Marissa is responsible for overseeing the continued evolution and implementation of Verizon's Sustainability Strategy as well as its enterprise wide relationships across its sustainability portfolio. ​She focuses on operationalizing Verizon's internal and external commitments while tracking its progress across the enterprise to ensure holistic management in the areas of sustainability and driving profitable growth. ​ Prior to joining Verizon, Marissa was with the Department of Defense in Washington DC, leading Climate Policy and Interagency engagement. She served as the climate policy advisor to the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations and Environment. ​She has held a number of progressive roles within the White House and Pentagon, including Director for Climate Adaptation and Resilience, Climate Program Director for the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of the Navy.​ From 2006-2014, Marissa served in various leadership roles at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, including the Office of the CFO and the Tribal Affairs Office. Marissa McInnis Joins Sustainable Nation to Discuss: How to institutionalize sustainability at a large global organization Verizon's approach to ESG reporting and highlights from the latest report  Verizon's renewable energy goals  Advice and recommendations for sustainability professionals Marissa's Final Five Questions Responses: What is one piece of advice you would give other sustainability professionals that might help them in their careers? I always advise people who ask me to think outside your circle. A lot of sustainability and climate educated professionals tend to stay within that bubble or that circle. I encourage you to talk to your facilities lead. I encourage you to talk to your supply chain lead. Think about the areas within the organization where you may be already doing that sustainability work and you're not counting it, or you're not communicating it across or replicating it. Think outside your circle. What are you most excited about right now in the world of sustainability? When you think about sustainability and climate from the climate perspective, you have mitigation where you're reducing emissions and then you also have adaptation and resilience where you're really looking to climate-proof your business. The lifting up of that adaptation and resilience side, especially given my background, that's what I worked on predominantly over the last 17 years, it's that side of it. I really am excited about how people are paying attention to it and businesses are paying attention to it. Alongside that, thinking about the co-benefits. That's kind of a buzzword that's happening right now, but what also reduces emissions plus helps with that adaptation resilience problem. Then finally the biggest one is just thinking about sustainability from this cross-cutting lens like I was talking about. Talking to folks that you wouldn't normally talk to. Sometimes it's hard. At the Pentagon, for a long time I was one of the younger people there and there were a lot of grumpy older facilities folks that I had to talk to. But it ended up being such a valuable conversation. We ended up working together to update building codes according to new climate projections. So you never know where you're going to find that value.That's why you have to keep reaching out. What is one book you would recommend sustainability leaders read? I just finished Six Thinking Hats by Edward De Bono, and it's all about how you can think about a problem and think about framing it. It takes any type of negative association or emotion off of one individual person and allows for really brilliant group think. You think about the white hat, it's neutral and objective. So you could say to someone in your group during your brainstorm, “Hey, put on a white hat,” and it takes away the personal and brings it up to a group level so that folks can think about it from that front. Yellow Hat is sunny and positive. The one hat that I try to use that I don't normally put on first is the Black hat, which is careful and cautious, the devil's advocate hat. I've really used it a lot and encourage folks to read it. What are some of your favorite resources or tools that really help you in your work? Anything by Tensie Whelan, read it, absorb it. And I'm a little bit biased here because I helped develop a lot of this material, but I also l use a lot of the US government federal climate resources. If you go to climate.gov and use the Climate Resilience Toolkit, a lot of the work that I've done over the past 15 years is there. Looking at the maps, seeing where you can, especially with a company with a global footprint, think about where your biggest risks are from climate related hazards, it's really easy to do using public verified peer reviewed data. Where can our listeners go to learn more about you and the sustainability work being done at Verizon and check out the new ESG report? If you go to verizon.com there's a search box at the top. You can search sustainability and it goes into a resource page specifically for climate sustainability related goals. We also have our ESG report up there and you can see what we're doing from water conservation, renewable energy, our net zero goals, and also how to get involved within your community.

Global Product Management Talk is pleased to bring you the next episode of... Product Mastery Now with host Chad McAllister, PhD. The podcast is all about helping people involved in innovation and managing products become more successful, grow their careers, and STANDOUT from their peers. About the Episode: This article explores the crucial role of product design in product management, focusing on ideation and concept design tools. It covers various ideation techniques such as SCAMPER, brainstorming, mind mapping, storyboarding, brainwriting, Six Thinking Hats, Delphi, ethnography, Day in the Life, empathy analysis, personas, and customer journey maps. The article also delves into concept design, discussing the Kano Method for classifying product requirements and identifying customer perceptions. By understanding and applying these tools, product managers can create customer-centric products that drive satisfaction, differentiation, and competitive advantage.

Asking better questions is a critical part of any needs analysis. Speaker and Coach Mike Simmons and d'Vinci Director, Learning Experience Jenny Fedullo, guide you through what questions to ask and when to ask them to make your training more impactful. Show Notes:There are many simple, yet thought-provoking steps to execute a better needs analysis and ensure improved training outcomes.  Key takeaways include:Defining the Problem Clearly: Establishing a precise definition of the problem is crucial. Misunderstandings often arise from varied perspectives. Ensure alignment within the team by asking clarifying questions to validate and agree on the problem's specifics.Understanding the Stakeholders: Identify who has the problem, who is impacted by it, and who cares about it. Engaging these stakeholders brings diverse perspectives and resources, which can bridge gaps and garner necessary support and buy-in for solutions.Analyzing the Root Causes: Employ root cause analysis by repeatedly asking why the problem persists. This helps in distinguishing between symptoms and root causes, allowing for more effective and focused problem-solving. It also helps determine if a problem is worth solving or if it's unsolvable within current constraints.Establishing Clear Timelines: Set defined timelines to create urgency and accountability. Use frameworks like the Eisenhower Matrix and 30-60-90-day plans to break down goals into manageable chunks, ensuring consistent progress and momentum toward the desired outcome.Implementing a Structured Approach: Use a systematic framework with steps involving what, who, why, how, and when. This methodical approach ensures comprehensive problem-solving and strategic planning, aligning short-term actions with long-term objectives, and adapting as needed based on regular reflection and assessment.Learn more about Mike Simmons on his website.Check out Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono Read about the COM-B Model for Behavior ChangePowered by Learning earned an Award of Distinction in the Podcast/Audio category from The Communicator Awards and a Silver Davey Award for Educational Podcast. The podcast is also named to Feedspot's Top 40 L&D podcasts and Training Industry's Ultimate L&D Podcast Guide. Learn more about d'Vinci at www.dvinci.com. Follow us on LinkedInLike us on Facebook

How do you know that the learning you and your colleagues are doing is leading to changes in behavior? In this episode, Bill and Andrew discuss little tests you can do to see if the transformation you're working toward is really happening.  0:00:02.0 Andrew Stotz: My name is Andrew Stotz and I'll be your host as we continue our journey into the teachings of Dr. W. Edwards Deming. Today, I'm continuing my discussion with Bill Bellows, who has spent 30 years helping people apply Dr. Deming's ideas to become aware of how their thinking is holding them back from their biggest opportunity. Today is episode 22, and the title is, Test for Understanding Transformation. Bill, take it away.   0:00:30.7 Bill Bellows: Hey, we've been at this podcast for about a year now, right?   0:00:36.6 AS: It's incredible how long it's been.   0:00:39.8 BB: And in the beginning you said, I've been at this for 30 years, right?   0:00:43.7 AS: Yeah.   [laughter]   0:00:46.7 BB: Maybe we should change that to 31.   0:00:48.3 AS: Oh, man, there you go.   0:00:51.2 BB: All right.   0:00:53.0 AS: That reminds me of the joke of the janitor at the exhibition of the dinosaurs and the group of kids was being led through the museum and their guide had to run to the bathroom. And so they were looking at this dinosaur and they asked the janitor, "How old is that dinosaur?" And he said, "Well, that dinosaur is 300,032 years old." "Oh, how do they know it so exactly?" He said, "Well, it was 300,000 when I started working here 30 years ago."   [laughter]   0:01:28.8 AS: So there we are.   0:01:31.4 BB: That's great.   0:01:33.3 AS: Thirty-one years.   0:01:34.0 BB: All right, all right, all right. So first thing I wanna say is, as you know and our listeners know, I go back and listen to this podcast and I interact with people that are listening too, and I get some feedback. And in episode 19, I said the Germans were developing jet engines in the late 1940s. No, it turns out the Germans were developing jet engines in the late 1930s and they had a fighter plane with a turbine engine, a developmental engine in the late '30s. They didn't get into full-scale development and production. Production didn't start till the tail end of the war. But anyway, but I was off by a decade. In episode 21, I mentioned that checks were awarded within Rocketdyne for improvement suggestions and individuals who submitted this and it could be for an individual, maybe it was done for two people, three people, I don't know, but they got 10% of the annual savings on a suggestion that was implemented in a one-time lump sum payment.   0:02:36.1 BB: So you got 10% of the savings for one year and I thought, imagine going to the president of the company and let's say I walk into the president's office and you're my attorney. And I walk in and I say, "Hey, Mr. President, I've got a suggestion. You know that suggestion program?" He says, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on in, come on in. And who's this guy with you?" "Well that's Andrew Stotz." "And who's Andrew?" "He's my attorney, and he and I have been thinking about what this is worth." "Well, tell me about it." "No, well, before we get into it, we've got this form to sign here."   0:03:10.9 AS: Andrew.   0:03:11.1 BB: "Right? And you wanna see the idea or not? But we don't have to share it." But I thought, imagine people going to great length and really taking advantage of it. Well, a few of us that were involved in our InThinking Roadmap training, what we started to propose is we want a piece of the action, Andrew. So the proposal we had is that, Andrew, if you come to one of our classes, a study session on The New Economics or Managing Variation of a System, we'll have you sign a roster, right? And so if you are ever given a check for big numbers, Andrew, then we're gonna claim that our training contributed to your idea and all we ask is 10%, right?   0:03:58.1 AS: Of your 10%.   0:04:00.9 BB: I mean, I think that's fair, right? But imagine everybody in the organization becoming a profit center.   0:04:08.7 AS: Crazy.   0:04:10.4 BB: That's what you get. All right.   0:04:14.5 AS: And the lesson from that is focus on intrinsic motivation. People wanna make improvements, they wanna contribute.   0:04:23.8 BB: You start... You go down the slippery slope of incentives, which will be part of what we look at later. There's just no end to that. All right?   0:04:31.4 AS: Yeah.   0:04:32.2 BB: So I mentioned in a previous podcast that I had an interaction, met the army's first woman four-star general, and I just wanna give you some more background and interesting things that happened with her relative to this test for understanding transformation. I don't know April, May, 2008, someone on her staff reached out to me and when they first... When the guy got a hold of me, I said... From the Pentagon, he called me, I think it was like 8:00 or 9:00 o'clock at night here. Whatever it was, it was after hours in LA so it was after hours in DC. I remember saying to the guy, "How did you find me?" He says, "There's a lot of stuff on the internet." So he says, "I came across a presentation you did for Goodwill Industries." And he says, "In there you talk about... " He says, "There's some really good stuff in there."   0:05:29.0 BB: And I said, "Like what?" He said, "You have a slide in there about you can minimize loss to society by picking up nails in a parking lot." And that was an example of what I used Dr. Taguchi's work, minimizing loss to society. I said, "Yeah, I remember that slide." He says, "We don't do enough of that in the Army." And he says, "Hey, we've got a conference next week, late notice. The keynote speaker bailed out." And he's calling me on a Monday. The presentation's a week from Wednesday and he says... And also he said that the Army had an initiative called Enterprise Thinking and Enterprise Thinking was part of what we called our effort within Rocketdyne. We used the terms Enterprise Thinking, organizational awareness, and that InThinking personal awareness. We were using those two terms. So he did a search on that, found my name, and he says, "What do you think?" And he says, "We're gonna... "   0:06:24.3 BB: If I agree, we'll have a follow-up vetting call the next day. So he calls me up the next day and it's him and a two-star general. There are three people in the room, all senior officers, and he says, "Okay, so, but tell us what you do." So I shared the last... It sounds funny, is what seems to have been the last straw in their interest was having me speak, was my last straw story. Remember the executive from the European airline and... Right? So I tell that story about my efforts within Rocketdyne and Boeing about this airline executive and how this deeply resonated with this executive of this customer of this company that buys a lot of Boeing airplanes that we focused on the one cause, not the greater system.   0:07:13.2 BB: And within minutes of sharing that story, they started laughing, leading to it a few minutes later to them saying, "you're the one."   0:07:19.2 AS: [laughter] That's very interesting.   0:07:21.3 BB: You're the one. So for our listeners, I'd say, let this be a reminder of how a personal story guided by insights on how Dr. Deming's System of Profound Knowledge can open doors for you. And you can use that story, come up with your own stories, but you just never know when you're gonna be in a situation where you need a really simple story. So as an aside, they contact me, like I mentioned, 10 years later, and I think I shared with you offline that the speaker I was replacing was the great Richard Rumelt, the strategy professor from UCLA, who for whatever reason needed to bail out. And then when this podcast is posted, I'll put a link to the slides of the presentation.   0:08:05.7 BB: It's about 45 minutes long. What was not covered... I went back and looked at it earlier to say, what did I share with them that got them so excited? All I know is it fit into 45 minutes to an hour. What was not covered was the trip reports, whether Red Pen or Blue Pen, Last Straw/All Straw, Me/We organizations. But after it was done, as I'm coming off the stage, General Dunwoody in uniform comes up to me. She was thrilled. Her exact words were, "You hit it." She says, "Bill, you hit it out of the park." And I thought, well, I had help from a lot of people. She then says something to me that I'll never forget. So we're face-to-face, right? Let me just... Right?   0:08:45.1 BB: And she says to me, "Bill, you've got a real challenge on your hands. Bill, you've got a real challenge on your hands." So prompted by that, I held my hand out, my right hand, which is what you do to initiate a handshake, and then she reaches out to shakes my hand and I said, "General Dunwoody, we have a challenge on our hands." [laughter] And she erupted in laughter. And my only regret, even though we went out for drinks for the next couple of hours, but my regret was not having a photo of her and I doing a double high five as she laughed. So then I remained in touch with her for the next six to eight months when she was promoted to four-star and she looked for opportunities to get me to the Pentagon, which she did. And I was trying to get her or somebody on her staff to come to Rocketdyne to learn more about what we're doing.   0:09:38.1 BB: But I say I share this anecdote as an example of a Test for Understanding of a transformation. So what is a TFU, test for understanding? This is something I got exposed to in my Kepner-Tregoe Problem Solving and Decision Making training, which I talked about in one of the first episodes. And in our training to deliver what was then a five-day course, we were coached on how to interact with seminar attendees, including how to answer questions and how to ask questions. And one of the things we got our knuckles wrapped for was saying, are there any questions? Because no one answers that. There is... And if I had said that when I was being certified, I'd have failed. So instead we're coached on how to ask questions or make comments, which serve as a test for someone's understanding of what I presented.   0:10:27.9 BB: For example, for me to reply to General Dunwoody with we have a challenge on our hands was to test her understanding of what I said and her laughter is a response that I could be expecting with something short. As an aside, an appreciation, we've talked about Ackoff's D-I-K-U-W model data, raw data information. You turn that into what, where, when, extent, knowledge. If we convert that to how does something operate looking inside of an automobile, how do the pieces work together? Remember he said understanding is when you look outward 'cause knowledge looking inward, Russ would say, doesn't tell you why the car is designed for four passengers. That comes from looking outward. And then wisdom is what do we do with all this? Well, the Kepner-Tregoe training was Test for Understanding and now that I'm inspired by Ackoff, well in my university classes, I ask "Test for Information" classes. I have them watch videos and say, what company was Russ working for?   0:11:31.1 BB: This anecdote, that's information. Nothing wrong with those questions. I can ask for "Test for Knowledge" questions asking how something operates. So what I don't know is like, why are they called Test for Understanding? They could be Test for Knowledge, Test for Information, Test for Wisdom. And obviously TFI test for information could be true, false, multiple choice and test for knowledge and understanding could be short, but then I want to go deeper. And so what I wanna share is in one of my university courses, I share the following, true, you can't make it up news stories. It says, once upon a time a national airline came in dead last on on-time performance one month even though it had offered its employees everything from cash to pizza to finish first in the US Department of Transportation's monthly rankings. Does that sound like incentives, Andrew?   0:12:33.0 AS: It's all there.   0:12:33.8 BB: If we finish first, pizza parties. Now if they got exposed to Rocketdyne, they'd be handing out checks for $10,000. So in one of the research essays, for a number of the courses, every week, every module, I give them a research essay very similarly, giving them a situation and then what's going on with the questions is having them think about what they've been exposed to so far. And so question one in this assignment is given this account, list five assumptions that were made by the management team of this airline? And so I just wanna share one student's response. He says, "assumption one..." And also let me say this comes from the second of two Deming courses I do. So these students have been exposed to a one, one-semester course prior to this. So this is not intro stuff. This is getting deep into it.   0:13:34.3 BB: And so anyway he says, "assumption one, offering incentives like cash and pizza would motivate employees to prioritize on-time performance." Okay? That's an assumption. "Assumption two, employee morale and satisfaction directly correlate with on-time performance. Assumption three, the issue of on-time performance primarily stems from..." Are you ready? "Employee motivation or effort. The incentives provided were perceived as valuable by employees." And you're gonna love where this goes. "Assumption five, employees have significant control over factors that influence on-time performance such as aircraft maintenance, air traffic control and weather conditions."   0:14:20.2 AS: Good answers.   0:14:23.0 BB: Again, what I think is cool and for our listeners is what you're gonna get in question two, three, four, and five is builds upon a foundation where these students have, for one and a half semesters been exposed to Deming, Taguchi, Ackoff, Gipsie Ranney, Tom Johnson, the System of Profound Knowledge, hours and hours of videos. And so this is my way of Testing their Understanding. And so if you're a university professor, you might find interest in this. If you're within an organization, this could be a sense of how do you know what people are hearing in your explanations of Deming's work or whatever you're trying to bring to your organization? So anyway, I then have them read a blog at a Deming Institute link, and I'll add this blog when this is posted but it's deming.org/the insanity of extrinsic motivation. All right. And they've been exposed to these concepts but I just said, "Hey, go off and read this blog." And it was likely a blog by John Hunter.   0:15:32.0 AS: Yep.   0:15:32.2 BB: All right, question two. All right. Now it gets interesting, is that "in appreciation of Edward de Bono's, "Six Thinking Hats"," which they've been exposed to, "and the Yellow Hat, which is the logical positive, why is this such a great idea? Listen, explain five potential logical, positive benefits of incentives, which would explain why they would be implemented in a ME Organization." And so what's seen is I have them put themselves in a ME Organization, put on the Yellow Hat and think about what would be so exciting about this. And so logical, positive number one. "Incentives can serve as a powerful motivator for individuals within the organization, driving them to achieve higher levels of performance and productivity. When employees are offered rewards for their efforts, they're more likely to be motivated to excel in their roles," Andrew. Logical positive number two, enhanced performance. Explanation, "by tying incentives to specific goals or targets, organizations can encourage employees to focus their efforts on key priorities and objectives.   0:16:46.9 BB: This can lead to improved performance across various aspects of the business, ultimately driving better results." Number three, attraction and retention of talent. Oh, yeah. Explanation, "offering attractive incentives can help organizations attract top talent and retain existing employees. Attractive incentives can serve as a key differentiator for organizations seeking to attract and retain skilled professionals." Now, let me also say, this is an undergraduate class. As I mentioned, this is the second of two that I offer. Many of these students are working full-time or part-time. So this is coming from someone who is working full-time, probably mid to late 20s. So these are not... They're undergraduates but lifewise, they've got a lot of real-world experience.   0:17:44.0 BB: All right. Logical positive four, promotion of innovation and creativity. Explanation, "incentives can encourage employees to think creatively and innovative in their roles. By rewarding innovative ideas and contributions, organizations can foster..." Ready, Andrew? "A culture of creativity and continuous improvement, driving long-term success and competitive advantage." And the last one, positive organizational culture. "Implementing incentives can contribute to a positive organizational culture characterized by recognition, reward and appreciation. When employees feel valued and rewarded for their contributions, they're more likely to feel engaged, satisfied, and committed to the organization." But here's what's really cool about this test for understanding, I get to position them in the framework of a ME Organization with the Yellow Hat.   0:18:40.9 BB: Now question three, in appreciation of Edward de Bono's, "Six Thinking Hats" and the Black Hat, what Edward calls a logical negative, list and explain five potential aspects of incentives, which would explain why they would not be implemented in a WE Organization. And this is coming from the same person. This is why I think it's so, so cool that I wanna share with our listeners. The same person's being forced to look at it both ways. Negative number one, potential for... Ready, Andrew? "Unintended consequences." Oh my God. "Incentives can sometime lead to unintended consequences such as employees focusing solely on tasks that are incentivized while neglecting other important aspects of their roles. This tunnel vision can result in suboptimal outcomes for the organization as a whole."   0:19:30.7 BB: "Number two, risk of eroding intrinsic motivation. Explanation, offering external rewards like incentives can undermine intrinsic motivation leading employees to become less interested in the work and more focused on earning rewards. Number three, creation of unhealthy competition. Explanation, incentives can foster a competitive culture within the organization where employees may prioritize individual success over collaboration and teamwork. This competitive atmosphere can breed..." Ready? "Resentment and distrust among employees." Can you imagine that, Andrew? Resentment and distrust? That seems like it would clash with my previous positive thought, but it really just points out how careful management needs to be.   0:20:19.0 AS: Yes.   0:20:19.2 BB: All right. Cost considerations. "Implementing incentive programs can be costly for organizations, particularly if the rewards offered are substantial or if the program is not carefully managed. Organizations may be hesitant to invest resources and incentives, especially if they're uncertain about the return on investment if budget is of concern." And then number five, "short-term focus over our long-term goals." Explanation, "incentives often improve short-term gains rather than long-term strategic objectives. Employees may prioritize activities that yield immediate results, even if they're not aligned with the organization's broader goals or values."   0:21:02.7 BB: And then question four, here's the kicker. "In appreciation of your evolving understanding of the use of incentives, share, if you would, a personal account of a memorable attempt by someone to use incentives to motivate you, so that so many pizza parties or bringing a small box of donuts or coffee in for working a weekend I was supposed to have off." And then question five, "in appreciation of your answer to question four, why is this use of incentives so memorable to you? They were very ineffective. I often felt insulted that my boss thought that $20 worth of pizza or donuts made up for asking me to give 50% of my days off that week."   0:21:55.5 AS: Here's a donut for you.   0:22:00.6 BB: Here's a doggy bone, here's a doggy bone. I just wanted to share that this time. Next time we'll look at more.   0:22:09.3 AS: One of the things that...   0:22:10.6 BB: There are other examples of Test for Understanding. Go ahead, Andrew.   0:22:12.3 AS: One of the things that I wanted to... What you made me think about is that you and I can talk here about the downside of incentives but we have to accept the world is absolutely sold on the topic of incentives.   0:22:27.2 BB: Absolutely.   0:22:27.8 AS: A 100, I mean, 99.999% and if you're not sold on it, you're still gonna be forced to do it.   0:22:34.5 BB: Well, you know why they're sold on them, 'cause they work.   0:22:39.7 AS: It's like a shotgun. One of those pellets is gonna hit the target but...   0:22:47.7 BB: That's right.   0:22:48.4 AS: A lot of other pellets are gonna hit...   0:22:50.6 BB: And that's all that matters. And then what you get into is, you know what, Andrew, that that one person walks away excited, right? And that's the pellet that I look at. And I say, yep, and what about those others? You know what I say to that, Andrew? Those others, you know what, Andrew, you can't please everybody.   0:23:07.8 AS: Yeah.   0:23:07.9 BB: So this is so reinforcing. There's one person that gets all wrapped up based on my theory that this is a great thing to do and I hone in on that. And everything else I dismiss as, "ah, what are you gonna do? You can't please everybody." But what's missing is, what is that doing to destroy their willingness to collaborate with the one I gave the award to?   0:23:33.1 AS: Yeah, I'm picturing a bunch of people and laying on the ground injured by the pellets but that one black, or that one... Let's say the one target that we were going after, that target is down but there's 50 other people down also.   0:23:50.6 BB: No, but then this is where I get into the white bead variation we talked about early, early on, is that if all I'm doing is measuring, have you completed the task and we're looking at it from a black and white perspective and you leave the bowling ball in the doorway for the next person, meaning that you complete a task with the absolute minimum requirements for it to be deemed complete. Does the car have gas? Yes. You didn't say how much but when people then... When those people that were summarily dismissed didn't receive the award, when they go out and don't share an idea, don't give somebody a warning of something or not even maliciously leave the bowling ball in the doorway but believe that the way to get ahead is to do everything as fast as possible, but in doing so, what you're doing is creating a lot of extra work for others, and then you get promoted based on that. Now you get into... In episode 22 we talked about, as long as there's no transparency, you get away with that. And then the person at the end of the line gets buried with all that stuff and everybody else says, well, my part was good and my part was good. How come Andrew can't put these together?   0:25:26.8 AS: In wrapping this up, I want to think just briefly about how somebody... So we're talking about understanding transformation, but we're also talking about incentives.   0:25:39.8 BB: Yes.   0:25:40.5 AS: And I would like to get a takeaway from you about how somebody who lives in a world of incentives, how do they, after listening to this, go back to their office and how should they exist? It's not like they can run away from a structure of incentives. Maybe when they become CEO, they decide, I'm not gonna do it that way, but they're gonna go back to their office and they're gonna be subjected to the incentive system. Obviously, the first thing is we wanna open up their mind to think, oh, there's more to it than just, these darned employees aren't doing what I'm telling them, even when I'm giving them incentives. But what would you give them as far as a takeaway?   0:26:27.1 BB: Well, I'll give you some examples of what some brilliant colleagues did at Rocketdyne, as they became transformed, as they became aware, and one is politely decline. Say, I don't, I don't need that. Just again you have to be careful there. There could be some misinterpretations of that. So you have to be...   0:27:03.2 AS: What if you're required to put an incentive system on top of your employees?   0:27:09.5 BB: Well, first, if it's coming down to you to go off and implement this, then one thing you could do is create a system which is based on chance. Everyone who contributed an idea, their name goes into a lottery for free lunch the first Wednesday of the month, and everybody knows. So then we're using the incentive money but using it in a way that everyone deems as fair. So that's one thing. And you just say, I'll... So then if your boss asks, have you distributed the incentive money? You say, yes, but you're distributing it based on a system of chance of which everyone realize they stand an equal chance of winning.   0:27:56.9 AS: Okay. So let's address that for a second. So your boss believes in incentives. They ask you to implement this system. Now you proposed one option, which is to do something based upon chance, but now let's look at your employees under you that have been indoctrinated their whole life on the concept of incentives. And you give them a system of chance and they're gonna come back and say, wait a minute, you're not rewarding the person who's contributing the most here? Now obviously you have a teaching moment and you can do all that, but is there any other way that you can deal with this?   0:28:33.7 BB: No, it could be tough. You've got to... You may have to go along until you can create a teaching moment. And what I did with the colleagues, when there are these a "great minds doing great things" events, and an announcement would go out as to who are the privileged few that got invited to these events, and I would tell people that if you go to the event, then that's what I would say. You can decline, you can politely decline. There's some things you can decline.   0:29:17.4 AS: I guess the other thing you could do, you could also... When you have to, when you're forced to reward, you can celebrate everybody's contribution while you're also being forced to give that incentive to that one person that has been deemed as the one that contributed the most.   0:29:36.9 BB: Well, I'll give you another example that a colleague did, a work colleague. He didn't do it in a work setting. Not that it couldn't be done in a work setting, but he signed up to be as a judge in a science fair in a nearby school. It was a work-related thing. And as it got closer, he realized... It was a... It would involve... What is a science fair without the number one science experiment? And my theory is you can't get a bunch of adults and a bunch of kids together in any organized way without giving out an award that just, it's like, oh, we got everybody together. We got to find a way to single somebody out. So when he realized what was going on, instead of not going, what he did, he took it upon himself to interact with every kid whose science experiment he watched and asked them lots of questions about it, about what inspired them? What did they learn?   0:30:30.6 BB: So what he wanted by the end of the day was that they were more intrigued that someone came and really wanted to know what they learned and less inclined to listen to who won the award. And I've seen that in a work setting, again, where we had events and the next thing you know there's an award and I thought, well, what can we do? Well, we can go around and really engage in the people who's got tables set up for the share fair knowing at the end of the day, we have this. We just can't break this, we just can't break this.   0:31:08.2 AS: Yeah. All right. So...   0:31:10.3 BB: But the other thing I've seen, I've seen people who received rewards, use that money. Literally, one guy in the quality organization at Rocketdyne received an award. It might have been for a $1000. He used the money, Andrew, to buy copies of The New Economics for everyone in the organization.   [laughter]   0:31:31.7 AS: Well, that brings us to another possibility, is that you convince your boss that you at least want to give... You want to reward the whole department.   0:31:40.5 BB: Yes.   0:31:40.9 AS: Any reward that you do, you want to reward your whole department. And so that could be something that your boss would say, "Okay, go ahead and do that." And they're not gonna go against it as opposed to trying to, say, no, I won't do it this way, but...   0:32:02.1 BB: Well, towards that end, I've seen people that are rewards crazy. At Rocketdyne, there's one guy in particular in a machine shop manufacturing environment and some big program wanted to thank five out of the 50 people in his organization with t-shirts. And he said, "You either give me 50 t-shirts or no t-shirts."   0:32:27.6 AS: Yeah.   0:32:28.8 BB: And I thought that was really cool 'cause this... And I don't know to what degree his exposure to what we were doing, but I thought that's what we need more of. Come back with 50 shirts and we'll take them.   0:32:44.1 AS: Okay. Let's wrap this up by doing a brief wrap-up of why you're saying... Why you've titled this Test for Understanding and what can the listeners take away.   0:32:56.6 BB: The idea is again, if in a seminar learning event situation is one thing, but if you're involved in leading in a transformation within your respective organizations, what I'm suggesting is that you think about how to Test the Understanding of that transformation's progress with your audience. And we talked in the past about leaving a coffee cup in the hallway, see if it's still there. That's a Test for Understanding of the culture of the organization. And that's what I'm suggesting here, is there are simple things you can do such when somebody says, come see what my son did. You can say, your son? Or is it, was there a spouse involved? And just as you become aware of the nuances of this transformation, you could be looking at somebody look at two data points and draw a conclusion and they're just a day out of some seminar with you about understanding variation and they're looking for a cause of one data point shift.   0:34:13.0 BB: So it's just, what can you do day in and day out, just your little things to test the organization or test an individual's understanding of this transformation process that we're talking about, which is, how are you seeing things differently? Are you becoming more aware of incentives and their destruction, more aware of theories? That's all. What just came to mind is... And the other aspect of it was this idea that very deliberately with the foundation of ME and WE, Red Pen/Blue Pen, then you can build upon that by saying to somebody, how might a Blue Pen Company go off and do this? How might a red pen company go off and do that? And that's not a guarantee that either one of them is right, but I find it becomes a really neat way on an individual basis to say, as you just pointed out, Andrew, so how would I as a manager in a Blue Pen Company deal with that awkward situation?   0:35:19.2 BB: Well, if I was in a red pen, this is what I would do. And so it's not only testing for understanding, but also the power of this contrast. And that's what I found with a group recently, especially the students. If I give them the contrast, I think it's easier for them to see one's about managing things in isolation and all that beckon such as belief in addition and root cause analysis, and one's about looking at things as a system. So it's not just Test for Understanding, but a test of both foundations is what I wanted to get across.   0:35:57.0 AS: Okay, great. Bill, on behalf of everyone at The Deming Institute, I wanna thank you again for this discussion. And for listeners, remember to go to deming.org to continue your journey. If you wanna keep in touch with Bill, hey, you can find him on LinkedIn and he listens. This is your host, Andrew Stotz, and I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from Dr. Deming. I mean, I say this quote every time until I will be bored stiff of it, but "people are entitled to joy in work."

 In this week's episode, we delve into the fascinating realms of leadership, energy management, and innovation, all essential for driving business and personal growth. We unravel the complexities and necessary behaviors behind fostering an environment that nurtures creativity and innovation. Our special guest, Richard Maddox, is a seasoned professional who brings a wealth of experience and insights from his extensive career in leadership development and talent enhancement. Richard Maddocks is an internationally recognized inspirational speaker, training-workshop leader, coach, and author of ‘The Energy Book'. Former CEO of an international IT company, Richard combines long-term business experience with a passion for unleashing potential in people, teams and companies. His passion for unleashing potential has enabled more than 14,000 people to experience increased fulfilment, impact and happiness in their professional and personal lives.  "Applied imagination is at the core of pushing boundaries and achieving innovative results." - Richard Maddox Today on Innovation Talks:•         Creativity and innovation are applicable across all fields, not just traditionally 'creative' industries.•         The process of creativity involves innovation and the creation of a supportive culture that involves the right people.•         Challenging the status quo and constantly seeking improvement are necessary for leadership and business success.•         Leaders should promote risk-taking and create environments where team members can experiment and learn from failures.•         Looking outside one's immediate industry can offer invaluable new perspectives and spark innovation.•         Effective energy management can enhance personal productivity and creativity.•         Understanding and leveraging personal and team talents are essential for leadership and organizational growth.•         Learning from every situation and interaction is crucial, as highlighted by the impactful encounter with a dedicated janitor. Resources Mentioned:- "Drive Your Talents" program- Turbocharge Your Work e-learning program (which can also be accessed through upe-a.com): www.turbochargeyourwork.com - Unleash Potential e-Academy: https://www.upe-a.com/ - The Energy Book site: https://the-energybook.com/- Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono Connect with Richard Maddox:•      https://richardmaddocks.com/    Ready to Transform Your Innovation Strategy? If you're a product manager or innovator looking to streamline your processes and turn chaos into control, you won't want to miss this opportunity.  Dive into our exclusive, free eBook on Innovation Ops strategies designed just for you.  Learn the secrets to revolutionizing your approach and achieving success with clarity and precision.  Download your copy today.  Start your journey to becoming an innovation powerhouse now! This Podcast is brought to you by Sopheon Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Innovation Talks. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts. Apple Podcasts | TuneIn | Stitcher | Spotify | iHeart Be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes on social media to help us reach more listeners, like you. For additional information around new product development or corporate innovation, sign up for Sopheon's newsletter where we share news and industry best practices monthly! The fastest way to do this is to go to sopheon.com and click here.

This episode features the upcoming Bluetech Forum, an event hosted by BlueTech Research that convenes experts from the global water sector. Scheduled for June 3rd and 4th, the forum highlights include innovation showcases.  Hosts Rhys and Divya also discuss the event's emphasis on partnerships and collaborations, such as the five by five session. Keynote speakers, Kong Jianyu, discussing sponge cities, and Gary White, co-founder of Water.org, are anticipated. They also explain the Six Thinking Hats workshops aiming for enriched conversations among attendees. Additionally, the forum includes a screening of the documentary 'Our Blue World: A Water Odyssey'. The hosts express excitement about in-person interactions, emphasizing the forum's value in networking and learning about cutting-edge solutions in water technology.00:00 Opening greetings 00:15 Previewing the Bluetech Forum00:43 What makes Bluetech Forum unique02:27 Highlighting innovation and emerging technologies06:01 Keynote speakers and learning opportunities07:08 Interactive workshops and networking09:41 Special screening event announcement11:08 Closing remarks and invitations--Presented by BlueTech Research, Actionable Water Technology Market Intelligence.Join us at BlueTech Forum 2024 in Edinburgh, Scotland! Watch the trailer of Our Blue World: A Water Odyssey. Get involved, and learn more on the website: braveblue.world

Have you ever been in a meeting, and the conversation jumps around? One minute you might be talking about an idea, and then all of a sudden, someone is expressing their feelings about the idea, and the idea is almost killed before you bring out the facts about it. Or, someone brings up another idea, and you jump over to it. You may end up leaving the meeting feeling like some great topics were brought up, but they were not adequately discussed, and the meeting drifted on, and never got back to them.   If this sounds familiar, then you may want to try the Six Thinking Hats Method.   In today's episode, I share the concept of the Six Thinking Hats methodology and how it can be implemented in modern meetings. I share how you can make thinking more of a process and a way of executing a way of being. I reveal the thinking hat colors, what they represent, and how they bring fairness, balance, and equal contribution into meetings, creating better outcomes. I share two examples of how the methodology can bring structure to meetings and ideation sessions. I also share how we successfully used the Six Thinking Hats methodology at Sopheon and how it has benefited our cross-functional and divisional alignment.   “If you have a meeting with a group of people and you put them into different modes of thinking, it allows you to focus.” - Paul Heller   This week on Innovation Talks:   ●     The thinking hats' colors and the modes of thinking they represent ●     How to use the thinking hat colors to focus on a mode of thinking and bring structure, fairness, and balance to a meeting ●     An example of how the Six Thinking Hats methodology can be used to ensure all members contribute ●     How to create a safe place for expressing fears, worries, and concerns ●     How to create cross-functional alignment and team working across divisions ●     How to leverage the thinking hats for innovation   Resources Mentioned:   ●     Book: Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono (https://www.amazon.com/Six-Thinking-Hats-Edward-Bono/dp/0316178314)       This Podcast is brought to you by Sopheon   Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Innovation Talks. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts.   Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/innovation-talks/id1555857396) | TuneIn (https://tunein.com/podcasts/Technology-Podcasts/Innovation-Talks-p1412337/) | GooglePlay (https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9pbm5vdmF0aW9udGFsa3MubGlic3luLmNvbS9yc3M%3D) | Stitcher (https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=614195) | Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/1dX5b8tWI29YbgeMwZF5Uh) | iHeart (https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-innovation-talks-82985745/)   Be sure to connect with us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/SopheonCorp/) , Twitter (https://twitter.com/sopheon) , and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/sopheon/) , and share your favorite episodes on social media to help us reach more listeners like you.   For additional information about new product development or corporate innovation, sign up for Sopheon's newsletter, where we share news and industry best practices monthly! The fastest way to do this is to go to sopheon.com (https://www.sopheon.com/) and click here (https://info.sopheon.com/subscribe) .

Have you ever been in a meeting, and the conversation jumps around? One minute you might be talking about an idea, and then all of a sudden, someone is expressing their feelings about the idea, and the idea is almost killed before you bring out the facts about it. Or, someone brings up another idea, and you jump over to it. You may end up leaving the meeting feeling like some great topics were brought up, but they were not adequately discussed, and the meeting drifted on, and never got back to them.   If this sounds familiar, then you may want to try the Six Thinking Hats Method.   In today's episode, I share the concept of the Six Thinking Hats methodology and how it can be implemented in modern meetings. I share how you can make thinking more of a process and a way of executing a way of being. I reveal the thinking hat colors, what they represent, and how they bring fairness, balance, and equal contribution into meetings, creating better outcomes. I share two examples of how the methodology can bring structure to meetings and ideation sessions. I also share how we successfully used the Six Thinking Hats methodology at Sopheon and how it has benefited our cross-functional and divisional alignment.   “If you have a meeting with a group of people and you put them into different modes of thinking, it allows you to focus.” - Paul Heller   This week on Innovation Talks:   ●     The thinking hats' colors and the modes of thinking they represent ●     How to use the thinking hat colors to focus on a mode of thinking and bring structure, fairness, and balance to a meeting ●     An example of how the Six Thinking Hats methodology can be used to ensure all members contribute ●     How to create a safe place for expressing fears, worries, and concerns ●     How to create cross-functional alignment and team working across divisions ●     How to leverage the thinking hats for innovation   Resources Mentioned:   ●     Book: Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono (https://www.amazon.com/Six-Thinking-Hats-Edward-Bono/dp/0316178314)       This Podcast is brought to you by Sopheon   Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Innovation Talks. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts.   Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/innovation-talks/id1555857396) | TuneIn (https://tunein.com/podcasts/Technology-Podcasts/Innovation-Talks-p1412337/) | GooglePlay (https://www.google.com/podcasts?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9pbm5vdmF0aW9udGFsa3MubGlic3luLmNvbS9yc3M%3D) | Stitcher (https://www.stitcher.com/s?fid=614195) | Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/1dX5b8tWI29YbgeMwZF5Uh) | iHeart (https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-innovation-talks-82985745/)   Be sure to connect with us on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/SopheonCorp/) , Twitter (https://twitter.com/sopheon) , and LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/sopheon/) , and share your favorite episodes on social media to help us reach more listeners like you.   For additional information about new product development or corporate innovation, sign up for Sopheon's newsletter, where we share news and industry best practices monthly! The fastest way to do this is to go to sopheon.com (https://www.sopheon.com/) and click here (https://info.sopheon.com/subscribe) .

Wie sollst Du entscheiden, welche Idee es sich lohnt umzusetzen? Die „Six Thinking Hats“-Methode (6-Hüte-Methode nach De Bono) unterstützt Dich als Scanner-Persönlichkeit dabei, Deiner Ideenflut Herr/Frau zu werden und kreative Gedanken in konkrete Taten umzusetzen.

What happens if you transform HOW you think? In this episode, Bill Bellows and host Andrew Stotz discuss the problem of thinking in one dimension at a time (as we were taught in school) and its impact on our ability to solve problems. BONUS: Book recommendations to broaden your understanding of Deming and more. TRANSCRIPT 0:00:02.1 Andrew Stotz: My name is Andrew Stotz, and I'll be your host as we continue our journey into the teachings of Dr. W. Edwards Deming. Today, I'm continuing my discussion with Bill Bellows, who has spent 30 years helping people apply Dr. Deming's ideas to become aware of how their thinking is holding them back from their biggest opportunities. The topic for today is, well, episode 19, Transforming How we Think. Bill, take it away.   0:00:29.9 Bill Bellows: And good evening, Andrew.   0:00:35.8 AS: Good evening.   0:00:36.2 BB: And, but just as a point of clarity, I view it as transforming how we think about our thinking. And that's what I've been focusing on for the, since the mid, the early '90s is not how we think, but what is our awareness of our thinking, and I think that ties in well with SoPK. So first in late breaking news, I am seeing with new eyes, Andrew. Literally, I've got new monofocal lenses in both eyes. The left eye three weeks ago, the right eye, a week ago. I was told about five years ago, eventually I'll have to have cataract surgery. And I spoke with a few friends who had it done, and they said, oh, it's easy. And what was so amazing was it was easier than they said. It was.   0:01:41.0 BB: But one neighbor who's had it done, and kind of a sad note is he claims, and I've not double checked this, he's a sharp guy. He claims 80% of the world's population would benefit from cataract surgery that they don't have access to and eventually go blind. And I don't know, I can believe, and he is in fact he's quoted me twice on that. But I am literally seeing with new eyes. The grays are now, shades of gray, are now shades of blue. When I look at the sky. My depth perception's a whole lot better. And so it ties in well with all this vision therapy stuff. So.   0:02:36.8 AS: Aren't you glad that those machines are high quality and the operations that they do are high quality?   0:02:41.6 BB: Oh, yeah.   0:02:42.4 AS: Just one little mistake on that one. And, that's...   0:02:46.2 BB: Well, and I'm signing the documents and there's a little bit of a flutter when I'm signing, in terms of the liability. And one friend's mom had a bad cataract procedure, so it doesn't always go. And I shared this with Kevin. Kevin's had the same, as likewise had the procedure done. And we shared the anxieties and then it worked out well. But yeah when I signed that form that there was in the event, and I thought, whoa, that'd be, anyway, it worked. All right, so where I want to pick up in episode 19 is where we left off with episode 18. And there near the end, I referenced from Dr. Deming. He says Dr. Deming says in chapter three of The New Economics, and he says, "we saw in the last chapter that we're living under the tyranny of the prevailing style of management. Most people imagine this style has always existed. It is a fixture. Actually," he said, "it's a modern invention, a trap that has led us into decline. Transformation..."   0:04:03.0 BB: You remember that word from last time? Okay. "Transformation is required. Education and government, along with industry are also in need of transformation. The System of Profound Knowledge will be introduced in the next chapter. To be introduced in the next chapter is a theory for transformation." So I've got some bullet points and I want to get into the additional chapters and references from The New Economics on Dr. Deming's use of the term transformation. 'Cause I think what he's talking about... SoPK is a theory for transformation. So I think it's just not enough to talk about SoPK without understanding how does that fit in with what Dr. Deming's talking about?   0:04:49.0 AS: And for the listeners who come out of the blue here, SoPK stands for the System of Profound Knowledge.   0:04:56.1 BB: Yes. And system then gets into elements and the four elements that Dr. Deming proposed in The New Economics, going back to the late '80s when he started to put these thoughts together. We need to think about the elements of Profound Knowledge are looking at things as a system and understanding of variation and appreciation of psychology. That's the people aspect. And then theory of knowledge, which gets into what he would explain as how do we know that what we know is so. So the one thing I wanted to bring up on the System of Profound Knowledge is conversations with Dick Steele. And a neat way of looking at the System of Profound Knowledge is to say, well, what if we were to look at some data points, one element, we look at variation, and we see some data the output of a process.   0:06:00.0 BB: We see it go up and down. Well, if that's the only element we have, then we can't ask what caused that, 'cause that's the upstream system. Well, that's the system piece. We cannot talk about what does this variation do downstream? That's the system piece. We cannot talk about how might we change that. That might get into the theory of knowledge or would get into the aspect of the theory of knowledge and some theories as to how we can go about changing the average, changing the amount of variation. And then what that leads us immediately to is, where do those ideas come from but people.   0:06:44.7 BB: So it's kind of, I think it's interesting. So Dr. Deming says the elements, but it's as connected to each other. So what I explain to the students in my courses is, in the beginning, and I remember when I'm looking at this, I'm looking at the elements. I'm thinking, okay, that variation, that's the Control Chart stuff. Common causes, special causes, well, it also includes variation in people. Oh, now we're talking about the people stuff. And then, so I find it interesting is it is easy to look at them as separate, but then in time they meld together really well. So it's not to say that we shouldn't start out looking at things as the elements 'cause I think that's what our education system does. In fact, there's a great documentary I watched a few years ago with Gregory Bateson, who was born in 1900 or so, passed away in the 1980s.   0:07:52.6 BB: And when I ask people have you ever heard of Gregory Bateson? They say, no. I say, well, have you heard of Margaret Mead? Yeah. Well, they were married once upon a time. That was her, he was her first husband. And so Bateson gives a lecture in this documentary that his daughter produced. And he says, and he is at a podium. You don't see the audience. You just see he's at a lectern. And he says, you may think that there's such a thing as psychology, which is separate from anthropology, which is separate from English, which is separate from... And he goes on to imply that they really aren't separate. But then he says, "Well, think what you want."   0:08:38.1 AS: Think what you want.   0:08:39.7 AS: And I thought that's what the education system does. It has us believe that these things are all separate. And so that's what's kind of neat. Yeah. And, but again, I think when you go to school, you're learning about history, then you learn about math. But one thing I noticed later on, many years later was the history people never talked about, if they talked about the philosopher who was well known in mathematics, we didn't hear that mathematics piece, nor in the math class did we hear about this person as a historical figure. We just learned about... And so the education system kind of blocks all that out. And then years later when we're outta school, we can read and see how all this stuff comes together and it does come together. So the one big thing I wanna say is that, is I think it's neat to look at something with just one of those elements and then say, how far does it go before you need the others to really start to do something?   0:09:47.0 BB: And that gets into the interactions. And by interactions, I mean that when you're talking about variation and you're thinking about people are different, how they feel is different, how they respond is different. Now you're talking about the interaction between psychology, at least that's one explanation of the interaction between people amd psychology. I wanna share next an anecdote. I was at a UCLA presentation. A friend of mine turned me on to these maybe once a month kind of deal to be an invited speaker. 70 people in the room. And these were typically professors from other universities, authors, and there is one story I wanna share is a woman who had written a book on why really smart kids don't test well in secondary schools. And there were a good number of people there.   0:10:45.6 BB: And I'm listening to all this through my Deming lens, and she's talking about how kids do on the exams. That goes back to an earlier podcast. How did you do on the exam? And so I'm listening to all this and she's drawing conclusions that these students are really smart, but they freak out. And then how might they individually perform better? As if the greatest cause by them all by themselves. And so afterwards, I went up and stood in line and I had a question for her that I deliberately did not want to ask in front of the entire room. 'Cause I wanted her undivided attention, and I really wanted to see where she'd come with this. 'Cause perhaps it could lead to an ongoing discussion. So I went up and introduced myself and I think I said something like, are you familiar with W. Edwards Deming? And I believe she said she was. I think she was a psychologist by background. And then I moved into the... Essentially the essence of what if the grades are caused by the system and not the student taken separately, which she acknowledged. She's like, yeah, that makes sense. And I remember saying to her, "Well then how might that change your conclusions?"   0:12:11.2 BB: And so I throw that as an example of... Deming's saying you could be an expert in, you know, you just look at something. Actually, when that comes to mind is Deming is saying something like shouldn't a psychologist know something about variation? Well, shouldn't a psychologist know something about systems? And I didn't maintain a relationship with her, but it was just other things to do. Next I wanna share a story. And I wrote this up in an article. Then when this is posted...   0:12:49.0 BB: Typically these are posted on LinkedIn. Then I'll put a link into the article. And it's a classic story that Russ Ackoff was very fond of saying, and I heard the story told quite a few times before I started to think about it a little bit differently. So the story is he was working for General Electric back in the 1960s. He is in a very high level meeting. And in the room is this, the then CEO of GE, Reginald Jones and all of the senior VPs of General Electric are in the room. And Russ... I'm guessing he was doing, I know Russ did a lot of work with Anheuser-Busch, and he did a lot of work with GE. So Russ says he is in the room. There's maybe a dozen of these senior VPs of plastics of all the different GE divisions.   0:13:41.2 BB: And there's, Russ said there's one of them that was relatively new in a senior VP position, now over plastics or over lighting or whatever it was. And at one point he gets up. And one by one he raises a question with each of his peers. Something like, "Andrew, I noticed last year you installed a new software system." And you would say, "yeah, yep, yep." And I said, "I noticed you went with..." Let's say Apple, "you went with Apple Software", and you're like, "yeah," "that's what I thought. Yeah, you went with Apple." And then you might say something like, "why do you ask?" And he says, "well, the rest of us use Microsoft products. And it just seems kind of odd that you would go off and buy something different."   0:14:41.0 BB: And the point, and Russ didn't get into these details, the essence was every single one of them he'd figured out over the last year had made a decision, pretty high level decision that that senior VP felt was good for that division, but not good for General Electric. And Russ said what got his attention was, he wasn't sitting in that room hearing those conversations and he hears one decision then another, now he's got a whole list. So Russ says, he goes around the room and calls out every single one of his peers. So, and Russ shared this in one phone call, the Ongoing Discussions that I've mentioned. And people said, Russ, do you have that documented? And he is like, well, I don't think I have that any anymore. But somebody else asking.   0:15:35.3 BB: And then no sooner was the call over I had some friends call me up, said, "Bill, can you ask Russ if you have that, if he can get a copy of that? It's probably on his shelf. You're in his office". I said to one friend. I said, "so you'd be surprised that a member of Parliament does what's best for his district and not what's best for the United Kingdom. You think, you'd be surprised that a congressman from Los Angeles is gonna do what's best for Los Angeles, not what's best for the country.   0:16:07.2 BB: So you're telling me you're surprised by that?" Well, "no, no, no." I said, "well then why do you have to have the documentation?" So that's one aspect of it. So I heard that story again and again. And so finally it, I said, wait a minute, wait a minute. So I said, "Russ, on that story, you being in the room with GE?" He says, yeah. He says, I know you don't have the documentation, I said, "but what happened after this guy called them all out? How did that go down?" He says, "one of the peers looks at this guy and says, so what's your point?"   0:16:42.3 BB: And the meeting moved on. And I wrote that for an article for the Lean Management Journal called, "You Laugh, It Happens". And when I look at that through the lens of the System of Profound Knowledge, is that surprising that that goes on? No, not at all. I wanna reference a couple books that I don't think I've mentioned at all. And I share these because for the Deming enthusiasts, these books have some brilliant examples of in different arenas that I think you absolutely love and you can use in your classes, use in your education, whatever. All fairly recent. The first one is "The Tyranny of Metrics" written by a historian. He is an American University historian, Jerry Mueller, and he has, I mean, Dr. Deming would just love this. Oh, bingo! Bingo! Bingo! Thank you.   0:17:48.4 AS: Yep. There it is. "The Tyranny of Metrics".   0:17:50.1 BB: Right?   0:17:50.7 AS: Yep.   0:17:51.3 BB: Right. Is that a great one?   0:17:53.2 AS: That's a great book. And you can follow him on Twitter also. He does do a lot of posts there.   0:18:00.4 BB: Now I reached out to him 'cause I relished the book 'cause the stories were just, you just can't make up all those stories. I mean the story that I shared with Russ is nothing in comparison to what Muller has in the book. I just don't believe that Muller has a solution that can... I don't think, I think the only thing missing from the book is if he had an understanding of the System of Profound Knowledge, he'd have a far better proposal as to what to do.   0:18:31.8 AS: Yeah. I read that and I felt similar that there was something that was missing there. It was, it was great stories as you say, but how do we connect that? How do we apply that? And what's the root cause here? And how do we, this, there was just... That was missing from it. And maybe that should be his next book.   0:18:53.9 BB: Oh, enormously. But it's worth reading regardless.   0:18:57.3 AS: Yeah. Agreed.   0:19:00.1 BB: But I was, I was, I wasn't surprised. I'd say this. He honestly tried to offer a proposal, but I just looked at it and said, Professor Muller, you would just love it. In fact, I believe I reached out to him. I don't know that I heard from him. Alright, that's one book.   0:19:17.1 AS: That reminds me of what Dr. Deming said. "How would they know?"   0:19:21.3 BB: Exactly. Exactly.   0:19:22.4 AS: So if he hadn't been exposed to the System of Profound Knowledge...   0:19:25.3 BB: Oh, no. No, no, no.   0:19:25.7 AS: Then it would be hard to pull it all together. Yep. Okay.   0:19:28.8 BB: Yeah. So the next book, which is somewhere behind you in your bookshelf, is "The End of Average" by Todd...   0:19:36.8 AS: Actually, I don't think I have that one.   0:19:39.4 BB: By Todd Rose, who's a research fellow at Harvard. It's a riveting book. Oh, Andrew, you would absolutely love it. Just, he goes back ages. I mean, hundreds of hundreds of years and looks at how lost we became... How lost civilizations were dealing with trying to make, deal with averages. And the book opens with the most riveting story. And I started reading this and immediately I started thinking, "Okay, okay, okay, okay." And I figured it out. So in the opening paragraph, he says, In one day in 1949, there were 17 military planes crashed. In one day. 17 military planes crashed in one day. And this was... It would have been after the Air Force separated from the Army Air Corps. And so I started thinking, okay, late '40s, planes are going faster. The US industry has German technology, and... Because the Germans had jet engines in the late '40s. So I'm thinking it's about speed. It's about something about speed, something about speed. And there's more and more planes flying.   0:21:06.6 BB: So they grounded the fleet. They had a major investigation, brought in this young guy as a data researcher. And he passed away a few years ago, I did some research with him recently. And what he found was the cockpits were designed, you're writing, Andrew, for the average size pilots. Everything in the cockpit was fixed for the average arm length, the average hand length, the average finger length, the average height, the... Everything about... All these measurements on the torso, the cockpit had, everything was fixed. And that's exactly what I thought was going on. As the planes are going faster and faster, reaction times need to be faster and faster. And they're not. So his research was, they went off and measured thousands of pilots and found out that there was no pilot met the average.   0:22:11.2 AS: Oh, God.   0:22:11.3 BB: And the conclusion was... And again, until the plane started flying faster, that was not an issue. And that's what I was thinking with all my training in problem solving, decision making, what is going on there? What is going on there? And that's what changes the... I mean, the speed was accelerating, but compounded by the fixed geometry. So the solution by the government Pentagon, to the contractors was, add flexibility to the cockpit, allow the seat to move up and down, and then the auto industry picked up on that evidently. And so this is one example of how a fixation on average and a number of other stories outside of engineering it's just fascinating.   0:23:01.4 AS: Let me just summarize. The End of Average by Todd Rose. And it was published in about 2016. It's got a 4.5 out of 5 review on Amazon with 1,000 ratings and has a very high for Goodreads review of about 4.1. So I'm definitely getting that one. I don't have it and I'm buying it.   0:23:22.1 BB: Yeah. And it's again, he, I believe in there he offers what we should do instead, which again, I think would be, benefit from an understanding of SoPK. And so, again, for the Deming enthusiast, there is stuff in those two books, which you'll just love. And the third book came out at, I think, 2020 during the pandemic, The Tyranny of Merit, that tyranny word again, by Michael Sandel from Harvard. And I believe we've spoken about him before. And it's the tyranny of meritocracy, which is the belief that I achieved my success all by myself. I earned the grade all by myself. Everything I've done, I've done all by myself. There is no greater system. And I've written... In fact I sent an email to Michael Sandel complimenting him for the book and trying to point out that everything he's talking about fits in very well with Deming's work and that the issues are bigger than that.   0:24:34.4 BB: And I have not yet heard back, but he's a busy guy. But those three books are I would say, must reads. Then I go on to say that, because I used earlier that Dr. Deming talked about we are living under the tyranny of the prevailing style of management. So then I looked. I wanted to, so what exactly is this tyranny stuff? I mean, I'm so used to the word, so I wanted to go back and get a definition. "Tyranny is often synonymous with cruelty and oppression." And I said, that's... Yeah. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. All right.   0:25:26.4 BB: So, next, I wanna talk about... In previous podcasts I talked about work at Rocketdyne, what we called an... In the beginning it was called A Thinking Roadmap. And then as we got turned on to thinking about thinking, we changed that to An InThinking Roadmap. And that constituted roughly 220 hours of training over a dozen or so courses. So we had a one day class in Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats, a one day class in his, in other, actually two days in some of his other. So anyways, we had a number of courses on de Bono's work. I had a 40-hour intro course to Taguchi methods and a 40-hour advanced class in Dr. Taguchi's work. We had a 9-hour session called Understanding Variation. We had a things we were trained in that were developed by others, and then things we designed ourselves.   0:26:36.6 BB: And in the courses are tools and techniques. So tools are a cell phone, a slide rule, a computer. And the technique is how do we use it? And they provide what Ackoff would call efficiency, but also a number of these courses were inspired by Dr. Deming and Russ Ackoff were about improving effectiveness. And I got into concepts and strategies. And then what I wanted to mention that I don't think I've mentioned before is the whole concept of an InThinking Roadmap, and in this thinking about our thinking, which is a big part of the theme for tonight is, as that was inspired by, in the early '90s, Rockwell, Rocketdyne was then part of Rockwell, every division of Rockwell had a technology roadmap. And that had to be presented to higher and higher levels.   0:27:33.3 BB: What technologies are developing? What's the roadmap? And so more and more and more I heard this tech roadmap, tech roadmap. And then with colleagues, we started thinking about thinking, we thought, we need to have a thinking roadmap to combine with the technology roadmap. So the technology roadmap is gonna be helping us enormously in terms of efficiency, but not effectiveness. And I thought to integrate those two is quite powerful, which is, again another reminder of why Dr. Deming's work is a brilliant foundation for the use of technology. Otherwise, what you end up doing in a non-Deming company is with a cell phone you can increase the speed of blame.   0:28:21.4 BB: All right. So then I went back since last time I did some more research into transformation and came up with some great thoughts from Russ Ackoff. Again, our dear friend Russ Ackoff. And this is from an article that Russ wrote on transformations. And he says, "transformation is not only require recognition of the difference between what is practiced and what is preached. He says a transformation called four years ago by Donald Schön in his book Beyond the Stable State," and this is a 1991 book, he said, "it requires a transformation in the way we think.”  “Einstein," Russ says "put it powerfully and succinctly." He says, "without changing our patterns of thought, we'll not be able to solve the problems we created with our current pattern of thought."   0:29:08.2 BB: Russ continues. "I believe the pattern of thought that is required is systemic. It is difficult if at all possible to reduce the meaning of systemic thinking to a brief definition. Nevertheless, I try. Systemic thinking," again from Russ, "is holistic versus reductionist, synthetic versus analytic. Reductionist and analytic thinking derived properties from the whole, from the parts, from the properties of their parts. Holistic and synthetic thinking derived properties of parts, from the property of the whole that contains them." So I thought it was neat to go back and look at that. And then I want, more from Russ. "A problem never exists in isolation. It's surrounded by other problems in space and time. The more of a context of a problem that a scientist can comprehend, the greater are his chances of truly finding an adequate solution."   0:30:11.4 BB: And then, and so when I was going through this over the last few days, thinking, boy, I wish Dr. Deming defined transformation, it would've been, if he had an operational definition. But I thought, but wait a minute. 'Cause part of what I'm finding is, in my research, an article I came across years ago, Leading Change in the Harvard Business Review, a very popular article, 1995, by John Kotter, Why Transformations Fail. So Kotter uses that word and the title is Leading Change: Why Transformations Fail. And he is got establishing... Eight steps of transformation. "Establishing a sense of urgency, forming a powerful guiding coalition, creating a vision, communicating the vision, empowering others to act on the vision, planning for, and creating short-term wins." And under that step, Andrew, he's got a couple of steps, I'd like to get your thoughts on. One is "recognizing and rewarding employees involved in the improvements." So I thought, but of course this is transformation in the realm of the prevailing system of management. And so what that got me... Tossed around on it. I thought, well, wait a minute. There's a bunch of words that Dr. Deming uses that others use, but we know they mean something different. So Dr. Deming...   0:31:56.6 AS: Like I'm thinking, improvement is what he may be talking about.   0:32:02.4 BB: Well, but Dr. Deming talks about teamwork and the need to work together. Everybody talks about that.   0:32:08.1 AS: Yep.   0:32:09.2 BB: But just that we know, in a non-Deming environment, it's about managing actions, completing those tasks in isolation. I can meet requirements minimally, hand off to you, and that in a non-Deming environment, we call teamwork. So what I was thinking is, well, it's not that we need a new, 'cause I was even thinking, maybe we need a new word. Maybe in the Deming community, we should stop using the word transformation and come up with another word. Well, the trouble is, there's a whole bunch of other words that we use from teamwork to work together, to leader, quality. We talk about performance. We talk about root cause versus root causes. We talk about system. And so it's not that we need a new word, we need a new foundation. And that goes back to this notion as you read The New Economics or Out of the Crisis, you're hearing words that Dr. Deming uses that others use like John Kotter, but they're not used in the same context.   0:33:26.2 AS: How would you wrap up the main points you want people to take away from this discussion about transformation?   0:33:38.1 BB: Big thing is, we are talking about transformation. We are talking about seeing with new eyes, hearing with new ears. So the seeing, we talked about last time, is it's not just the systems. We're seeing systems differently. We're seeing variation differently. We're thinking differently about people and what motivates them and inspires them. The psychology piece, the theory of knowledge piece, we're challenging what we know. And then we have to think about all those interactions between two of them, between three of them, between four of them. And so I'd say that it's, the essence is transformation is essential. It is about rethinking our thinking. And I just wanna leave with two quotes. One fairly recent, one a little older. And the first quote, the more recent one from Tom Johnson, "How the world we perceive works depends upon how we think. The world we perceive," Andrew "is a world we bring forth through our thinking."   0:34:44.9 BB: That's H. Thomas Johnson, a dear friend in his 1999 book, Profit Beyond Measure. And my advice to people in reading that book is, do not attempt to read it laying down in bed. It's just, now you can read those other books we talked earlier. I think you can read those lying in bed. But Tom is very pithy. You wanna be wide awake. The last quote I wanna leave is from William James, born in 1842, died in 1910. He was an American philosopher, psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the US. He is considered to be a leading thinker of the late 19th century, the father of American psychology, one of the elements of Profound Knowledge. And his quote that I wanna leave you with, Andrew is, "The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind."   0:35:45.2 AS: Whoa. Well, Bill, what an ending. On behalf of everyone at The Deming Institute, I want to thank you again for the discussion. For listeners, remember to go to deming.org to continue your journey. And if you want to keep in touch with Bill, just find him on LinkedIn. This is your host, Andrew Stotz, and I'll leave you with my favorite quote from Dr. Deming. "People are entitled to joy in work."  

In this episode, Donald and Kurt Merriweather dissect the pivotal phase of growing a business from a concept to a million-dollar revenue generator. Dive into actionable strategies for market validation, cultivating a growth mindset, and leveraging frameworks like the Six Thinking Hats for innovation to establish credibility in a competitive landscape. Tune in to uncover the blueprint for entrepreneurial success and unlock the keys to sustainable business growth. High Octane Leadership is hosted by The Diversity Movement CEO and executive coach Donald Thompson, is a production of Earfluence and is part of the Living Corporate Network. Order UNDERESTIMATED: A CEO'S UNLIKELY PATH TO SUCCESS, by Donald Thompson.

In this enlightening episode of "Stepping Into Your Leadership," join our host Christine as she welcomes back the ever-inspirational Erica Petrelli, by popular demand, for a deep dive into one of the most iconic creative problem-solving methodologies out there—the Dreamer, Realist, Critic model, famously attributed to Walt Disney and his team of Imagineers.Discover how this legendary approach to collaborative planning and innovation has not only shaped the magic of Disney but also how it can be applied to foster a culture of learning and creativity in your own workplace. Whether you're leading a team, part of one, or navigating the creative process solo, this episode is packed with actionable insights, practical tips, and engaging stories that will inspire you to think differently about problem-solving and team dynamics.What You'll Learn:The origins and components of the Dreamer, Realist, Critic model.Real-life applications of this model within teams and individual projects.Strategies for implementing this creative process in your workplace.The importance of embracing diverse perspectives for innovation.Erica shares her firsthand experiences with the model, offering listeners a unique perspective on its transformative power. Plus, don't miss the engaging discussion on the similarities and differences between this model and other creative methodologies, including Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats.Ready to bring a little Disney magic into your work and life? Tune in to this episode of "Unleashing Creativity: The Disney Way" and start transforming the way you approach creativity and collaboration.Links & Resources:Strategies of Genius by Robert DiltsEdward de Bono's Six Thinking HatsMore about Erica Petrelli and her workFor more episodes and information on our podcast, visit Our Podcast Homepage.Check out: https://www.tlpnyc.com/leadership-learning-lab to learn more about Leadership Learning Lab. Starting May 1st, our transformative 8-week online course, called ‘Leadership Learning Lab,' will kick off. In this course, managers will learn how learn how to build trust and engage their teams, communicate more effectively, and empower themselves and others to achieve successUse the code PRESALE to save 10% off. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Create Sales meeting topics in minutes. Lisa Thal is an Author, Inspirational Speaker, and Business Coach. She has over 37 years of marketing, sales, and leadership experience. She wrote the book "Three Word Meetings."  Lisa coaches' leaders on creating sales and business meetings with fun and interesting 3-word topics to create a conversation and inspire your sales team.   Episode 232 - A new perspective to solving your problems!    "Houston, we have a problem" from the movie Apollo 13 has become iconic, often used to describe unexpected issues or challenges.    Let me ask you a question. When you face a challenge or problem, what process do you walk through to solve it? We all have to solve problems in life – but very few of us have a method for doing so. We look at the situation and offer one or two solutions. I will share a technique I learned that you could use for group discussion and individual reflection—an exercise you can use at any time to enhance your problem-solving and help you make decisions quickly.     I learned this technique from Edward de Bono, a Maltese physician, author, inventor, and consultant. He is best known for originating lateral thinking and writing many books on thinking, including The Six Thinking Hats. He dedicated his life to helping people improve their thinking abilities and creativity skills to solve problems.     De Bono's Six Thinking Hats is a powerful technique for looking at decision-making from different perspectives. It involves six distinct types of thinking, which you can do on your own or with your team.  A different hat represents each thinking style:   To solve a problem well, we must look at it from several perspectives.   Think about one problem or challenge you may be facing, write it down, and let's walk through the process together.   There is Power of Thinking Differently   THE 6 THINKING HATS Edward De Bono developed the 6 Thinking Hats tool to help you look at a problem from 6 different perspectives. When making decisions, many people are overwhelmed by information, and this technique allows you to consider just one perspective at a time. Pick a problem or decision you need to make and apply the technique. Start by imagining you have six hats in front of you. Imagine you are putting on one hat at a time.   THE WHITE HAT IS THE HAT OF LOGIC When you wear the white hat, ask yourself: what information or data is available? What are the facts? How can I look at this objectively? To remember the white hat as logical, imagine a scientist or doctor gathering information in a white coat.   THE RED HAT IS THE HAT OF EMOTION When you wear the red hat, ask yourself how you feel. What emotions come up? What is my intuition or gut telling me? Imagine a heart to remember the red hat as the feelings and emotions.   THE BLACK HAT IS THE CRITIC When you wear the black hat, ask yourself: what could go wrong? What are the downsides? Why won't this work?  Imagine a judge's robes to remember the black hat as the critic.   THE YELLOW HAT IS THE HAT OF OPTIMISM When you wear the yellow hat, ask yourself: what could go right? What are the benefits? What is the upside? What are all the opportunities? To remember the yellow hat as the optimist, imagine the sun.   THE GREEN HAT IS THE HAT OF CREATIVITY When you wear the green hat, ask yourself: how can I be creative? What are the possibilities? What other options and innovative solutions are available? Could I consider something else? To remember the green hat as the creative one, imagine green grass growing.   THE BLUE HAT IS THE MANAGER When you wear the blue hat, listen to the other options - six hats, think about the big picture, and decide. To remember the blue hat as the manager, think about the sky.   You should think about your problem and walk through this process.   We all face problems personally and professionally, and now you have a process to help you make the best decision after looking at six different perspectives. So put on your Hats and start solving more problems quickly!   I would love to know how you solve problems. If you know someone who can benefit from today's episode, share it with them. If there is a topic you would like me to discuss, private message me.    Create engaging sales meetings in minutes!  My easy-to-use process can quickly create impactful meetings tailored to your team's needs.    Learn more at www.Threewordmeetings.com.  

Today's author promises to teach us a practical and uniquely positive approach to making decisions and exploring new ideas. Join Cory & Mike as they embark on a journey for clearer thinking, improved communication, and greater creativity. Mike's notes for Six Thinking Hats Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono Mike's iPhone Home Screen Blank […]

Join Donald and Jason Gillikin in this episode of High Octane Leadership as they pull back the curtain on the Six Thinking Hats method, revealing its practical application in real-world decision-making scenarios. Dive deep into the stories of triumph and lessons learned as Donald shares his two decades of experience using this transformative approach. Whether you're a seasoned executive, an aspiring entrepreneur, or a team leader, this episode offers valuable insights and strategies to sharpen your decision-making skills. Don't miss out on this illuminating conversation that promises to equip you with the tools needed for effective leadership in today's fast-paced business landscape. High Octane Leadership is hosted by The Diversity Movement CEO and executive coach Donald Thompson, is a production of Earfluence and is part of the Living Corporate Network. Order UNDERESTIMATED: A CEO'S UNLIKELY PATH TO SUCCESS, by Donald Thompson.

"A revolutionary approach to get the most out of working in a group"

kengon kicks off the series with a discussion of the book "Six Thinking Hats" by Edward De Bono

Use a shared language to ensure good ideas for your product or team aren't crushed before they get a chance to live. Inspired by Elizabeth Van Nostrand's article, Jeffrey and Squirrel discuss the concept of “Butterfly Ideas,” on this episode of Troubleshooting Agile. Links: - Butterfly Ideas: https://acesounderglass.com/2022/02/04/butterfly-ideas/ - Wiring the Winning Organisation, Gene Kim: https://itrevolution.com/product/wiring-the-winning-organization/ - Six Thinking Hats: https://www.debonogroup.com/services/core-programs/six-thinking-hats/ - Brene Brown, Rising Strong: https://brenebrown.com/book/rising-strong/ -------------------------------------------------- Order your copy of our book, Agile Conversations at agileconversations.com Plus, get access to a free mini training video about the technique of Coherence Building when you join our mailing list. We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at info@agileconversations.com -------------------------------------------------- About Your Hosts Douglas Squirrel and Jeffrey Fredrick first met while working together at TIM group in 2013. A decade later, they remain united in their passion for growing organisations through better conversations. Squirrel is an advisor, author, keynote speaker, coach, and consultant, helping companies of all sizes make huge, profitable improvements in their culture, skills, and processes. You can find out more about his work here: https://douglassquirrel.com/index.html Jeffrey is Vice President of Engineering at ION Analytics, Organiser at CITCON, the Continuous Integration and Testing Conference, author and speaker. You can connect with him here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jfredrick/

In episode 143 of the Lecture Breakers Podcast, Dr. Barbi Honeycutt kicks off season 6 with an active learning strategy you can use to enhance critical thinking and problem-solving skills. It's called the Six Thinking Hats, and it can be used in your lessons, workshops, and other learning environments. Barbi shares 10 ways you can adapt this activity to work in any course! Download your free worksheet: barbihoneycutt.com/sixhats Get the show notes: https://barbihoneycutt.com/LB143

In his book, Six Thinking Hats, Edward de Bono describes a framework that helps individuals approach problems from various perspectives, consider different factors, and reduce biases, resulting in improved communication, collaboration, and creativity. Listen as Dr. Stephanie Fitzsimmons, Dr. Jasson Hidalgo, and Laura Szypulski discuss how we can use this framework to improve communication, problem-solving, and decision-making. Keys to the Future Podcast was named one of the Top 90 STEM podcasts by Feedspot! Follow on Instagram or Facebook

Kali ini, kita akan menjelajahi "Cara Pemimpin Hebat Berpikir" dengan mengambil inspirasi dari metode "Six Thinking Hats." Kamu akan belajar bagaimana metode berpikir ini dapat membantu pemimpin menjadi lebih efektif dalam menghadapi tantangan dan mengambil keputusan yang cerdas. Kami akan memandu kamu melalui prinsip-prinsip inti metode "Six Thinking Hats" dan bagaimana cara mengaplikasikannya dalam situasi sehari-hari. Jika kamu ingin meningkatkan kemampuan berpikir efektif dan menjadi seorang pemimpin yang lebih baik, informasi ini adalah panduan yang sempurna. Temukan cara pemimpin hebat berpikir dan manfaatkan metode ini untuk meraih kesuksesan dalam pengambilan keputusan dan menghadapi permasalahan dengan lebih baik. Leave a comment and share your thoughts: https://open.firstory.me/user/clhb6d0v60kms01w226gw80p4/comments Powered by Firstory Hosting

I'm really excited to have today's conversation with  Dr. Barbie Honeycutt, a faculty development consultant and host of the podcast Lecture Breakers.  Barbi is an expert in the field of active learning and is known for her work on creating engaging and effective learning experiences for students. She is the founder of FLIP It® and Interactive Lectures, two popular strategies for incorporating active learning in the classroom.Here's what you'll learn in today's episode. 1. Start with the learner's experience and where they are in their learning journey. Note their preferences for engaging with learning materials.2. There's a continuum of active learning strategies to engage learners from low to high intensity, from think-pair-share at one end of the continuum to project-based assignments at the other. 3. As we know in CME/CE, it's vital to align activities to learning outcomes. For example: If critical thinking is a key outcome, use case studies.4. Consider developing your content via inclusive course design principles that use Universal Design for Learning, draw on a diversity of voices, and offer learners choices about which content is most relevant and how to access that content. 5. Finally, mobile and microlearning are expanding in CME/CE. These are terrific tools for creating bite-sized content for busy professionals to learn as needed. An example might be 2-minute lessons that health professionals can complete on their phones and apply right away.Resources➡️ Bucklin B et al. Making it stick: use of active learning strategies in continuing medical education. BMC Medical Education. 2021, 21(44). ➡️ Universal Design for Learning guidelines➡️ Six Thinking Hats from the de Bono group➡️ Quick tips to break up lecturesConnect with BarbiBarbi's website: barbihoneycutt.comThe Lecture Breakers podcast LinkedIn  Connect with AlexLinkedInWebsiteWant tips and tricks to level up your CME/CE content writing practice? Subscribe to the biweekly newsletter.Support the show

Tiffany Conroy, former VP of Engineering at SoundCloud, shares what she's learned about where new engineering managers stumble and how to support them, considering whether you want to be a manager at all, the value of explicitly asking those around you what success means, the power of having the confidence to say “I don't know”, coaching managers through their first case of underperformance, how rigid role definitions hold back folks that perform both product and engineering work, the power of the Six Thinking Hats for making intense decisions, and the cultural responsibilities of senior leadership. Tiffany Conroy – theophani on Mastodon Laminar Tiffany's talk on Workplace Confidence Six Thinking Hats Have feedback for the show? Send us an email or reach out on Twitter. It Shipped That Way is brought to you by Steamclock Software.

In This Episode, You Will Discover What the 6 Thinking Hats framework is Why it's such a great approach for the ADHD brain How to implement the framework in your life   Links From The Podcast Learn more about We're Busy Being Awesome here Learn about 1:1 coaching here Get the top 10 tips to work with your ADHD brain (free ebook!) Discover my favorite ADHD resources here Get the I'm Busy Being Awesome Planning System here Get the Podcast Roadmap here   Leave IBBA A Rating & Review! If you enjoy the podcast, would you be a rockstar and leave a review? Doing so helps others find the show and spreads these tools to even more people. Go to Apple Podcasts Click on the I'm Busy Being Awesome podcast Scroll down to the bottom of the page, where you see the reviews. Simply tap five stars; that's it! Bonus points if you're willing to leave a few sentences sharing what you enjoy about the podcast or a key takeaway from the episode you just heard. Thanks, friend!

Thinking From Different PerspectivesHave you ever wondered why certain people act the way they do? What makes someone a positive versus a negative person? What separates these different viewpoints, and more importantly, how do these different perspectives come together?In the book, The Six Thinking Hats, the author explores 6 archetypes most people can fall under. In today's episode, we'll discuss these categories, what they mean, and what it means for you when you work with other archetypes!Chapters[03:01]Thank you for being a valuable listener of the show! [03:45]Part of career growth is understanding how to communicate with those who have different perspectives than us - that includes coworkers. [05:28]Some people are only interested in the facts and want to get straight to the point.[07:37]Ask yourself, what color hat do you wear? Which archetype are you?[08:47]The Black Hat is one that focuses on risk management.[10:46]The Red Hat denotes feelings, emotions, or intuition. [13:16]The Green Hat focuses on creativity, new ideas, and opportunities. [15:22]Remember, everyone has a unique perspective. Think about what others bring to the table and how important it is to work with people of all 'hat' types. [16:04]The Blue Hat manages the thinking process and ensures all the hats are being used accordingly! Which hat are you?Mentioned LinksLeave us a review on Apple Podcasts!Reach out to us on social media, @craigancel or via email, craig@craigancel.com!

Get Your Goals Annual Challenge Day 158. Financial Goal sOap Options Using Six Thinking Hats! Do One Thing Every Day To Get What You Want! Join in every day in 2023 for a quick challenge that is all about you achieving your goals and creating the life you want! https://www.facebook.com/ThrivingSharon Ask your questions, share your wisdom! #getyourgoalschallenge #getwhatyouwant #financialgoaltoSOAP

What's SHE Up To Now Day 1961? Put Our Heads Together To Use Six Thinking Hats On A Financial Goal! Drop in to get the real scoop--the good, the bad, the ugly, the truth (well my truth anyway). https://facebook.com/beme2thrive #documentthejourney #shareyourexperience #putourheadstogether

You can be your own "devil's advocate" to boost the quality of what you produce. Listen to this episode of Troubleshooting Agile to learn how and why to be self-critical, with Squirrel and Jeffrey! Links: - Devil's Advocate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil's_advocate - Six Thinking Hats: https://www.debonogroup.com/services/core-programs/six-thinking-hats/ -------------------------------------------------- Order your copy of our book, Agile Conversations at agileconversations.com Plus, get access to a free mini training video about the technique of Coherence Building when you join our mailing list. We'd love to hear any thoughts, ideas, or feedback you have about the show. Email us at info@agileconversations.com About Your Hosts Squirrel and Jeffrey first met while working together at TIM group in 2013. A decade later, they remain united in their passion for growing organisations through better conversations. Squirrel is an advisor, author, keynote speaker, coach, and consultant, helping companies of all sizes make huge, profitable improvements in their culture, skills, and processes. You can find out more about his work here: https://douglassquirrel.com/index.html Jeffrey is Vice President of Engineering at ION Analytics, Organiser at CITCON, the Continuous Integration and Testing Conference, author and speaker. You can connect with him here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jfredrick/

Can you think your way to making better decisions? This week, Jillene Snell and Chad Hyams explain how to gain a broader perspective and sharpen critical thinking skills using Edward De Bono's approach in “Six Thinking Hats.”  This episode covers several topics, including: Who can use six thinking hats? [1:16]   What are the benefits at work? [2:59] How does it broaden your perspective? [4:01] What is the blue hat? [6:16] What is the red hat? [7:39] What is the white hat? [10:29] What is the green hat? [12:03] What is the yellow hat? [15:10] What is the black hat? [17:35] How will it help you grow? [19:49] Resources Mentioned in this Episode: 15 Point Plan: https://WinMakeGive.com/15-point-plan/ A PLACE for Wellness Facebook Group (formerly 15 Point Plan for Life): https://www.facebook.com/groups/1223642158083444 Get your copy of the “Six Thinking Hats” by Edward De Bono: https://amzn.to/3pbOkPU -------- Explore the Win Make Give Podcast Network: https://WinMakeGive.com/ Sign up for our weekly newsletter: https://WinMakeGive.com/sign-up Part of the Win Make Give Podcast Network

Invincible Career® is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.He frowned and said, "That's a stupid idea. It will never work." "How do you know? We haven't even tested it yet!" He leaned back in his chair with a slightly smug look on his face. "I've been working on this product for five years. We've tested hundreds of concepts, and we tested something like this a couple of years ago. It failed."She was frustrated. "This isn't the same, and timing matters. It tested well in the lab, so I want to get more data from an A/B test." He shook his head. "I disagree. That's a waste of resources." "Well," she said. "Looks like we're at an impasse. I guess it's time to escalate this."I lost count of how many meetings I attended like this when I worked in tech. You know, the ones that were supposed to be "collaboration sessions" but turned into debates? We seem to have lost our way with team meetings. Too many arguments. Too many show-offs trying to prove how smart they are. Too many people trying to "win" instead of actually working together to reach a great outcome. Unfortunately, this type of exchange isn't uncommon in the working world. Even when we say we're going to collaborate, brainstorm, and discuss an issue in a meeting, it's actually not very collaborative. Everyone has an opinion, emotions run high, and people get stuck on their pet theories. It becomes a debate to see who can persuade the other that they are right — or force them to back down through intimidation tactics. It's probably true in every profession and industry, but boy oh boy, do we ever love to argue in Silicon Valley! Almost every meeting felt like a debate with one or two literal geniuses in the room (just to make sure you felt like an inferior little monkey). So many of us love to argue, demonstrate how smart we are, and crush our competitors in debates. I'm not saying I was above it all. I competed in debate and persuasive speaking when I was younger. As my wife will tell you, I kind of enjoy arguing. I don't take it personally. It's strangely fun for me. However, as much as some of us might enjoy these confrontational discussions, it's not the most effective way for teams to work together toward a common goal. When everyone is trying to win, the team often loses. Even in the healthiest of collaborative sessions, the full cognitive horsepower isn't fully aligned to drive the process forward in the same direction at the same time. * One person proposes a creative idea.* Another person starts shooting it down. * Someone else tries to share useful data they think might help the discussion. * Yet another person says the idea doesn't "feel right."* And, someone else in the room is already at the whiteboard trying to share a completely different idea. What if everyone's thinking process was aligned so the team was rowing in the same direction at the same time? What if people stopped viewing each other as opponents and competitors sitting across the debate table? What if we joined each other side by side and felt like partners working together on an issue? Not us vs. them. Instead, it becomes us vs. the problem. With parallel thinking, you don't stop and debate every point as it is made (unlike traditional meetings). It reminds me a bit of writing. It's a slow, laborious process when people try to write and edit at the same time. They barely get any work done. But, if you separate the two activities, you can get into a creative flow state. Write and let the ideas stream onto the screen with no judgment, no editing, no stopping to fix misspellings or grammatical mistakes. Then, once your writing session is finished, return to the document later to edit and revise it. Imagine working together to be creative at the same time, positive at the same time, and look for issues at the same time. No more competing across the table for things you want vs what they want.I worked in traditional 9-5 hourly jobs with the usual bosses and coworkers for about 10 years before I entered graduate school (and everything changed). For the most part, these jobs were not high-stress jobs, although there were some tense moments as a police dispatcher. Most of the folks I worked with treated a job as a job, not a career. People worked just hard enough. I even had veteran employees tell me to, “Slow down and take it easy. You still get paid the same. Don't make anyone else look bad.” There wasn't much competition at all, and promotions were kind of rare. In my experience, you got promoted simply by sticking around long enough. Staff turnover was incredibly frequent. I became "Delta 47” when I stayed long enough to become the shift supervisor. We were all friends and working in the trenches together.The salaried corporate world was so very different. When I joined that experience about 30 years ago, I discovered it was much more competitive. * So many arguments about who was right or wrong. * Trying to persuade others to your point of view.* People deliberately withholding information as a power play. It seems like the spirit of true collaboration was missing. It was more like coopetition. We cooperated enough to get work done, but no one could forget the underlying competition for:* Resources* Power* Visibility* Credit* Bonuses* Raises* PromotionsThe higher purpose of what we were doing was lost, too. If individuals, teams, and organizations are all competing on some level and to some degree, what an unfortunate loss of energy and focus that is. Energy that could be aligned to do amazing things for customers and humanity. I'm going to use two different metaphors to describe what the true spirit of collaboration might look like for your teams and companies (i.e., tables and hats). This is inspired by two sources that have stuck in my mind ever since I encountered them:* Sitting on the Same Side of The Table: The Art of Collaborative Selling by Michael Levin.* Six Thinking Hats by Dr. Edward de Bono (my affiliate link).I'm going to start with the “table concept” because it's a simple mindset shift and approach. I should say simple to understand, but not always simple to do, of course. 1. Sit on the same side of the tableI think I first heard the phrase "Sit on the same side of the table" many years ago from Jason Calacanis, an angel investor. Since then, I've learned that there's a great book on sales written by Michael Levin called Sitting on the Same Side of The Table: The Art of Collaborative Selling. The idea is to shift from a hardcore negotiation style (i.e., facing each other across the table) to sitting side-by-side with your customer while you work out solutions that are good for both of you.The current world of Zoom meetings forces us into meetings where it appears as if we are across from one another. But, think back to the last meetings you had in a physical room. If it was a confrontational meeting and you expected some debate and argument, you probably sat in chairs across the table from the folks on the other side of the issue. I know that most of my tense meetings were like that. We certainly didn't sit next to each other.However, I remember deliberately experimenting with this seating arrangement in one critical meeting with the head of product from another organization. There had been some tension between our teams, and disagreement about the direction our products were going and how they interacted.I wanted the meeting to be a collaborative session instead of combative. So, when I entered the conference room, I sat next to them on the side of the table by the whiteboard. It was funny. They pulled back a little and looked at me with surprise. But I said, "I want to sketch some concepts on the whiteboard and show you a prototype on my laptop."I was completely transparent about the goals. I wanted the solution to be something we agreed upon and would end up being a win for both of us — with the ultimate win being for the company if it worked for both of our products. The session was pretty amazing, and it changed the nature of our relationship from that day forward. No, we didn't become best friends. But I like to think there was mutual respect, and they actually went out of their way to meet with me many months later and share some helpful advice.There is incredible power in solving a problem together vs. being opponents facing each other on opposing sides of the table. Literally, in person. Figuratively, online.2. Wear the “same hat”I learned about this collaboration and decision-making model in Dr. Edward de Bono's book. Thank you for introducing me to this book, Justin!"The main difficulty of thinking is confusion. We try to do too much at once. Emotions, information, logic, hope, and creativity all crowd in on us. It is like juggling with too many balls."- Edward de BonoIt's all about being in the same thinking mode at the same time vs. the typical opposing mindset of disagreement and argument. You all are creative at the same time. You all look for flaws at the same time. Stay in that mode together until it's time to switch.* White hat: neutral and objective, concerned with facts and figures.* Red hat: the emotional view.* Black hat: careful and cautious, the "devil's advocate" hat.* Yellow hat: sunny and positive.* Green hat: associated with fertile growth, creativity, and new ideas.* Blue hat: cool, the color of the sky, above everything else - the organizing hat.Now, some people love this concept, and some are not fans. If everyone isn't fully on board with the process, it won't work. If psychological safety is absent in the organization, it won't work."Team psychological safety is a shared belief held by members of a team that it's OK to take risks, to express their ideas and concerns, to speak up with questions, and to admit mistakes - all without fear of negative consequences." (source)The power of the "Thinking Hats" approach is to make sure everyone is collaborating on a problem in the same mode at the same time. Instead of arguing, debating, and defending your ideas or point of view against your colleagues, you talk about the problem in a collaborative way as you view it from the same perspective at the same time. Imagine viewing a large, complex building from the outside. If each person is on a different side of the building, what you think you're seeing and how you would describe it is very different from everyone else. But, if you all come together and visit each side of the house at the same time, you now have a shared perspective and can have a great conversation about what it is. This is referred to as “parallel thinking” in the book. It's constructive collaborative thinking vs. adversarial thinking. It's sharing everything together in the most open and honest way possible to ensure everyone has all of the information required to produce the best possible outcome. You don't withhold information that could help simply because you're “trying to win” and don't want to share relevant data that might help your opponent. Parallel thinking aligns the team fully with one thinking approach at the same time, viewing the problem from the same perspective simultaneously. You are not opponents. It is not you vs. them. It is all of you vs. the problem. The colored hats are quick cues to move into a specific mode of thinking, communicating, and sharing. De Bono makes the point that the language we usually use to talk about emotions, negative consequences, creativity, etc. is insufficient and has some baggage (e.g., people are reluctant to fully share their personal feelings about an issue with their boss). The hats make the exercise more objective and not about the individual. For example, you're not being negative. You're simply sharing Black Hat thinking and objectively pointing out things that might go wrong with a proposed course of action. I'll briefly summarize each of the hats. But, this barely covers what is available in his book. Blue hat modeUsually, the group assigns one person to act as the "blue hat." They play the role of facilitator/moderator: * They set the stage for the discussion (e.g., state the purpose of the meeting, identify the issue or problem, describe the desired outcome for the session). * They share the proposed agenda with the sequence of using some or all of the hats as they work on an issue (e.g., “Let's start with some red hat to get everyone's feelings on the issue. Then, we'll move into white hat and share all of the data and information we have. After that, I'd like to move into green hat and start generating some new ideas for how we might solve the problems.”). * They will remind participants to stay in a specific mode of thinking (e.g., “Tom, that's black hat thinking and we're still in the yellow hat part of the discussion. Save that for later, ok?”). * At the end, the blue hat asks for the outcome and talks about next steps (e.g., “So, we all agreed that this is the best course of action. Next steps, lets loop in the rest of the team to start planning the work on this new strategy.”). White hat modeIn white hat mode, you share the information and data you have with your colleagues, but without any emotional interpretation or bias. What is actually happening? Not what you imagine is happening. Not how you feel about it. Everyone puts all the facts on the table together, while striving to be neutral and objective. Unlike most meetings, everyone should share every bit of information and data they are aware of, even if it doesn't support their personal agenda. * No emotional reactions.* No arguing about the data.* No debating a piece of information. * No judgment of the facts. * Think "Mr. Spock."Red hat modeIn typical business discussions, you're not supposed to allow your emotions to cloud your judgment. You try to avoid becoming heated during a debate. The first person to lose their cool loses the argument, right? Well, believe me, emotions do run high in business meetings. But, it's often not a shared experience and it's rarely constructive. It's hard to feel safe and creative when an executive is cursing, shouting at you, and threatening you. Ask my friend how it felt to have a laptop tossed at them… The red hat mode allows everyone in the meeting to safely express feelings, emotions, and intuition. There is no need to explain or justify feelings. What people sense or feel is always valid while in this mode of thinking and sharing. Note: this part of the session doesn't take very long. It's a “gut check” moment and gives people a chance to express things without the dispassionate sharing of data (white hat), a demand for positivity (yellow hat), etc. Black hat modeBlack hat mode is going to feel very familiar. It seems to be the go-to activity for many people in meetings. I'm sure you've worked with several folks who almost immediately shoot down any idea and are happy to explain why something will never work. I sure have! It is a valid and useful thinking activity (just ask your Legal team), but it is so much more effective when everyone agrees to be in that mode at the same time vs. debating and arguing throughout the entire meeting. * The black hat is about caution and survival. * You can identify things that might be unprofitable, unethical, destructive, dangerous, illegal, etc. * Discuss the potential downside, risks, flaws, weaknesses, and concerns. * What could go wrong? * How will we react if something goes wrong?Black hat is incredibly useful for planning and coming up with contingency plans, too. But, the magic of the process is that you engage in this type of thinking together and at the right time in the meeting, instead of constantly derailing a productive discussion. Yellow hat modeThe optimistic mode of the yellow hat is kind of fun. It is especially enjoyable to watch one of your colleagues — who is usually quite negative about everything — suddenly start sharing positive examples of potential benefits, value, and opportunities. Again, the magic is that everyone in the room is engaging in positive thinking at the same time. When is the last time you experienced that? It's a good idea to consider probabilities and reality even in this mode. Sure, it would be nice if a knight rode up on a unicorn and handed your team a billion-dollar budget, but it's highly unlikely. Some examples: * What is our vision of the future? * What are the opportunities ahead of us? * What does success look like?* How does the future change if we succeed?* What are the ways this could work out well for us? * How will this change people's lives for the better? * How could we improve this even more? Green hat modeIf you've ever attended a brainstorming session, you're familiar with wearing the green hat. If you had an excellent facilitator, they ensured that everyone stayed in the mode of generating new ideas before debating, arguing, or trying to interrupt someone's creative flow. * What is possible? * How can we disrupt the industry? * How far can we push things? * What new ideas do we have? * What is your wildest suggestion? * What are the alternatives? * How can you build on someone else's idea? * What course of action could we take to make this happen? Note: I want to point out that not everyone can be put on the spot in a meeting and immediately let loose with creative ideas. Some of us — myself included — need time to be alone, think, and let things flow and simmer a bit. I recommend you give your colleagues time to prepare for a proposed brainstorming meeting, know the agenda, review the data and information available, and generate some ideas on their own before coming to a green hat session to share and develop them together. I know this was a lot to digest! Check out the book (Six Thinking Hats ) if you'd like to learn more about how to apply this methodology to your own team discussions. Becoming allies, not competitorsFirst, let me be clear about something. You need a reasonably healthy culture — both company and organization — and psychological safety to open up and embrace the Six Thinking Hats methodology. You will fail if others refuse to commit to the process. You will fail if you don't feel safe being completely honest and transparent with the information you have. It's hard to be open and vulnerable if your colleagues simply take advantage of it to go for the kill and take the win. However, if your team really does want to find a better way to collaborate, work together, and make decisions, there is hope. Introduce them to the book and the process. Start experimenting with it in your meetings. Take note of how it, hopefully, improves the quality of your discussions and outcomes. Work can feel pretty amazing when your coworkers are genuinely your partners seeking the best outcomes (i.e., you're on the same side of the table). I've had this experience in small startups. It feels magical to be aligned with a common goal and no hidden agendas. Have you tried this approach in your organization before? I'd love to hear about your experiences in the comments! This week's professional development challenge⭐ Define Your Professional Brand This exercise is about defining your professional brand. What do you want people to remember about your work reputation? What do you wish people would say about you when you're not in the room? Capture a list of attributes you believe define who you are and how you want people to see you. Hi, I'm Larry Cornett, a Personal Coach who can work with you to optimize your career, life, or business. My mission is to help you take complete control of your work and life so you can become a more “Invincible You.” I currently live in Northern California near Lake Tahoe with my wife and our Great Dane. I still believe I might grow up to be a beautiful butterfly one day. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit newsletter.invinciblecareer.com/subscribe

Have you ever been in a meeting, and the conversation jumps around? One minute you might be talking about an idea, and then all of a sudden, someone is expressing their feelings about the idea, and the idea is almost killed before you bring out the facts about it. Or, someone brings up another idea, and you jump over to it. You may end up leaving the meeting feeling like some great topics were brought up, but they were not adequately discussed, and the meeting drifted on, and never got back to them.  If this sounds familiar, then you may want to try the Six Thinking Hats Method. In today's episode, I share the concept of the Six Thinking Hats methodology and how it can be implemented in modern meetings. I share how you can make thinking more of a process and a way of executing a way of being. I reveal the thinking hat colors, what they represent, and how they bring fairness, balance, and equal contribution into meetings, creating better outcomes. I share two examples of how the methodology can bring structure to meetings and ideation sessions. I also share how we successfully used the Six Thinking Hats methodology at Sopheon and how it has benefited our cross-functional and divisional alignment. “If you have a meeting with a group of people and you put them into different modes of thinking, it allows you to focus.” - Paul Heller This week on Innovation Talks: ●     The thinking hats' colors and the modes of thinking they represent●     How to use the thinking hat colors to focus on a mode of thinking and bring structure, fairness, and balance to a meeting●     An example of how the Six Thinking Hats methodology can be used to ensure all members contribute●     How to create a safe place for expressing fears, worries, and concerns●     How to create cross-functional alignment and team working across divisions●     How to leverage the thinking hats for innovation Resources Mentioned: ●     Book: Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono   This Podcast is brought to you by Sopheon Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of Innovation Talks. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe and leave a review wherever you get your podcasts. Apple Podcasts | TuneIn | GooglePlay | Stitcher | Spotify | iHeart Be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and share your favorite episodes on social media to help us reach more listeners like you. For additional information about new product development or corporate innovation, sign up for Sopheon's newsletter, where we share news and industry best practices monthly! The fastest way to do this is to go to sopheon.com and click here.

The Essential School Sucks, #21 of 50 Theme Three: What It Means To Be Educated Scott Hambrick returns for a discussion on "how people learn and how we help them do that," as he aspires to be a more effective home-educator, Starting Strength coach, and leader at Online Great Books (https://onlinegreatbooks.com/ogb-memberships/?cookieUUID=b0752603-b84f-4b68-8330-3bf3fc074d2c). We begin our discussion with an exploration of the common learning theories practiced in public school and higher education, along with a cost/benefit analysis of each: behaviorism, cognitivism, and (social) constructivism. We also touch on connectivism and mindset theory. In future conversation(s) we'll cover additional behaviors and practices that can greatly enhance both the learning and thing processes, including The 20-Hour Rule, the Six Thinking Hats, the Trivium Method, attributes of self-directed learning and strategies for critical thinking in everyday life. The Ideas Into Action Summit (https://sspuniversity.com/ideasintoaction/) The downloadable version of The Ideas Into Action Summit is now available. Use the coupon code independence to can get it for 30% off now until July 5th Learn more here (https://sspuniversity.com/ideasintoaction/). Our Partners https://files.fireside.fm/file/fireside-uploads/images/b/b9f98e30-82d3-4781-8400-880c6dc8086f/2gtm0QVk.png Get The Book For Free (https://discoverpraxis.com/schoolsuckspodcast/) Please Support School Sucks School Sucks was one of the longest running liberty-minded podcasts on the web, and the only one completely devoted to the issue of education (versus public school and college). Your support keeps the show alive, which keeps us at the top of the options for education podcasts and leads to new people discovering our work. Please help us continue to spread this important message further! One-Time Donation Options:Paypal/Venmo Crypto Addresses:DASH XcZfPP6GZGVo9VKViNBVJZja5JVxZDB229ETHEREUM 0x3c5504CE3401C028832173506fa30BD4db4b7D35LITECOIN LKNp24f5wwvZ2QzeDbvxXgBxyVwi1yXnu2BITCOIN 1KhwY836cfSGCK5aaGFv8Q7PHMgghFJn1UBITCOIN CASH 1AmqLVxjw3Lp9KT5ckfvsqfN2Hn3B1hCWSZCASH t1by1ZGJ63LoLSjXy27ooJtipf4wMr7qbu4 Recurring Options: Support Us On PATREONYou support our mission, and you want to help us continue to reach new people with our message and media. Your contribution helps us maintain presence, and to further build the legacy of School Sucks Project. And please bookmark and use this link for your Amazon shopping: Shop With Us Our Private Community: https://files.fireside.fm/file/fireside-uploads/images/b/b9f98e30-82d3-4781-8400-880c6dc8086f/fNnDUPqb.png Visit The Uni-iversity (https://sspuniversity.com/) Originally Released July 9th, 2019 As “[PODCAST #619] Filling the Trough - With Scott Hambrick"

Used successfully by thousands of business managers, educators, and government leaders around the world, Six thinking hats is a model that allows your brain to go through practical and unique approaches to make decisions and explore new ideas. Six thinking hats also depersonalise arguments and allow teams to work collaboratively. Named by Dr De Bono as ‘Parallel Thinking', this method enables each person to look at all sides of a situation and fully explore the subject before coming to a mutual decision. The emphasis here is not on who wins and who loses but on designing a path forward for everyone. In this book, Dr De Bono unscrambles the thinking process with his six thinking hats:WHITE HAT: neutral and objective, concerned with facts and figuresRED HAT: the emotional viewBLACK HAT: careful and cautious, the devil's advocate hatYELLOW HAT: sunny and positiveGREEN HAT: associated with fertile growth, creativity and new ideasBLUE HAT: cool, the colour of the sky, above everything else-the organising hatThrough case studies and real-life examples, Dr De Bono offers a simple tool that may provide you with clearer thinking, improved communication and greater creativity to make better decisions. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Pour ce nouvel épisode, je reçois Tanguy Crusson, Product Manager chez Atlassian. Et oui tu dois connaître, c'est l'éditeur d'outils SaaS comme JIRA, Confluence ou encore Trello. Tanguy a vécu en Australie où il a initialement rejoint Atlassian, fleuron de la Tech Australienne et depuis est de retour en France où il continue à developper des produits pour l'entreprise au sein d'une équipe "fully-remote" composée de différentes personnes basées en Europe. Je trouvais cela intéressant de creuser comment Tanguy fait du produit dans une boîte de 8000 personnes notamment, car on s'est connu via la discovery qu'il était en train de mener sur....roulement de tambours

Every other industry has been disrupted by this paradigm. It's time for forward looking lawyers and law firms to think boldly about the future. Roy Bendor Cohen shows us how. Roy exists to provide answers to business problems using data, behavioral science and human thought. He encapsulates this mode of thinking at his firm Q Behavioural Thinking out of Tel Aviv. This is one of those rich episodes filled with threads that touch into psychology, economics, business, design, technology, and so much more. It also presents questions for lawyers who want to think differently. These ideas will touch the world of legal practice in 5-10 years, and those who embrace it will be richly rewarded. Topics in this episode include: The power of framing questions in the right way How lawyers can start using behavioural thinking right now to drastically find interesting insights and answers What exactly is behavioural thinking The different hats that are conducive to different modes of thinking Stories and anecdotes that highlight the powerful impact from applying this model A simple model to apply this thinking right now. And so much more! Resources from this episode: Find Roy on LinkedIn here. Learn more about Q Behavioural Thinking here. Six Thinking Hats by Edward De Bono. Amos Tversky Daniel Kahneman's Thinking Fast and Slow. The Double Diamond Model. Help Us Out! If you enjoy the podcast, would you please consider leaving a short review on Apple Podcasts (or wherever you listen to your podcast)? It takes less than 60 seconds, and it really makes a difference in helping to convince hard-to-get guests. We also love reading your reviews! Click here for the guide on how to do the reviews if you're lost. Thank you – we really appreciate it! Resources: Get the LinkedIn for Lawyers Course. We're launching applications for the January 2021 Build Your Book Academy. Consider signing up to get updates. The Authentic Lawyer Blog is filled with short emails sent bi-weekly with great ideas and voices to help you build your law practice your way. Read it, and subscribe to get new posts your way at blog.buildyourbook.org. If you have any comments or would to join as a guest on our podcast or nominate someone, send us a note at buildyourbook.org/nominate.

Pharos Resources president Matt Boisvert, Rachel Phillips-Buck, VP for Student Success, and hospitality expert Anthony Melchiorri discuss learning to use the "Six Thinking Hats" to anticipate potential pitfalls and cultivate new ideas for student engagement, development, and success. Listen to past episodes and sign up for weekly Zoom invites here: https://pharosresources.com/cap-gown-mission-first/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pharosresources/message