How to Make Decisions? Six Hats Thinking

The Six Hats Thinking technique enables you to break out of your habitual thinking style and make better quality decisions. Six Hats Thinking was created by Edward De Bono with the aim of looking at the effect of a decision from a number of important, different perspectives, and modifying your decision accordingly. This decision making approach can be successfully used individually or in a group.

In short, you consider the effect of a decision by wearing six "hats", and in turn, articulating the aspirations and concerns of each group.

White Hat
This is the data hat, where you consider facts, figures and information, identify any gaps in your knowledge and either fill or acknowledge them. For example, you use historical data or case studies to predict future behaviour, or do a cost benefit analysis.

Red Hat
This is the emotional hat, where intuition, instinct and irrational responses are considered.

Black Hat
Is the negative, pessimistic, "the world is going to end" hat. This viewpoint is useful as flaws and assumptions can be flushed out and addressed, and contingency plans prepared.

Yellow Hat
Is the polar opposite of the black hat, where optimism prevails. This is where benefits and added value are considered.

Green Hat
The Green Hat is used to put some creativity into the process. What other options exist? Is there a trickier, smarter solution?

Blue Hat
Is the hat worn by the person facilitating the decision making process, ensuring each hat is worn in turn and gets a fair amount of air-time.

Here's an example of how Six Hats Thinking can be used.

A small training company are deciding on whether to deliver online training. This is new territory for them as they have historically only done face to face training. However, they need to grow the business and think this is what customers want.

White Hat Thinking
The team look at their finances and see face to face training numbers are generally stagnant, and declining for some courses. Feedback from customers suggest a growing proportion would prefer a training solution that could be delivered "on demand", wherever and whenever the trainee requires. There are already a considerable number of successful training companies with an online presence.

Red Hat Thinking
The team are nervous about their lack of experience in managing online training. They are concerned their roles will change into being technical support and no longer doing what they enjoy or are good at.

Black Hat Thinking
Black hat thinking flushes out concerns about the cost and complexity of building a website and creating an online training platform, particularly if not all courses are suited to an online environment. Also, how does this project fit with existing workload?

Yellow Hat Thinking
Yellow hat thinking frees the team up to believe that in a year's time they will be wondering what they were worried about. They break the project up into manageable chunks, with agreed deadlines and deliverables. They realise that if all goes to plan, there may be a new market in turning other companies training from off-line into on-line training.

Green Hat Thinking
Spending some time wearing the green hat makes the team consider other ways to deliver training, both off and on-line. They create two different training solutions which they had not previously considered.

Blue Hat Thinking
Throughout the discussion, one person wears the blue hat, ensuring no thinking style dominates or colours the others.

Six Hats Thinking forces you to consider many different perspectives when making a decision, and break out of your habitual thinking style. This technique is particularly useful for both newly formed, or established teams, as there is a transparent decision making process to be followed

A Leader Should Know How to Manage Failure

This was the question asked to Former President of India APJ Abdul Kalam:

India Knowledge@Wharton: Could you give an example, from your own experience, of how leaders should manage failure?

Kalam: Let me tell you about my experience. In 1973 I became the project director of India's satellite launch vehicle program, commonly called the SLV-3. Our goal was to put India's "Rohini" satellite into orbit by 1980. I was given funds and human resources -- but was told clearly that by 1980 we had to launch the satellite into space. Thousands of people worked together in scientific and technical teams towards that goal.

By 1979 -- I think the month was August -- we thought we were ready. As the project director, I went to the control center for the launch. At four minutes before the satellite launch, the computer began to go through the checklist of items that needed to be checked. One minute later, the computer program put the launch on hold; the display showed that some control components were not in order. My experts -- I had four or five of them with me -- told me not to worry; they had done their calculations and there was enough reserve fuel. So I bypassed the computer, switched to manual mode, and launched the rocket. In the first stage, everything worked fine. In the second stage, a problem developed. Instead of the satellite going into orbit, the whole rocket system plunged into the Bay of Bengal. It was a big failure.

That day, the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, Prof. Satish Dhawan, had called a press conference. The launch was at 7:00 am, and the press conference -- where journalists from around the world were present -- was at 7:45 am at ISRO's satellite launch range in Sriharikota [in Andhra Pradesh in southern India]. Prof. Dhawan, the leader of the organization, conducted the press conference himself. He took responsibility for the failure -- he said that the team had worked very hard, but that it needed more technological support. He assured the media that in another year, the team would definitely succeed. Now, I was the project director, and it was my failure, but instead, he took responsibility for the failure as chairman of the organization.

The next year, in July 1980, we tried again to launch the satellite -- and this time we succeeded. The whole nation was jubilant. Again, there was a press conference. Prof. Dhawan called me aside and told me, "You conduct the press conference today."

I learned a very important lesson that day. When failure occurred, the leader of the organization owned that failure. When success came, he gave it to his team. The best management lesson I have learned did not come to me from reading a book; it came from that experience.

Think Outside Of The Box Questions

Question 1: You are driving along in your car on a wild, stormy night, it's raining heavily, when suddenly you pass by a bus stop, and you see three people waiting for a bus:

An old lady who looks as if she is about to die.
An old friend who once saved your life.
The perfect partner you have been dreaming about.

Which one would you choose to offer a ride to, knowing very well that there could only be one passenger in your car?

This is a moral/ethical dilemma that was once actually used as part of a job application.

* You could pick up the old lady, because she is going to die, and thus you should save her first;
* or you could take the old friend because he once saved your life, and this would be the perfect chance to ! pay him back.
* However, you may never be able to find your perfect mate again.

The candidate who was hired (out of 200 applicants) had no trouble coming up with his answer. Guess what was his answer?

He simply answered: "I would give the car keys to my Old friend and let him take the lady to the hospital. I would stay behind and wait for the bus with the partner of my dreams."

Sometimes, we gain more if we are able to give up our stubborn thought limitations. Never forget to "Think Outside of the Box."


Question 2: What will you do if I run away with your sister?"

The candidate who was selected answered " I will not get a better match for my sister than you sir"


Question 3: Interviewer (to a student girl candidate) - What will you do if one morning you woke up & found that you are pregnant?

Answered the Girl - I will be very excited and take an off, to celebrate with my husband.

Normally an unmarried girl will be shocked to hear this, but she managed it well. Why I should think it in the wrong way, she said later when asked


Question 4: Interviewer: He ordered a cup of coffee for the candidate. Coffee arrived kept before the candidate, then he asked what is before you?

Candidate instantly replied "Tea" and He got selected. You know how and why did he say "TEA" when he knows very well that coffee was kept before.

Answer: The question was "What is before you (U - alphabet), Reply was "TEA" (T - alphabet) and Alphabet "T" is before Alphabet "U"


Question 5: Where Lord Rama would have celebrated his "First Diwali"? People will start thinking of Ayodya, Mitila [Janaki's place], Lanka etc...

Answer: But the logic is, Diwali was a celebrated as a mark of Lord Krishna Killing Narakasura. In Dusavataar, Krishnavathaar comes after Raamavathaar. So, Lord Rama would not have celebrated the Diwali At all!


Question 6: The interviewer asked to the candidate "This is your last question of the interview. Please tell me the exact position of the center of this table where u have kept your files."

Candidate confidently put one of his finger at some point at the table and told that this was the central point at the table. Interviewer asked how did u get to know that this being the central point of this table, then he answers quickly that sir u r not likely to ask any more question, as it was the last question that u promised to ask. And hence, he was selected as because of his quick-wittedness.

This is What Interviewer expects from the Interviewee. ....

"THINK OUTSIDE OF THE BOX"

How to be efficient at work?

The secret is simple – make a list and do the hardest thing first. Then comes the hard part: Doing it NOW is the time for efficiency. February is almost upon us and it’s time to perk up, make things happen, and generally whizz through your work at such a pace that, with a bit of luck, you’ll be told you can knock off early. So, what’s the secret of becoming a workplace dynamo? The first rule of efficient working is simple:

Make a list. That’s right, a list. It might not sound the kind of revolutionary idea that will launch your career into the stratosphere. It might even seem like the kind of thing your grandma would tell you to do. But, give it a chance. Sometimes, the old stuff really works.

At the very least, you’ll be able to get rid of all those scrawled Post-it notes, overdue Outlook reminders and nagging suspicions in the back of your mind about things you’ve been meaning to do since September. After a while, it might feel like you’re writing the longest list in the world, but don’t fret. It’ll end. As long as you hold your nerve and keep going, you’ll be well on the way to rule two, which is: Do the hardest thing first.

With rule two, you work out what the knottiest, thorniest challenge on your list is, and then do it. First thing on Monday morning, if at all possible. You’ll feel so much better for it, you see. Once you’ve got the Hardest Thing out of the way, there’ll be no more guilt, no more procrastination, and you can spend the rest of your time doing work you actually quite enjoy.

The problem with the Hardest Thing, though, is that it’s ... erm ... hard. Square up to the challenge and you immediately begin to remember all the little reasons why you’d been putting it off since September.

The Hardest Thing always involves nasty, difficult tasks like asking a favour of a colleague you don’t get on with, ’fessing up to a mistake you’ve made, or finding an invoice you’ve mislaid somewhere in that row of filing cabinets the size of a house. And it’s Monday morning, after all — not the time when bosses or prickly colleagues are going to be at their most receptive. Might it not be better to wait until the boss is on his way out of the office for a mini-vacation, or the colleague you don’t get on with is cresting the wave of cheerfulness that comes on Friday afternoon?

Maybe a few quick, easy-to-strike-offyour-list wins, like watering the plants or browsing the stationery catalogue for a new mouse mat, would be better ways to kickstart your working week? Before you know it, you’re straying from the straight and narrow of rule two, and the Hardest Thing still hasn’t been tackled.

Ah well. Maybe a bit of flexibility might even be a good thing. You’re trying to be efficient, after all, not get the Vatican to recognise you as a martyr. In any case, everybody knows that people who enjoy their jobs are more productive. So, whistle while you work, and ease yourself in gently.

You can put your list quietly away in a drawer, and the hideous hard thing will be ready when you are. After all, if you’ve managed to put it off since September, how important can it really be?

Why Employees Leave Organizations?

This article was released by Azim Premji, CEO - Wipro.

Every company faces the problem of people leaving the company for better pay or profile.

Early this year, Mark, a senior software designer, got an offer from a prestigious international firm to work in its India operations developing specialized software. He was thrilled by the offer.

He had heard a lot about the CEO. The salary was great. The company had all the right systems in place employee-friendly human resources (HR) policies, a spanking new office,and the very best technology,even a canteen that served superb food.

Twice Mark was sent abroad for training. "My learning curve is the sharpest it's ever been," he said soon after he joined.

Last week, less than eight months after he joined, Mark walked out of the job.

Why did this talented employee leave ?

Arun quit for the same reason that drives many good people away.

The answer lies in one of the largest studies undertaken by the Gallup Organization. The study surveyed over a million employees and 80,000 managers and was published in a book called "First Break All The Rules". It came up with this surprising finding:

If you're losing good people, look to their immediate boss. Immediate boss is the reason people stay and thrive in an organization. And he 's the reason why people leave. When people leave they take knowledge,experience and contacts with them, straight to the competition.

"People leave managers not companies," write the authors Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman.

Mostly manager drives people away?

HR experts say that of all the abuses, employees find humiliation the most intolerable. The first time, an employee may not leave,but a thought has been planted. The second time, that thought gets strengthened. The third time, he looks for another job.

When people cannot retort openly in anger, they do so by passive aggression. By digging their heels in and slowing down. By doing only what they are told to do and no more. By omitting to give the boss crucial information. Dev says: "If you work for a jerk, you basically want to get him into trouble. You don 't have your heart and soul in the job."

Different managers can stress out employees in different ways - by being too controlling, too suspicious,too pushy, too critical, but they forget that workers are not fixed assets, they are free agents. When this goes on too long, an employee will quit - often over a trivial issue.

Talented men leave. Dead wood doesn't.