Whether it is a business leader or a team manager, there will always be a variety of problems and challenges, and when solving these problems and challenges, leaders and managers must make the right decisions through thinking, so as to form a strategic plan to solve the problem.
So whether it's at work or in communication, thinking is a particularly important thingThe depth of thinking determines the quality of the work.
If the leader's thinking is the sail that guides the way forward, then the thinking of everyone in the team is the oar, which is the source of stimulating collective wisdom and strengthening creativity.
But thinking is not an easy thing, in practice everyone's thinking is three-dimensional, often taking into account multiple aspects, not only to respect the facts, but also to be logical, can not ignore the feelings of others, but also need to calculate the cost and value. These can affect the judgment of the mind.
Especially in the process of team discussions, because everyone's way of thinking is different, the focus of the problem will be different, and there will often be meaningless arguments and discussions about right and wrong, which will lead to the real problem being shelved and affecting the normal work.
So how can we avoid the above situation, make thinking direct and effective, and even stimulate collective intelligence?To this end, Dr. Eduard de Bono, the "father of innovative thinking", developed a mindset, namely:"Six Hats Thinking".
The six-hat thinking method uses different colored hats to represent different thinking rules, requiring thinkers to wear only one hat at a time, only use one method to think, and finally stitch together the conclusions drawn from different angles to form a complete result and avoid confusion in thinking, so as to help managers better deal with complex situations and improve management efficiency.
"Six hats" specifically refers to:
White (Information Cap): Focuses on facts, figures, and information, providing objective, fact-based analysis and evaluation.
Yellow (Optimism Cap): Emphasizes positive, optimistic thinking, focuses on the potential benefits and opportunities of problem-solving, and encourages innovation and finding solutions.
Black (Critical Hat): Plays the role of responsible for review and evaluation, raising potential problems, risks, and obstacles, helping to avoid mistakes and bad decisions.
Red (Emotional Cap): Focuses on emotions, intuition, and personal feelings, encourages the expression of emotions and intuitive responses, and helps to understand the emotions and positions of others.
Green (Creation Cap): Encourages creative thinking, imagination and innovation to come up with new perspectives, ideas and solutions.
Blue (Management Cap): Blue is the color of the sky and is responsible for organizing and guiding the thought process, controlling the flow and direction of discussions, and ensuring effective communication and decision-making.
These 6 directions reflect the characteristics of human thinking, only one direction at a time, can make thinking more comprehensive and deeper, avoid excessive emotion or self-factors leading to decision-making mistakes, and can quickly achieve brainstorming after skillful use, greatly improve the efficiency of thinking, and find high-quality solutions.
In practice, how should this method of thinking be used?
Two methodsOne is to put on different hats by yourself, and then chase the strip to analyze the problem and think about the final answer.
The other is that different people can wear different hats, just like role-playing, thinking from different angles, and finally summarizing. This approach is particularly useful for teams.
There are many kinds of meetings that I encounter in my work, so let's take the topic of "how to avoid too many meetings" as an example.
The first step is to put on a white hat and objectively state the facts, the background of the problem and the relevant basic information.
1.Recently, the efficiency of teamwork has decreased.
2.There have been too many meetings in the last week.
3.The company has morning meetings, weekly meetings, and in addition to regular meetings, there are many temporary meetings this week.
3.It takes up a lot of staff time.
4.At the meeting, everyone was always too divergent in thinking, and it was difficult to come to effective conclusions.
In this way, the topic can come out "how to improve the quality of meetings and improve team productivity".
The second step is to bring on a green hat and come up with a solution.
1.To improve the quality of the meeting, each meeting must be presided over by the host, and the participants will be guided by the host to conduct the meeting, and the host will be responsible for the meeting structure.
2.Reduce the number of regular meetings.
3.Control the number of ad hoc meetings, according to the nature and needs of the meeting, control the number and time of the meeting, such as a notice meeting, after a small decision, try to use CC to avoid occupying employee time.
The third step is to put on a yellow hat and evaluate the merits of the program.
1.Improving the quality of meetings can shorten meeting time and allow employees to focus on their work.
2.Reducing the number of regular meetings saves time.
3.Controlling the number of regular meetings saves time and makes it easier to communicate in a small area.
Step 4: Put on a black hat and assess the risks of the solution.
1.The addition of moderators per meeting increases the cost of the meeting.
2.If the moderator cannot be selected, the normal meeting process will be delayed.
3.Reduce regular meetings, and everyone does not understand the project information in a timely manner.
Step 5: Put on a red hat and evaluate the plan with intuition.
1.The work of the host is likely to fall on the head of the specific leader, and the leader is convenient to control the field.
2.Regular meetings are company rules, and it is difficult to make changes.
3.Ad-hoc meetings can be converted into private communication, which is more efficient.
Step 6: Put on a blue hat and summarize the brainstorming.
The use of the moderator system can indeed improve the efficiency of the meeting, but it will also be inconvenient to use this system for all, so use this system in formal meetings.
Manage the supervision of temporary meetings, control the number of temporary meetings, and let everyone focus on work tasks. Through the "six-hat thinking", managers can use different thinking modes to analyze problems more comprehensively, objectively and systematically, and make appropriate decisions to promote business development. At the same time, it can also stimulate the thinking and creativity of employees, promote the team's collaboration and cohesion, and promote the growth of everyone in the team.