The Hammock Papers: Abundance.

02 August 2016

Abundance.

When it comes to solving problems, your perspective only provides one singular view of the situation. This can seriously limit creativity, and is therefore damaging to the overall progress of your idea.

Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats is a great technique for breaking away from a narrow point of view as it encourages us to look at a problem from many different angles and experiment with different approaches.

WHITE HAT: Gather the facts

To begin the exercise, gather all of the information surrounding your problem and focus on the facts. Study the data that is available and see what you can learn from it. Do you need any additional information to help find a solution to your problem? If so, attempt to find it or take account of it. It’s important to remain neutral and objective during this stage.

RED HAT: Listen to your instincts

Good ideas can stem from gut instincts, so for the next stage look at your problem using feelings and intuition. Don’t worry about justifying the way you feel towards the problem, just be aware of your immediate personal hunches, as well as how others will react to them.

BLACK HAT: Pick out the faults

For this stage, look at the negative aspects of a potential solution. Think about why it might not work, and point out any possible problems. Highlighting the risks and weaknesses of the solution will help you decide whether to simply amend it or disregard it, which will lead to a stronger solution for your problem in the long run.

YELLOW HAT: Focus on the benefits

During this stage, think positively and focus on the values and benefits of the possible solution. Think about how you can build on its advantages and explore why it would work. Adding a little optimism is especially helpful when things are looking a bit disappointing.

GREEN HAT: Get creative

This is the stage where you seek fresh, creative solutions to the problem (and Mind Mapping really comes into its own). A Mind Map’s structure and use of one key word per branch triggers associations in the brain, sparking new ideas. You will likely discover fresh associations that may have been invisible before. Take the output of the other stages and use it to trigger new possibilities and ideas; overthrow Black Hat problems and build on the beneficial aspects recognised in the Yellow Hat stage.

BLUE HAT: Step back and evaluate the process

Focus on the thinking process itself during this stage. Determine what thinking is needed to progress; if you’re struggling to generate ideas, aim your attention towards Green Hat thinking. If a contingency plan is needed, target Black Hat thinking. Create a summary to round things off.

The great thing about the Six Thinking Hats technique is that it triggers your mind into action, forcing it to think differently and consider ideas outside of your norm. Combined with the associative nature of Mind Mapping, you’ll have an abundance of information to build on for the best possible solution for your problem.

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WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

"When I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely alone and of good cheer – say travelling in a carriage or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep – it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly. Whence, and how, they come I know not ; nor can I force them. Those ideas that please me I retain in memory and am accustomed, as I have been told, to hum them to myself. If I continue in this way, it soon occurs to me how I may turn this dainty morsel to account, so as to make a good dish of it. That is to say, agreeable to the rules of counterpoint, to the peculiarities of various instruments etc. All this fires my soul, and, provided I am not disturbed, my subject enlarges itself, becomes methodised, and defined, and the whole, though it be long, stands almost complete and finished in my mind, so that I can survey it like a fine picture or a beautiful statue at a glance. Nor do I hear in my imagination the parts successively, but I hear them, as it were, all at once. What a delight this is, I cannot tell."

MARCUS AURELIUS

"Is your cucumber bitter? Throw it away. Are there briars in your path? Turn aside. That is enough. Do not go on and say, 'Why were things of this sort ever brought into this world?' neither intolerable nor everlasting - if thou bearest in mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination. Pain is either an evil to the body (then let the body say what it thinks of it!)-or to the soul. But it is in the power of the soul to maintain its own serenity and tranquility."

VINCENT van GOGH

"What am I in the eyes of most people? A nonentity or an oddity or a disagreeable person — someone who has and will have no position in society, in short a little lower than the lowest. Very well — assuming that everything is indeed like that, then through my work I’d like to show what there is in the heart of such an oddity, such a nobody. This is my ambition, which is based less on resentment than on love in spite of everything, based more on a feeling of serenity than on passion. Even though I’m often in a mess, inside me there’s still a calm, pure harmony and music. In the poorest little house, in the filthiest corner, I see paintings or drawings. And my mind turns in that direction as if with an irresistible urge. As time passes, other things are increasingly excluded, and the more they are the faster my eyes see the picturesque. Art demands persistent work, work in spite of everything, and unceasing observation."

DAN CAMPBELL