team meetings
TRANSCRIPT
Pathology of Argument and Hug
• The adversarial mode assumes that all ideas are "ready for battle,” wears people down, bounces erratically, lands on ideas few may want.
• The nice mode assumes that good ideas are
easy to come by and that logic is irrelevant, tends to drift and go Frankenstein.
What We Get• Remove issues of power from
conversation• Save time• Egos set aside• Focus on one mental activity at a time• Self-awareness• Explore new capacities
Feelings, emotions, intuitions• “This is how I feel about it…” • Where I’m coming from, my initial perceptions. • No explaining, justifying, rationalizing.
• vs white which is neutral, objective, unemotional • vs black which must include reasons
Black = Criticism
• Errors in thinking, lack of evidence, logic flaws • Downsides and risks.
• No requirement to be fair, balanced, nice
• Unlike RED, criticism requires reasons
Yellow = ideas moving us forward
• optimism about positive benefits • heightened value sensitivity (vs. danger/risk)
• Constructive, generative • Vision extrapolating • Underlying concepts
Green = Creativity & New Ideas
• “Let’s have some new ideas…” • Options and alternatives (including crazy ones)
• Everybody has to be creative, not just the creative types • Try to create movement, not judgment. • Stepping stones
White = Information
• (Just) Facts and Figures (without an argument)
• Observations vs. interpretations • Believed facts and checked facts
Blue = Process
• Agenda, sequence, rules of the road • Can be a permanent role – facilitator — but • in blue hats anyone can suggest process
• Directing focus of participants • Ask right question, remind us of issue, etc.
Advantages and Outcomes
• Remove issues of power from conversation • Save time • Egos set aside • Focus on one mental activity at a time • Self-‐awareness • Explore new capacities
Sequences as Creative Repertoire
• Green + Yellow =
• Black + Green =
• Black + Yellow =
• White + Red + Green + Yellow =
46
Sequences as Creative Repertoire
• Green + Yellow = crazy new ideas followed by let’s see what we can do with them.
• Black + Green = identify problems and then generate novel solutions
• Black + Yellow = identify problems and look for value in each
• White + Red + Green + Yellow = set table, clear emotions, brainstorm, build on ideas
47
Agendas and Hats
• BLUE (5) Why are we here? How will we proceed? • WHITE (10) What do we know? • GREEN (10) What sorts of things are possible • YELLOW (5) What's good about these ideas? • RED (5) How do people feel about these? • BLACK (5) Among those that look most promising, what are the potential pitfalls?
• YELLOW (5) What's good about these ideas? • BLUE (5) What did we achieve? What is the outcome? What does our design look like at this point?
Thou Shalt Not…
• Division of labor: don’t appoint special roles, don’t allow “I’m no good at,” and don’t drop emphasis on parallel thinking.
• Types. This is not about categories of people. It’s also not about value judgments about styles.
• Label actions with hats -‐ it’s ideas and words!