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Six Thinking Hats® and lateral
thinking tools can be used on
a wide variety of business challenges. Blue Hat thinking is the
process control hat, the thinking about the thinking hat, the
organizing the thinking hat. It is really important to take time in
the beginning of a Six Hats session to develop clearly targeted
focus statements. The time spent word smithing will be well worth
while. It sets you up for productive thinking that is on target. If
your focus statement is not clear, or is off track, this will
surface through confusion in discussion as you explore the subject
you are conducting thinking on. You then just backtrack and create a
new focus statement. The lateral thinking tool, focus,
complements the blue hat.
Listed below are some focus statements from groups I have worked with to help you
think about your own business challenges. Where is your thinking
stuck?
A Multitude of Business Challenges
- What strategies can we develop to close multi
million dollar business deals before year end?
- In what ways could we level out the workload in
the pilot plant?
- In what ways could we introduce casual Friday's
to the Japanese?
- How could we improve employee morale in our
work environment?
- How could we get other divisions to leverage
our R&D expertise/services?
- How could we educate upper management about
consumer preferences in each of our global markets?
- How could we reduce deductions on payments?
- How can we secure our number one supplier
relationship with Wal-Mart?
- Let's end up with new information sources.
- What new ideas for packaging can we come up
with?
- What new ingredients could we do R&D work
with?
- In what ways could other employees capitalize
on the expertise of our Organization Effectiveness employees?
- How could we get more product display space?
- How could we boost the rocket engine thrust
power to 100%?
- Let's end up with a standardized pilot plant
request form.
- Let's end up with ideas for co-branding
partners and products.
- How could we get employees to use department
reference manuals?
- How could we use the internet to save time?
- Let's end up with one new product concept to
prototype.
- What new services could we provide?
- What information should we provide about our
training courses?
- What could we produce in ________ plant to
cover off the downtime between seasons?
- End up with our 20th Anniversary celebration
plan.
- Identify work we could eliminate that does not
add financial value to clients.
- What new ideas do we have for convenience
stores?
- How can we attract media attention at Comdex?
- How can we strengthen our website content?
- What ideas do we have for customer scenarios?
- Let's select a software vendor.
- How could we define quality?
- What new ideas do we have to sell more luxury
cars in a down market?
- In what ways could we lead the national dialogue
on ________?
- How could we increase our voluntary programs
participation?
- How could we make our monthly bills easier to
read for our customers?
- What new ways could we raise funds from alumni?
- How could we improve communication among the
union, management and tax payers?
Six Hats and lateral thinking tools are just practical process tools to help
you organize your thinking in order to end up with well thought out
business solutions.
©2002 The Opportunity Thinker.
Six Thinking Hats Master
Trainer, Lynda Curtin, is certified by Dr. Edward de Bono in all of his thinking
methodologies. She an expert ideation facilitator, professional
speaker, trainer and author in the fields of business creativity, marketing and
speaking. To book Lynda for your event call 818-507-6055 or email info@LyndaCurtin.com
For more information on her programs go to www.LyndaCurtin.com
This article is offered for publishing on a nonexclusive basis. You just need
to include the contact information as indicated in the paragraph above.
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