Don’t take sides during meetings. Try on these 6 hats instead.
✌️ See you next week
Issue #253: scrobbling, sign language, and self-perception
By Harris Sockel
“The problem with normal meetings,” writes Bobby Powers in a review of one of his favorite books — Six Thinking Hats by physician and prolific author Edward de Bono — is that “rather than collectively viewing a problem from various perspectives, each person… chooses a side and digs in their heels.”
This isn’t always true, but it often is. People are usually polite about it, but they come into a meeting with an idea or theory, and (sometimes) subtly campaign for it. As Powers quotes de Bono in his review: “It is so often the case in an argument that both sides are right but are looking at different aspects of the situation.” As a result, we wait our turn to speak and then talk past each other.
As we’ve explored previously in this newsletter, meetings are some of the most expensive (but most valuable!) parts of being at work. They’re practical and emotional at the same time — often, the most memorable meetings are the ones where people express some of their most vehement feelings, hopes, and fears. Basically, meetings are what makes work (and the third of your life spent there) feel human and motivating.
But they can easily become bogged down in entrenched, or unspoken, disagreement. To solve this, Powers says de Bono (who throughout his career published over 25 books containing frameworks for thinking) recommends a colorful, structured process for examining any idea: the “six hats.”
- The White Hat: Objective data, metrics, and information
- The Red Hat: Emotion, feelings, and intuition
- The Black Hat: Risks, cautions, and pessimism
- The Yellow Hat: Benefits, hopes, and optimism
- The Green Hat: Creativity, ideas, and new approaches
- The Blue Hat: Control, organization, and guidance
The key is for everyone in the group to wear each hat together. Go through them one at a time. When you’re all wearing the White Hat, pull up your OKRs. When it’s Red Hat time, get very emo and don’t explain why (this is key! please don’t explain your feelings whilst under the influence of RH):
It’s a meeting tactic, but it’s also good advice for decision making: Everyone can (and should) give themselves the freedom to be fully emotional and objective, hopeful and cautious, adventurous and risk-averse.
👂 Also today…
- Lesser-known fact: For over 100 years (between 1880 and the 1980s), sign language was banned in schools for the deaf because prevailing wisdom prioritized lip-reading (now generally considered less effective as a communication tool). Catarina Dias, whose mom lost her hearing at 13 (when the ban was in effect) is learning sign language herself now, and writes: “It’s… a way to honour my mum’s resilience and the culture she was never fully allowed to embrace.”
- From the Medium archive: If you’re worried someone else doesn’t think highly of you, the core issue isn’t how they may or may not perceive you — it’s how you perceive yourself while you’re around them. (More To That)
- Last.fm, the 23-year-old music streaming service, is arguably better than Spotify (for some) because it’s humble, timeless, and “creates a nuanced, evolving collage of all the music you listen to” across platforms (YouTube videos, vinyl players, and your digital music library) to recommend more songs based on your preferences. It’s highly adept at listening to what you’re listening to, a technique called “scrobbling.” (Michael Perera)
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To figure out what you were meant to do in life, focus on the why and watch the how emerge like magic. (Dan Koe)
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Edited and produced by Scott Lamb & Carly Rose Gillis
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