“The Six Thinking Hats” and Eliminating Time Wasters on a Crisp, Autumn Monday

The crisp, cool air invigorates me as I walk along the sidewalk drinking a warm coffee to start the day. Taking in the beautiful display of orange, reddish and gold fall foliage, I sit down to plan my week. It’s Monday. A new beginning. The weekly cycle repeats with the regularity of the changing seasons. I work on projects that require focus and self-discipline since I manage my own time. I need to remain motivated and inspired to pursue goals that are not only for my benefit, but for the benefit and encouragement of people in other parts of the world so I pray, plan, read a chapter of the Bible, read a chapter of the book I’m studying, then get to work.

I came across a new idea yesterday that captured my attention: “Six Thinking Hats”, a parallel thinking process developed by Edward de Bono to help people become more productive, focused and mindfully involved. The image of hats made the idea stick as I remembered passing my favorite tea shop last week where I saw a group of ladies in their late autumn years delightfully sipping tea from ornate cups while wearing distinctive red hats. De Bono’s Red Hat signifies feelings, hunches and intuition. When wearing this hat, you can express emotions and feelings, likes and dislikes, or stronger loves and hates.

But what if you are sitting in a group of red hat ladies wearing a lone, White Hat, which represents the concrete realist who thrives on information? You want the facts, just the facts. A woman left a meeting the other week in frustration over the “feelings-centered” focus of the group. I think she was wearing a white hat in a group of red hats.

Think of the possible glee and relief she might feel if a team, gathered for whatever objective, separated thinking into six clear functions? And think of what ruts people could get out of by wearing a different hat. By mentally switching hats, you can redirect conversation or the flow of a meeting. Or you can use it as a personal tool to redirect your thoughts when you are in a quagmire. Sounds like a great idea! I am eager to try it.

Ok, so I told you about the red and white hats. Here are the other four:

The Yellow Hat

This hat symbolizes brightness and optimism. The wearers of this hat shift towards exploring the positives of whatever is being discussed or worked on as a team. You can only consider the positive values and benefits.

The Black Hat

This is the hat of judgment. While wearing this hat, you play the devil’s advocate and consider why something may not work. It is important to spot potential problems, so this hat is both necessary and useful if worn for brief periods. Never overuse the black hat.

The Green Hat

Your innovators will enjoy wearing this hat, but they will want to wear it all the time. This hat focuses on creativity, possibilities and new ideas.  It is an opportunity to offer new concepts, new ways of doing things.

The Blue Hat

This is the hat worn by people chairing meetings. If the group is stymied because ideas are running dry, they may direct the group into Green Hat thinking. When contingency plans are needed, they can ask for Black Hat thinking, etc.

This sounds like a great way to foster productivity, creativity and to get people out of familiar thought patterns.

I tend to prefer the green, yellow and white hats.

Another boost to productivity is getting rid of time wasters. Here are a few common ones:

External Time Wasters

1. Personal interruptions

2.  Phone calls and text messages

3.  E-mail barrages

4.  Short attention span

5.  Social media (limit number of minutes per day)

6.  Your daily energy cycle (do the work that requires the greatest focus and energy before 2pm)

7. Choosing to work in places like Starbucks, unless you are energized by noise.

Internal Time Wasters

1. Lack of delegation

2. Tyranny of the urgent

3. Procrastination

4. Perfectionism

5. Lack of planning – try adding the following segments of planning to your schedule

            daily (10 - 15 minutes)

            weekly (30 - 45 minutes)

            monthly (a few hours)

            quarterly (half a day)

            yearly (1 to 3 days)

6. Lack of a Gospel life plan or personal mission statement - we all need purpose and vision for our lives to keep us from distractions and discouragement. God has a mission for each of us.

So let’s move forward into a more productive week impacting our world.  Hat's off to you.

One Girl's Fight for Education and Hope in a Beautiful, Mountain Valley

The value of the life of a girl is unfathomably measured by man based on where she is born.  If she is even given the chance to be born in some countries, her value is less than that of a boy. But if she is born in Taliban-controlled regions of Afghanistan and mountainous Pakistan near the Afghan border, her life is smothered by oppression and if she dares to cross the threshold of her home to simply get an education, she does so at risk of her own life.  In great struggles that come to light on the world stage, there is usually a protagonist with whom we can identify, with whose story we can feel compassion. In the struggle for the rights of female education in her country, that protagonist is Malala Yousafzai.

The bright-eyed, amazingly poised, 14-year-old girl was targeted by masked Taliban gunmen who boarded her bus on the way home from school, and was shot in the head and neck, leaving her fighting for her life in a struggle she began in her beloved Swat Valley three years ago. After the shooting, a Taliban spokesman said his organization considers Malala’s crusade for education rights an “obscenity” and if she survives, the group promises to try to kill her again.

Malala, named after a mythic female figure in Pashtun culture, once dreamt of becoming a doctor, but recently she became interested in politics to end the crises which have threatened to destroy her country for years. In 2011, she was nominated for the International Children’s Peace Prize for her bravery in standing up for girls’ educational rights amidst rising fundamentalism during a time when few adults would take a stand. Malala came to public attention in 2009 as the Pakistani Taliban, their faces covered by dark turbans, swept through her valley home, once a beautiful vacation spot famous for its music and tolerance, and unleashed a wave of violence. Her father ran one of the last schools that defied Taliban orders to end female education. As an 11-year-old, Malala began writing a blog about her struggle to be educated under daily threat and danger. “She symbolizes the brave girls of Swat” said Samar Minallah, a documentary filmmaker. “She knew her voice was important, so she spoke up for the rights of children. Even adults didn’t have a vision like hers.”

In neighboring Afghanistan, girls have been maimed by acid attacks, targeted by bombers, and had their drinking water poisoned simply because of their desire to be educated. While this happens under the oppressive Taliban, the overall education of girls in Afghanistan is improving. "Basically, you didn't have girls educated in 2001,” said Christine Roehrs, spokeswoman for Save the Children in Afghanistan. “And now we have 3 million girls in school."

The region awoke to the barbaric rule of the Taliban eleven years ago. Its regime in Afghanistan was known for brutal repression and subjugation of women who were not allowed to work or attend school. Women could not laugh out loud, wear bright colors, and their fingernails were ripped out for the crime of wearing nail polish. Taliban religious police on patrol daily beat women who went out alone or who were not dressed properly. Needless to say, the internet was banned, but imagine a country where even kite flying was outlawed.  It seemed that hope itself was extinguished.

While the Taliban has largely been pushed back and its ability to attack Pakistan’s major cities has waned in the past year, there are still rural areas along the Afghan border where militants have intensified their efforts to silence critics and impose their will.

As I watched a documentary about her struggle and listened to Malala and her father share their simple dream to live at peace and pursue education for girls in their mountainous home, I was deeply moved. Draped in vibrant colors, which would be banned under the Taliban, she spoke with the innocence of a young girl and the clarity and purpose of someone far more mature.  I couldn’t imagine anyone shooting her.  As I pray for her I am reminded of a Jewish carpenter who elevated the situation of women in the Mediterranean and Greco-Roman world.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, “Jesus gave women human dignity. . . Prior to Jesus, women were regarded as inferior beings, religiously speaking.”

But not only in relation to religion.  During the time of Jesus, women were usually not educated and often remained indoors. When a girl was born, she was often left to die. Yet the longest conversation recorded between Jesus and another person is in John 4 when he asked the Samaritan woman at the well for a drink to the surprise of his disciples.  He engaged in a deeply theological and personal conversation with her, taking seriously her thoughts and questions. As John Ortberg observed in his book Who is this Man?, “Is it any wonder she could not stop talking about this man? Jesus was doing something very subversive. He was treating a woman like someone who had her own identity.”

Often people teach the story about Mary and Martha in the Bible as a lesson about avoiding busy-ness, but no one in the first century would have seen it that way. “To sit at someone’s feet” meant to be someone’s disciple. Martha did what the culture valued in women, she was busy cooking and cleaning, while Mary did what the culture valued in men.  She became a disciple. And Jesus honored her choice. He invited women to be His disciples.

We value education for our daughters who have never experienced barriers based on gender or otherwise in pursuit of their education, faith and dreams. But it is not enough for me to be grateful for them, I pray this will be the experience of every girl no matter where she is born.