Join us for an interactive day of learning and the practical application of 10 thinking tools at Melbourne’s most prestigious training venue.

People and organisations are seeking improvement and quality across many areas except that which is the most important – the quality of the way they think. If we improve the quality of our thinking the quality of the actions that follow will improve.

The Six Thinking Hats are designed to dramatically improve the way individuals and groups think. The methods are used to look at issues from multiple perspectives and help teams to move beyond their habitual thinking styles to achieve a more rounded and thorough view of a given situation. In this full day session participants will develop:

• a sound understanding of multiple thinking styles,
  

• the ability to design and lay out a thinking process,
  

• The ability to better navigate complex and difficult issues,

• the ability to design and facilitate effective, outcome oriented meetings,     

• the ability to generate genuinely new ideas using lateral thinking methods,     

• and become more thorough and objective thinkers.

The session will be held at Melbourne’s premier training venue and all participants will be provided with an optional work-based assessment with which to immediately start to apply and embed the methods and practice back in the workplace. Successful completion of this assessment provides the “Blue Hat Facilitator” Pin.  Email & telephone coaching will be provided to assist with this at no additional cost.

Course Brochure: Six Thinking Hats ALDC May 29, 2012

To Register: Click Here

For more information, contact Frank at Think Quick on 0400 109727, or think.quick@me.com

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There are two broad pathways to efficiency and sustainable practice.

Mandated requirements to look beyond economic considerations demand that we make a concerted effort seek out new ways and means of developing efficient and sustainable business practices.

The first pathway is one we all understand and routinely apply – i.e. conserving our resources so they are not depleted and therefore available for ongoing use. The second involves designing new and improved ways of doing things that do not tie us to the limiting factors of current thinking, practice and resource.

The first path is about the maintenance of the status-quo. So even when we act sustainably we can in effect be going backward with the quality of our services diminishing. I refer to this approach as Rear-View path. It is largely reactive and although we seek to move forward with good intent, this is in effect like trying driving a car whilst focusing primarily on the rear-view mirror and not the windscreen.

The Rear-View is dominated by austerity methods such as staff cuts, wage-freezes, cost-cutting and a hold on new projects. With the Rear-View to sustainability we adopt reactive and precautionary approaches in which we seek to do the same things we have done in the past but faster and at less cost.  The Rear-View pathway is characterised by  short-term “management” thinking that ultimately contributes to a downward spiral in efficiency given that service demands usually increase, and cheaper and faster rarely equate to better.

The old mantra of doing more with less is fine but let’s focus on the more in addition to the less.

The second path to sustainability is a proactive one and through new design focuses on the “more”.

With design we seek to develop new ways of delivering the same value (or better) but in manners newly conceived. The thinking here is quite different to the Rear-View and I refer to it as Forward-View (not a real imaginative name I know, but it serves purpose!) On this Forward-View pathway we design and navigate our way forward with an eye firmly focused on the future. The Forward-View is characterised by new thinking, design and navigation. This pathway challenges the status quo and asks “Are they other ways we can do this better?”

Longer-term “leadership” thinking forms the basis for the Forward-View as we focus on What can be rather than the usual What is. Forward-View approaches involve the application of methods that assist organisations to build agility and navigate difficult times with greater impact.

These methods include:

1. New ways of focusing on and defining our real issues
2. New ways of thinking and collaborating,
3. New means of tapping into our diversity & knowledge,
4. The means of scanning and understanding the shifting environment,
5. New ways of generating genuinely new perspectives, insights & approaches, and
6. More practical means of safe implementation that are not bogged down with bureaucratic processes and the fear of failure.

Austerity methods absolutely have their place but we need to be aware of their limitations and not overuse them when better ways can be conceived.

Both pathways need to be applied and intertwine, but we must learn not to routinely default to the Rear-View path alone as our management practices to date have had us do.  The degree to which one pathway predominates is wholly dependent on context but an approach to sustainability that involves only one reactive pathway diminishes capacity over time, and this is not sustainable.

Organisations looking to build on their capacity to navigate difficult economic times and make sustainable practice a part of normal business are invited to contact us at Think Quick to discuss how we can assist in incorporating Forward-View thinking and action with a view to building business efficiency and proactive sustainable practices.

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People and organisations are seeking improvement and quality across many areas except that which is the most important – the quality of the way we think.

If we improve the quality of our thinking the quality of the actions that follow correspondingly improve.

The Six Thinking Hats are designed to dramatically improve the way we think. The methods are used to look at issues from multiple perspectives and help us to move beyond our habitual thinking styles to achieve a more rounded and thorough view of a given situation.

In this full day session participants will develop:

• a sound understanding of multiple thinking styles,
• the ability to design and facilitate effective, outcome oriented meetings,
• the ability to generate new ideas using lateral thinking methods,
• the ability to design and lay out a thinking process, and
• become a more thorough and objective thinker.

The session will be held at Melbourne’s premier training venue and all participants will be provided with an optional work-based assessment with which to immediately start to apply the methods back in the workplace. Successful completion of this assessment provides the “Blue Hat Facilitator” Pin.  Email & telephone coaching will be provided to assist with this at no additional cost.

Date & Time : 8:30am – 4:30pm, Friday March 18, 2011

Where: The Airlie Leadership Development Centre, 260 Domain Rd South Yarra

Value: $490/person with an early rate of $440/person up until Feb 25

Other: Participants from all sectors are welcome. Coffee/Tea will be provided upon arrival by qualified Baristas and the highest quality morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea will be provided. (If you’ve been to Airlie before you’ll know what this means!)

Many thanks for your response to this. The session is now fully subscribed and we look forward to a big day on the 18th!

We will be scheduling another session within the week so please watch this space!

Flyer: Six Thinking Hats training ALDC Mar 18

Any enquires may be directed to Frank at think.quick@me.com / 0400 109727 or Laurel on 0417 321296

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Lateral thinking is a way of breaking existing and predictable patterns of thought so that new perspectives, new concepts and new ideas can emerge.

The complexity of the problems we face today demand that we approach them in an altogether different manner. We are not well served by the logical and linear methods we have become so comfortable with over time, and need new means of addressing those issues that seem to have gotten-away from us over time.  These could be environmental issues, public order issues, a failing health system or any of a litany that are never long out of the news.

When thinking laterally we seeks solutions to an intractable problems through unorthodox methods that would normally be ignored by logical thinking. New ways of thinking can provide new options and open doors we didn’t know existed. This is why we have an absolute need for Lateral Thinking. Through this type of thinking we disrupt linear thinking sequences and arrive at potential solution from other angles.

Developing breakthrough ideas does not have to be the result of luck. Lateral thinking provides a deliberate, systematic process that results in more innovative thinking. You do not need to be a creative genius to use these methods, they follow very specific processes and I’d back someone who can follow process using the tools to produce more ideas than any creative genius without the tools, any day!

The video attached is an impromptu capture of a lateral thinking process that trainees undertook to complete their two day training in the methods earlier this month. The and simply outlines the key stages of an end to end approach to developing new insights and ideas to address a complex issue.

Logical and linear thinking are fine in context, but they are not nearly enough. It’s time to seriously consider new ways of dealing with those issues that will just not go away.

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The most common mistakes we make in our thinking are in the way we perceive the world around us. By and large our logic is quite sound but two people can look at the same thing and perceive it very differently. Our “perception” therefore involves not just what what comes through our collective eyes, but what goes on in our individual minds.

How then, do we get a sufficiently comprehensive view of an issue so that multiple perspectives can be incorporated and the best possible decisions made?

Last month Think Quick conducted a series of training pilots in a major Victorian Govt Dept to provide staff with a range of thinking tools to broadening their scanning ranges and perceptions across particular issues and thereby add value to the business of Govt. As a part of this training all participants were asked to complete a work-based assessment designed to help embed the learning into ongoing practice.

The training conducted, The Power of Perception™ provides 10 strategic thinking tools for sharpening perception and focusing thinking in a comprehensive, effective and efficient way.

As the assessments are being completed we are now seeing value added through the practical use of the tools. The application of four of the tools in sequence (diagram above) produced the simplification of a process involving the allocation of $30 million dollars per annum (fig 1.) Not only will this process aid in the simplification of the resource allocation but also carry the associated benefits of saving time, lowering meeting costs and reducing the red tape in decision making.

At the same time we are seeing the application of the tools in the personal lives of trainees with one family recently applying the methods to aid their year 12 level son to consider future options and their consequences, assess those options and make an informed decision on what he will do in 2011.

We are all good thinkers when we put our minds to it, but the application of some process and structure to our deliberations with simple, yet rigorous thinking tools, can make the tasks at hand a hell of a lot easier!

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One of the questions I take some pleasure in asking when training is “Who has wasted their time in a meeting that had no focus and few, if any, outcomes in recent times?” Invariably 90% of all participants raise their hands. In fact the response is so predictable the question is almost rhetorical.

The Facilitation training we are offering on Dec 9 is designed to address this all too standard response. All participants will receive full manuals and instruction from an experienced trainer and facilitator, whilst experiencing a  highly interactive and practice oriented session.  Ongoing coaching will also be available to enable them to complete an optional work-based assessment to attain their “Blue Hat Facilitator” certification and Pin.

It is expected that all participants will not only become lead facilitators capable of running an array of meeting types but also key drivers of positive cultural change once back in the workplace.

When: Thursday Dec 9, 8:30am – 4:30pm

Where: Airlie Leadership Development Centre, 260 Domain Rd Sth Yarra

Value: $490/person with an early bird value of $450/person up until Nov 19 or for bookings of 4 or more.

For more details please see the flyer attached: Six Thinking Hats Facilitator Training Dec 9

Register here!

This is a public workshop and participants from all sectors are invited and welcome.

Any enquiries may be directed to think.quick@me.com or directed to Frank on 0400 109727.

“I undertook my Six Hats Facilitation training with Frank in 2009 and right from my first application the result have been astonishing in a number of ways. Firstly, the ideas came so thick and fast that the scribe couldn’t keep up. Excellent decisions were made and actions assigned — all in about 40 minutes. The second surprise was the amount of energy in the room throughout the meeting. It wasn’t just another meeting taking people away from their “real” work, everyone actually enjoyed it. A third surprise was the avowed cynics willingly agreeing that the methodology actually worked, that it could elicit more enthusiasm from them, and produce excellent results in a short time. The final surprise was how exhausting it was to  slow people down, and then stop them from elaborating on their many ideas.”   (Ricky Tuck. Education & Training – Victorian Public Records Office.)

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