Quotes

3 quotes that I believe in and have act upon:

"You get what you give"

"The solution to overcome fear is action" - "Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy."

“世界上最宽阔的是海洋，比海洋更宽阔的是天空，比天空更宽阔的是人的胸怀。”

6 Hats Thinking by Dr. Edward de Bono

Continuation from my posting in http://www.livejournal.com/users/bryanong/:

White Hat
When you think of white, think of neutral. de Bono has categorized information as a neutral subject. The white hat has to do with data and information.
What information do we have here?
What information is missing?
What information would we like to have?
How are we going to get the information?
When you ask for white hat thinking at a meeting you are asking people to forget about proposals and arguments and to concentrate directly on the information. What information is needed, what is available, and how it can be obtained.

Red Hat
When you think of red, think of fire and passion. The red hat allows people to show their emotions on a subject, their gut feelings. People don't need to justify their statements. It is often important to get feelings out in the open, rather than have people at a meeting have hidden agendas, feelings, or misgivings. The red hat allows these feelings to be expressed, to come out in the open.
This is what I feel about the project...
My instincts tell me this won't work.
I like this, I don't like that. The idea is that these statements are known to be "feelings" and nothing more. Once they are stated, the meeting can move on to a more constructive approach.

Black Hat
When you think of black, think of negative, or caution. The black hat is for critical judgment. It points out what cannot be done. The hope is that the black hat role will prevent us from making mistakes.

Yellow Hat
When you think of yellow, think of the sun and sunny, positive thoughts. The yellow hat role is for discussing ONLY the positive view of problems and solution possibilities. The yellow hat looks for benefits (and feasibility), but must be logically based, not intuitive like the red hat.
We are often better with the black hat. We are good at seeing what won't work, as opposed to what will. Forcing ourselves to look only at the positive aspects can be very valuable, since otherwise we don't always move forward.

Green Hat
When you think of green, think of plants and growth. The green hat is for new ideas, for creativity, for new alternative solutions.
Could this be done in another way?
Might there be another explanation?
Does anyone have another idea? (See brainstorming)

Blue Hat
When you think of blue, think of the sky and an overview. The blue hat is the hardest one to understand. It deals with controlling the thinking process. The blue hat is often "given" to one person, who controls what hat will be "worn", hence controlling the type of thinking being used. The different colours don't always follow in the same order. Depending on the situation, and the mix of people, it might be better to let people get their negative thoughts out first, or their intuitive sense, and then use yellow or green to move ahead. The blue hat comments on the thinking being used, asks for conclusions, decisions, etc. The blue hat can move from person to person, or can be a chairperson.

Source

Never present a problem without a solution

A posting from Brand autopsy that really makes us think.

Do SomethingOne of the earliest business rules I can recall that made a HUGE difference in my professional style was...

Never present a problem to your boss without having a suggested solution ready. Don't be part of the problem, be part of the solution.In their book, Why People Business People Speak Like Idiots, Fugere, Hardaway & Washawsky take this lesson further. They call it... Do Something.

Here's an excerpt of the passage...

"...Never present a problem without actually doing something that represents a positive step to fix it. Even if it's nothing more than scheduling a trip to visit the disgruntled customer, do something. Show momentum toward and answer, even if you don't know what the answer is. There's a difference between bad news with signs of hope and bad news presented from the deepest pits of despair. You don't want to be the happy messenger, but it's not much better to be the hopeless prophet of doom."

For those passionate professionals wondering how they can position themselves for the next role at their organization this is one of those priceless tips.

For more tips on being better at your job, I highly recommend the book The Unofficial Guide to Power Managing by Alan Weiss. We've mentioned this before on Brand Autopsy... This book is so good you won't want to tell your co-workers you're reading it.