Career Tips - Issue # 16 (May 2005)

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Confused? No More!

Have you ever taken a decision, thought it was right, but later, after some re-thinking, changed it? This is what happened to a group of young boys in Australia.

During an experiment on thinking, a group of thirty boys first voted in favour of receiving $5 a week for going to school. Afterwards, the students were asked to do a PMI. During PMI, a thinking technique invented by Edward De Bono, the students first thought what was positive about the idea (P for plus). Then they thought what was negative about the whole proposal (M for minus). Finally, they thought what was interesting about the idea (I for interesting).

And you know what happened after the PMI exercise? Twenty nine students changed their minds and concluded that receiving $5 per week for going to school was not a good idea.

Indeed, thinking is the key to making sound decisions.

But thinking is not always easy. Don't we get confused, especially when dealing with complex issues? Actually, the main enemy of clear thinking is our tendency to think in an unstructured way.

Is there a way to avoid confusion, think clearly and make sound decisions? Try De Bono's famous Six Thinking Hats technique, which turns thinking into a systematic, simple and enjoyable process. This is how it works:

Assume (yes, just assume) you have six hats of different colours: white, red, black, yellow, green and blue. Each colour represents a specific kind of thinking (explained later).

When you want to think about an issue, wear one hat at a time and direct your thinking according to the colour of the hat. Next, change to a different hat and again direct your thinking according to its colour. By the end, you would have thought about all possible aspects of an issue in a structured manner and the right decision may well become pretty obvious.

Here is an explanation of what kind of thinking each of the six hats represents:

White hat: When you wear this hat, just focus on pure facts, figures and information. No opinions! No hunches! No emotions! This is a hat that requires you to say, "Here are the facts about the China expansion plan: Break even in three years. Maximum profitability not more than 15%. Expected annual growth rate for first three years: 10%."

Red hat: When you put on this hat, let out your emotions, hunches, intuitions and feelings. What do you "feel" about the issue at hand? With red hat on, you may say, "I feel this whole deal is pretty risky." Red hat allows you to bring out all your feelings about an issue even without an objective basis.

Black hat: This is the one most of us are quite used to--playing devil's advocate. Put on black hat and feel free to think about all the negative aspects. Why things will go wrong? Black hat allows you to make statements like, "Our idea of opening a new office in China is not going to work out well. Four out of ten foreign companies end up losing money in China." Remember, it's pure negative thinking but with objectivity (i.e., with some basis).

Yellow hat: This is the hat which few people normally wear: positive/optimistic thinking. Yellow hat allows you to focus squarely on the positive and optimistic side of an issue. You may say, "Well, I am confident that we'll be successful in China. We have the required expertise, experience and capital." Again, it's pure positive thinking but with objectivity (i.e., with some basis).

Green hat: This hat is reserved for creative thinking--new ideas and new ways of looking at the issue at hand. By wearing this hat, you allow your mind to drift into lateral direction. With green hat on your head, you may say, "What if we simply get merged with a local Chinese company? Or how about licensing our technology and expertise to a local Chinese company?"

Blue hat: The only purpose of this hat is to control the thinking process itself and keep it structured. This hat is useful when you're thinking as group and one person wears it to monitor the thinking process.

Once you get over with the Six Thinking Hats process, you would have thought--one by one--about all the facts (white), feelings (red), negative(black), positive (yellow) and creative(green) aspects of the same issue. And since you would do it one at a time, there is little room for confusion. According to De Bono, after going through the process, the decisions often become obvious.

>>CAREER TIP: Be it work issues or personal issues, such as changing job/profession/house/country, we often face terrible confusion. Sometimes, we feel quite positive about an issue. Then, within minutes, we slip into the negative side. And worse, we keep oscillating from one direction to another--endlessly! Remember, the source of confusion is not thinking in a structured way and trying to think in too many directions simultaneously.

Whenever you find yourself confused while dealing with a complex issue, take out your Six Thinking Hats. No more confusion!

Note: Are you confused about what you just read? Yes or no, you can always get hold of Edward De Bono's famous book: Six Thinking Hats

Parallel Career Track: Answer Just One Question

I recently met a person who opted for a career in accountancy because when he was young, he got fascinated by an uncle of his, who was an accountant and was very rich. Having pursued a career in accountancy for many years, he now realises that he could neither become like his rich uncle nor he enjoys his work. And he now wants to change his career direction.

Following a career path based on childhood infatuation with someone is a universal phenomenon. Right from the childhood, we observe the people around us and anyone who makes a deep impression on us could well shape our career aspirations.

If you see someone doing great as a doctor, you may consciously or unconsciously drift in the direction of becoming a doctor. For many people, the power of uniform and lifestyle is a good enough reason to join armed forces. And so on. This process, incidentally, continues during the adulthood as well.

If you look closely at this phenomenon, you would realise that we tend to choose career direction based on who we want to become and not based on whether we're fit for that occupation and whether we would enjoy doing the work involved. Basically, career is seen as a means to an end (money, prestige, power, lifestyle, etc.).

But while hoping to repeat someone else's success, we often forget one crucial element: passion.

The person whom we try to emulate in our career is successful because of his/her passion for the work. A great businessman is great because he loves his work. A great doctor becomes great because of sheer love for this occupation. Similarly, a great actor simply loves his craft.

Former British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) could not be wrong when he said:

"Man is only truly great when he acts from his passions."

>>CAREER TIP: Keep doing the work you currently do but give a thought to the following question:

What is that work which you would simply LOVE to do without any expectations of money, power, prestige or recognition?

If you can answer the above question, you would lay the foundation of a parallel career track. This will be your track of passion. This will be the track of work that will not make you tired but give you energy. This will be the track that will heal you and not stress you.

If you like the idea, answer the above question and, more importantly, start moving on the parallel track on a part-time basis or on weekends. Slowly and steadily, cultivate it.

Still, why should you bother about creating a parallel track? Well, many people hit a point in their career where they know what they DON'T want to do but they don't know what they really want to DO. With a well-developed parallel career track, you would avoid such a dilemma.

Finally, don't underestimate the returns of walking on a track of passion. Food for thought:

"The person who does not work for the love of work but only for money is not likely to make money nor to find much fun in life."
- Charles M. Schwab (1862-1939), American industrialist and millionaire

Will be back after two weeks.

Atul Mathur

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***Copyright 2005 Atul Mathur***

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