The Magic of Switching Hats in Meetings
Point of view effects everything. Switching hats can help members of the management team see things through a different lens; a different point of view. It can also help them see their own behavioral patterns and where they might be stuck in a mental rut. Everyone thinks they are good at switching hats until they are actually made to do it in the middle of a management meeting. I’ve altered some of the names in this story:
The book “Six Thinking Hats” was introduced to our team at Wavelength Marketing by an outside consultant, Alan Boal of Idea Transfer. The concept was very simple. Each hat was a different color and represented a particular attitude or point of view. I initially thought this concept useful but it escalated to a whole new level after our team put it into practice.
Our CEO Lauren Ackerman was very skilled at bringing in great advisors and consultants to further the growth of her high tech marketing firm, Wavelength Marketing. We had several talented consultants, strategic expertise from Regis McKenna, and Guy Kawasaki was our assigned Apple Evangelist. We also had some amazing board members.
I had joined the Wavelength team a few months earlier as VP Business Development and we had brought on exciting clients like Sun, Toshiba, Quantum, HP and others. We were on a roll. But like many young companies, we had growing pains, creative tension, family dysfunction, and in need of some organizational development. Or perhaps an intervention!
Alan showed up at our next weekly management meeting with six hats — he brought six actual hats of different colors. He placed the hats in the middle of the conference table. Lauren Ackerman put on the Yellow Hat (positive) as she introduced Alan to the management team. We were honored to have Alan with us and this was going to be a great exercise! Alan then put on the Blue Hat (process) and the White Hat (information) as he reviewed the rules of the exercise. We were to conduct our meeting just like we normally would, but before we spoke, we had to put on the hat that corresponded best with what we were about to say.
Lauren put on the White Hat (information) as she quickly reviewed the agenda, followed by the Blue Hat (process). “Bill” put on the White Hat as he asked a few questions about the agenda, and then handed the White Hat to Lauren so she could address them. Then Bill put the White Hat on again as he reviewed some of the financial issues facing the company. Several put on the White Hat as they asked questions.
Then came time for reviewing our clients and projects and I put on the White Hat as I updated the status of some of our clients. “Larry” and “Dorris” both put on the White Hat as they conveyed a problem with one of our accounts and the Red Hat (instincts) as they speculated on what might have gone wrong. “Jackie,” who headed operations, asked some tough questions (White Hat), but they were handled well. So far so good. But then it came time to brainstorm some solutions and that’s when all hell broke loose.
“And that’s when all hell broke loose”
Lauren put on the Green Hat (creativity) as she introduced a credible solution followed by the Yellow Hat (positive) anthem: I know we can solve this. Let’s keep brainstorming! Larry and I put on Green Hats as we built on Lauren’s solution. Jackie put on the Black Hat (caution) as she reminded us that we don’t fully understand their problem yet. Lauren put on Green Hat as she altered her idea, followed by a critical Black Hat response by Jackie. Dorris, who was closest to the client, put on the Red Hat as she expressed that her instincts were that the client would go for this solution. Jackie reminded us that we were getting ahead of ourselves again (Black Hat).
This line of solution brainstorming continued until ten minutes later, when Jackie, realizing that she had worn the Black Hat six times in a row, burst into tears and ran out of the conference room. The rest of us just watched in shock. It was the last thing I would have expected. Shortly afterwards, Lauren and Alan left the room to find Jackie.
Jackie was a rock. She headed up Operations for the company. She was smart, talented and tough. I had never seen her react that way before. Obviously this exercise had struck a nerve. When she finally returned to the conference room, she offered her explanation: “I don’t want to wear the Black Hat all the time, but I feel I have to. Lauren and Skip are always so positive and “blue sky” that it forces me to be the voice of practicality and reason. Someone has to point out why things won’t work. I feel that is my job. I don’t want to only wear the Black Hat. I’d love to wear other hats too.”
Alan then asked Jackie, “Do you believe Lauren can wear the Black Hat?” Silence in the room. Alan then handed Lauren the Black Hat and asked her to rip apart her own solution. To the shock of many in the room, Lauren surgically carved holes in her idea as she quickly listed ten reasons why it would fail. Lauren may not wear the Black Hat very often, but she proved she could be as critical as the next person. Lauren obviously chose not to wear the Black Hat in leading her company. She wore it sparingly. But she was certainly capable of wearing it.
Post-mortem and Aftermath
Our post-mortem that day did not go much longer. The lesson was obvious. Many in the room had labeled Jackie as the “Black Hat” person and Lauren as the “Yellow/Green Hat” person and felt that that was their roles and perhaps extended it to their personalities as well. But those patterns and expectations can create a dysfunctional management team and limit some of the skills and impact that those individuals could contribute otherwise. Labeling. Limiting. Putting people in boxes. Sound familiar? It should. We all do it. We even do it to ourselves.
So let me tell you about the Aftermath. We continued to think about the SIX THINKING HATS exercise for a while until we broke most of the prior patterns and habits. We became much more aware of what we were saying, why were saying it, and how we were communicating it. What was our attitude? We became a much more balanced management team. In fact, the actual chemistry of the team changed. It was truly magical.
Switching Hats: Can your Argue the Other Side?
I grew up the son of a California Municipal Court Judge. We would have interesting conversations at the dinner table. It was not easy out-arguing The Judge. Once in a while when I was getting too vehement in my arguments, my dad would suddenly stop me and say, “Okay, Skip, now argue the other side.” What? Really! If you can’t argue the other side, then you don’t fully understand the issue.
He related to me that at Stanford Law School they sometimes had to prepare for both sides of a case for their mock trials. They had to be ready to argue either side. Yet another aspect of switching hats. I never realized how much those dinner conversations were preparing me for my business career.
Which hat are you wearing right now?
It’s a good exercise. A good awareness. And remember, entrepreneurs, the world needs builders, it needs ideas, it needs creative solutions. While Black Hats are important for finding holes, honing messages and making us better presenters, they do not actually BUILD anything! Make sure you keep a healthy stable of consistent Green Hats and Yellow Hats on your team and on your Boards. There’s plenty of them out there. Find them!
About Wavelength Marketing: a high tech marketing firm founded in 1982 and based in Newport Beach, California. The firm worked with companies in developing their marketing and distribution channels. Clients included Toshiba, Hewlett-Packard, Sun Microsystems, Quantum, Altos, Cardinal, DayFlo Software, and many printer companies and high-end software companies. Key product launches included the first true laptop (Toshiba) and the first InkJet printer (HP). It was sold to a UK-based firm in 1988.
