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I walk every morning with a group of friends all of whom are conversational magpies! This morning I mentioned to Diane I was trying to figure out the differences between goals, strategies and ideas for my 2011 targets and she immediately added I needed to include ‘tactics’. From our conversation I quickly realized ideas + strategies for implementation + tactics for achieving implementation=goals. Aha!

Diane is a retired CPA. During our walk, she told me about a Six Thinking Hats exercise she and her team used for developing annual strategic planning and I thought I would spread the idea farther afield. The hat colors are metaphors for distinguishing the processes.

1. White: Questions—what information is available, what are the facts?
2. Red: Feelings and Emotions—gut reaction or statements of emotional feeling, not necessarily logical
3. Black: Bad points—identify flaws and barriers using logical thinking
4. Yellow: Good points—using logic, identify benefits and merits
5. Green: Creativity—New product ideas, applications, customers
6. Blue: Big picture—How to accomplish everything you have been thinking

The exercise requires ‘changing hats’ frequently, a little like the children’s game ‘musical chairs’ so probably more beneficial when done with a group of people. These articles 6 Steps to Help Develop Your Business Vision and Six Thinking Hats are full of further details for implementing the Six Thinking Hats exercise.

I plan to use the Six Thinking Hats exercise for designing the HAH 2011 strategic plan and in a series on Handmade Spark, I will share with you what works, fails or needs revamping. I look forward to your input.

Next time: White Hat