Better employment

In the UK the Holst Group working with New Deal (the government programme for unemployed youngsters) found that teaching just six hours of thinking increased employability FIVE FOLD. What was taught was a mixture of CoRT and Six Hats.

This is truly a remarkable result and if any reader of this message wishes to send it on to his or her member of parliament, minister or prime-minister, please do so.

If six hours of thinking can do more for employment than ten years of traditional education, then there is something seriously wrong with education.

Edward de Bono, 26-June-2000

EBS

Examine Both Sides (or E.B.S for short) is a simplified form of O.P.V which involves you and the other person's (or group) thinking. For the duration of this tool application, you put yourself in the shoes of the other party and try to read his mind. As with O.P.V you are not trying what the other party should think but what he or she is thinking based upon his wishes and environment.

Practicing this tool is same as practicing other thinking tools. You set a time limit (2-5 minutes) and write down first your thinking and then other persons' thinking.

Practicing this tool before a job interview or a business deal can increase your success rate. You understand the other side better and you prepare better.

A small business owner, I have worked with, is extremely good at doing E.B.S. His employees always remark that when they go to him for something he would already know what they were going to discuss or demand. So he always has counter arguments (or a solution) ready.

With E.B.S you are not forced to think humbly or cruelly. You just do your best possible effort to examine the thinking of both parties involved.

Exercises:

1. Your spouse wants you to go for a morning walk. You prefer to stay at home to study a book. Examine both sides and write down the thoughts of both parties (you and your spouse)
2. Your brother (who is also your business partner) wants to do aggressive marketing to get new customers. You want to focus on satisfying existing customers. Do an E.B.S.
3. You want your son (or daughter) to read books. He (or she) wants to watch moves or play video games. Do an E.B.S.

Your mission

"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?"
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat.
"I don't much care where ..." said Alice.
"Then it does not matter which way you go," said the Cat.
Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

The famous quote above provides ample reason for a mission or direction in your life. A mission creates a filter in your life which gets applied to all your activities. A mission vitalizes you and gives you a sense of achievement with every small step or learning experience. This, in turn, makes you happy and vibrant.

Without a mission or direction you can live decades without achieving anything.

What is your mission?

QUOTE: Action

"Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action."
Benjamin Disraeli

OPV

Attention directing thinking tool OPV stands for 'Other People's Views'. To practice this tool in a given situation;

1. List the people involved or affected by a particular situation or thinking.
2. List the views of each person involved. For this put yourself in each person's shoes and imagine what he thinks.

As with any thinking exercise, time allowed for this is very short from 3-5 minutes (or bit more if the list of people involved is bit longer)

Note that with OPV you do not list what other people should think, but what they will think on their own. You are not trying to impose your thinking, you are trying to read their minds.

Exercises:

1. You are owner of a business. Your organization provides free lunch to all staff. You are thinking to discontinue this free lunch. Do an OPV. (List the people affected and what they will think)
   
2. You are tired of your job which is getting you nowhere in future. You just decide to take risk, quit your job and spend a year to build your own business or find a new job. Do an OPV for your wife, father, mother and a close friend.
3. Your employer stops the free medical care because a number of people were misusing it. Do an OPV for employees who were misusing it and for those who were fair.

Writing makes you think better.

Among other things, writing clarifies your thoughts and generates ideas. This guy had a problem and proceeded to write it down so that he could post it on internet to get recommendations. But he never posted it. His problem was solved while he was writing.

Paul Graham writes in his essay, "Writing, Briefly":

"expect 80% of the ideas in an essay to happen after you start writing it, and 50% of those you start with to be wrong;"

So write it even if no one reads it.

Intelligence is not enough

"The general notion that intelligence (analysis, logic, and argument) is enough is dangerous in many ways. The emphasis is on the logical rather than perceptual skills, which are so important in real-life thinking and doing. The ability of an intelligent person to avoid obvious errors and to put together a coherent argument often blinds that person to the need to develop deliberate thinking skills. The avoidance of error is certainly not enough in thinking."

(Edward deBono, I am right you are wrong, p-275)