Expert answer:2 Graduate Level Discussions of Quantitative Analy
Answer & Explanation:There are 2 Graduate Level Discussions
of Quantitative Analysis for Managers. Please give your options, show your ethics, and
discuss deeply.
PS：These topics are Discussion Board
questions not essay.Details see: 2 Graduate Level Discussions of Quantitative Analysis for Managers.docx Other information: Reading 1 – Thinking Techniques.pdf
2_graduate_level_discussions_of_quantitative_analysis_for_managers.docx
reading_1___thinking_techniques.pdf
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There are 2 Graduate Level Discussions of Quantitative Analysis for Managers. Please
give your options, show your ethics, and discuss deeply.
PS：These topics are Discussion Board questions not essay.
Topic 1
Read Reading 1 – Thinking Techniques.pdf, then respond to the following question:
Can you visualize a need for either or both thinking techniques in your business,
personal, or school activities? Why or why not?
Topic 2
Please respond to the following questions.
Read Psalms 61:1-4.
How does humankind think about our condition? What is the plea that humans make of
God? How does this parallel your pleas to God?
Read Isaiah 55:6-9.
What is God’s response to humankind? How does God think compared to how humans
think? Do you find yourself often thinking God does not understand your circumstances
and does not act to deliver you from those circumstances?
Reading 1: Six Hat Thinking and Why-Why Diagram
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(File 001r reference only)
Black Hat
Green Hat
Red Hat
Blue Hat
White Hat
Blue Hat
White Hat
Yellow Hat
Red Hat
Green Hat
Black Hat
Yellow Hat
Six Hat Thinking
One of the most important aspects of analyzing problems using the team concept
is the idea of thinking. The Western culture is always prone to use the argument
– point/counter point – approach. The Japanese culture is never permitted to say
anything bad about the boss’s idea.
In the Western culture the most powerful arguer often wins even though the
result may or may not be the best for the company. In the Japanese culture an
unchallenged idea can cause the development of poor strategies and products.
How do you solve these apparent issues in making the best business
decisions for your company?
Edward De Bono in his book “Six Thinking Hats” (ISBN 0 316 17831 4: Back Bay Books, Little
has come up with an interesting and somewhat novel approach to
what in the past has been called positive brainstorming. This book may be
purchased from Amazon or Borders if you want it in your library, but is not
mandatory for this course.
Brown and Company)
Reading 1: Six Hat Thinking and Why-Why Diagram
(File 001r reference only)
De Bono asserts there are six major aspects of decision making.
classified those six aspects as:
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He has
Organization (How to Make it Happen)
Facts and Figures (Neutral Objective)
Emotional Responses (Feelings)
Devils Advocate (Careful and Cautious)
Positive and Sunny Results (No Negatives)
Creativity and New Ideas (Fertile Growth)
De Bono believes these classifications are key aspects when thinking about a
problem or opportunity. One of the difficulties with thinking is we usually have
too much thrown at us at the same time. Involved are emotions, information,
logic, hope and creativity. It is like juggling multiple balls in the air at once. Too
much is too much and we usually become disoriented or disorganized, which
may cause our thinking process to “shut down” or become less effective.
Thinking is an important learned skill. Everyone thinks – some more deeply
than others but all think. No matter how well we think, we should never be
satisfied with our thinking skills. Poor thinkers try to prove their ideas to be
correct thus they vindicate themselves as being right too. Good thinkers are
creative and not self-seekers. Should thinking simply describe “what is” or
should thinking describe “what can be”? One approach is to focus on who is
right or wrong and the other approach is to focus on how to design (think) our
way forward.
Argument:
The Western idea of thinking is one of argument. The Greek philosophers
Socrates, Plato and Aristotle brought to the West our current ideas about
thinking. Philosophy is made up of two Greek words – Philo and Sophy which
means lovers of truth or truth seekers. A philosopher is described as a lover of
truth or one who seeks truth.
Socrates thought dialect and argument was the correct pattern; however in 80%
of his recorded dialogues there is not one conclusion. Socrates points out what
is wrong. He tells us what justice and love are NOT, not what they are.
Plato believed that we only see the shadow of truth because it is always lurking
beyond appearance, just beyond our vision and grasp.
Aristotle introduced the idea of systematized inclusion and exclusion logic. Our
past experiences cause us to develop basic definitions, categories or principles.
These can be referred to as “BOXES”. We systematically place all things in a
category based on our experience. The doctor examines a child. The symptoms
are checked and the boxes are identified. The boxes might be from a simple
Reading 1: Six Hat Thinking and Why-Why Diagram
(File 001r reference only)
3
rash to measles or allergies. After the examination, the doctor decides on
measles and treats it accordingly. The box has a name (measles for example)
which requires a treatment associated with measles.
All three approaches lead to “what is” thinking or analysis and judgment.
Couple the analysis and judgment with the Western style of argument and you
have the approach an attorney uses in presenting his or her case to a jury. This
might be okay for certain situations, but deeper thinkers want to train themselves
in the idea of “what can be” thinking? “What can be” requires the thinker to be
constructive and creative. “What can be” thinking that moves forward with
new design ideas about problem solving rather than analysis, judgment and
argument.
The argument approach can be illustrated by an automobile that is painted half
white and half black. Two people are standing on the opposite side of the same
street. They are asked to describe the car. Both descriptions are correct, but
only from their own perspective.
The argument approach would have the two going at each other until a
conclusion was reached with the stronger argument winning over the weaker.
This is a clear example of “what is” thinking.
Parallel Thinking:
A different approach in thinking might be important to consider – parallel thinking.
In parallel thinking, each person would be asked to walk around the car thus
seeing the car from all vantage points. The subject matter is fully explored. The
two opposing viewpoints are laid aside each other in parallel. If a choice is not
possible, then a provision is made for both viewpoints.
Let’s say you have a person looking east, another person looking west, another
north and yet another south. What they see and describe will be one viewpoint.
However, if you ask all four to look east together, the result will be four opinions
looking in the same direction at the same time. This is parallel thinking.
Thinking Hats:
De Bono has taking the six major aspects and called them “thinking hats”. To
each he has assigned a color.
The Blue Hat:
The White Hat:
The Red Hat:
The Black Hat:
The Yellow Hat:
The Green Hat:
Organization (How to Make it Happen)
Facts and Figures (Neutral Objective)
Emotional Responses (Feelings)
Devils Advocate (Careful and Cautious)
Positive and Sunny Results (No Negatives)
Creativity & New Ideas (Fertile Growth)
Reading 1: Six Hat Thinking and Why-Why Diagram
(File 001r reference only)
4
Rules of the Road:
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The hats are symbolic indicating a role.
They may be put on or taken off with ease.
They are visible to all.
They are imaginary and not physical.
They identify a direction of thinking.
They are not descriptions of people or personalities.
The hats describe modes of behavior and not personalities.
All in the decision process wear the same color hat at the same time.
Since the hats are directional they will allow you to address “what is about
to happen”.
They are not to be used to say something then justify it with a hat.
They may be worn as directed by a facilitator or there may be a preset
sequence, but even then a facilitator is necessary.
Not all hats have to be worn for each and every decision.
You do not have to limit the use of a hat to a one time event. Use a hat as
often as you like.
Let the use of the hats evolve as the discussion progresses or you may
find the most effective approach is to use a preset sequence for wearing
the hats.
Hats are a tool for use not the use unto itself.
Hats are ways to organize and create parallel thinking about a particular
issue.
In essence, the hats create much bigger and broader boxes, which like all
boxes, have walls and reasonably well defined boundaries.
The hats permit concentrated and focused discussion and observation.
The hats allow for a much broader and organized approach.
Discipline is important. Members of the group must stay under the hat
color until changed by the facilitator.
Playing the game is important. This means all make a contribution under
each hat color regardless of the significance of the contribution.
As a guideline, time should be limited to 1 minute per person per hat.
Time can be extended by the facilitator if positive results flow from wearing
one particular hat.
The timing on the Red Hat might be different. Emotions should most
probably be kept to a strict minimum time limit.
There is a difference between “I have eggs to cook” versus “I have cooked eggs.”
“I have looked east” versus “I want you to look to the east.” One approach is
“what is thinking” and the second is “what can be thinking”.
This does not preclude the aggressive person being aggressive but it is done
inside the boundaries of each of the hats. Some may be better at one hat than
Reading 1: Six Hat Thinking and Why-Why Diagram
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5
another, but this by no means makes the person the same as the hat color. She
is a red hat person or he is a black hat person must be avoided. This builds a
box (a spurious identity) for each person thus defeating the idea of parallel
thinking.
Everyone must be challenged to look in all directions. Do not assign one person
to be the black hat and one to be the red hat and one the green. This prevents
parallel thinking. We must train ourselves to all look in the same direction at the
same time.
There is a place for each type of thinking. There is a time for each type of
thinking. Thinking must be controlled and focused. The hats make the fullest
use of everyone’s intelligence and experience.
Each of the hats will now be examined as to their function and primary use. In all
meetings there must be a facilitator. The facilitator is very important in controlling
the meeting. The facilitator is the one who points out the direction in which
everyone is expected to look. The facilitator directs the parallel thinking. The
facilitator can be seen as the one who permanently wears the Blue Hat, although
he or she may also wear the hat color under consideration at any time during the
meeting.
Blue Hat:
Blue Hat thinking is overview thinking. Think about the sky. It is blue and it is
overhead. Blue Hat thinkers think about thinking – the purpose of thinking, the
process of thinking, the control (direction) of thinking and what needs to be
achieved with thinking.
Sometimes the Blue Hat can be used as bookends for the meeting. Blue Hat
thinking sets the strategy, sequence or agenda. The Blue Hat is the hat of
discipline and is worn by the facilitator. This can and should be a permanent
role, which gives the wearer of the Blue Hat the right and responsibility to change
the hat color of the participants at any time during the meeting when it seems
best to pursue other directions.
The initial Blue Hat among other things asks:
Why are we here?
What are we thinking about?
What is the definition of the problem or situation?
What do we want to achieve?
Where do we want to end up?
What is the background to the thinking?
What is the plan for the sequence of the hats?
Reading 1: Six Hat Thinking and Why-Why Diagram
(File 001r reference only)
6
The final Blue Hat might ask for a summary of the outcome.
What have we achieved?
What is the outcome?
What are the conclusions?
What are the designs (the business model)?
What is the solution?
What are the next steps?
What progress have we really made, if any?
To a certain extent the Blue Hat symbolizes overview control. A choreographer
arranges the steps in a dance. It is the responsibility of the Blue Hat wearer to
arrange the steps in thinking through a particular problem or issue much like a
choreographer does in dance. The Blue Hat wearer is concerned with making a
map, which should be followed. Think about the terrain. Explore it. Take notes
on the typography. Ultimately you will make a choice of routes.
Many of the participants in the process will have already thought through many of
the items on the agenda. This is excellent and will make the job of the Blue Hat
wearer easier. However most of the time this thinking will be the old Western
style – argument and counter point. In our English writing classes, many of us
were taught to place the conclusion in the first sentence (topical sentence), then
support that conclusion with the balance of the paragraph or paper. Attack and
defense cannot provide a structure of thinking about “what will be” in the
broadest sense. The purpose of Blue Hat thinking is to provide a structure of
parallel thinking which uses a focused approach to reach “what will be”. Blue
Hat thinking controls the direction of the thinking and will insert other Hats as
they are needed to flesh out the map.
Examples:
Let’s look at some typical examples of what might be experienced in a meeting
as directed by the Blue Hat wearer.
We need some concrete proposals. (Yellow Hat)
Hold off on your Black Hat thinking (negative judgments) because I am not
fully satisfied with the ideas we have. Let’s Green Hat the ideas for a
while (creative thinking).
I want from each of you your Red Hat thinking. You may put forward your
emotions and feelings without having to justify them.
I do not want your opinions or suggestions. I want pure White Hat thinking.
(facts and figures without interpretation).
Reading 1: Six Hat Thinking and Why-Why Diagram
(File 001r reference only)
7
I think we need to do some Blue Hat thinking. Forget about the subject
and think about how we will move forward in an organized fashion.
Focus is one of the key aspects of Blue Hat thinking. Many times the difference
between a good thinker and a poor thinker lies in the ability to focus.
We want to focus on preparing a range of possible responses to price
cutting by our competitors.
It will soon be holiday time. Let’s focus on what each of us wants from this
holiday.
Our broad focus is to find new market segments for our product. The tight
focus is getting older citizens to use the facilities at off times.
Spell out the focus – broad or narrow. Keep the focus on the initial map being
built. As the Blue Hat wearer, you might make the comment. “We have a lot of
interesting ideas, but none of them are relevant to the starting focus.”
For the Blue Hat wearer questions may be very important to fine-tune the
process. Questions may take the form of fishing or shooting. For example, the
question is not so much what we do but when we do it. Timing is vital. What
factors should be considered in timing?
Is this the real problem?
Is the information we are generating irrelevant?
Are we on track?
Is this the problem we want to solve?
What are the underlying problems?
Do we regard this outcome as successful?
Black Hat our current advertising campaign.
Let’s explore the idea of shopping on TV.
Let’s explore the idea of shopping on the internet.
We have not come up with any good ideas for increasing the consumption
of lamb. Perhaps we should break it into sub-problems.
The Blue Hat holds the target and says “shoot this direction” or “do parallel
thinking in this direction.” The process of thinking should be done in a step by
step manner, sort of like creating software for operating the computer, the Blue
Hat wearer creates or choreographs the direction of the thinking. Computers
without software do not work. Meetings without choreography (direction) do not
work either. Blue Hat thinking defines focus for areas which need new concepts.
Green Hat thinking tries to generate new concepts.
At some point, the Blue Hat wearer must prepare a formal list of available
proposals. The proposals might be categorized into those requiring individual
Reading 1: Six Hat Thinking and Why-Why Diagram
(File 001r reference only)
8
appraisal, those requiring further amplification and those that should be only
noted (prioritizing). A mixture of White, Yellow and Green Hat thinking might be
used to develop and take further action on the proposals. This is constructive
thinking.
Next the facilitator might call for pure Yellow Hat thinking to give positive
assessment to each of the alternatives.
Next the facilitator might simply do Black Hat thinking to screen the alternatives.
Some alternatives might be unusable or impossible.
Next Yellow Hat and Green Hat thinking might be used to overcome the
objectives of the Black Hat. The Blue Hat wearer may pose the question, ‘Can
we correct the faults or remove the weaknesses or solve the problems
associated with the Black Hat thinking we just did?’
After the Green or Yellow hat thinking is completed, the facilitator might re-direct
the focus back to the Black Hat.
Once that is exhausted, the facilitator might go to the Blue Hat to re-organize
everything or to identify the “choice” route(s). Even though the facilitator wears
the Blue Hat permanently, this does not preclude all other participants from
wearing the Blue Hat when directed. You can almost view the facilitator as
wearing all hats at the same time – the hat of many colors.
The facilitator might call for Red Hat (emotions) thinking.
Once the emotions are voiced, the facilitator might use a mixture of Yellow and
Black Hat thinking to fine-tune the alternatives that seem to best fit our needs
and focus.
Finally, the Blue Hat wearer would set out the strategy for thinking about how the
ideas and thinking would best be implemented.
Complex, you might rightly comment. Perhaps, but a logical sequence flows
from the process just like shifting gears while driving.
The Blue Hat facilitator is looking at the thinking that is taking place. The
facilitator is not driving the automobile (the meeting), but is observing and
deciding on the best route to take. As the Blue Hat wearer, your job is to pull the
apparent chaos into an organized pattern. Everyone at the meeting can exercise
the Blue Hat function during the meeting. Everyone will make his or her
comments about the thinking that has taken place, but usually the facilitator or
chairperson will wear the final Blue Hat and prepare the final report.
Reading 1: Six Hat Thinking and Why-Why Diagram
(File 001r reference only)
9
Meeting Control:
The facilitator will maintain order and direction and make sure that the rules of
the game are observed. For example, the Blue Hat wearer might make
comments such as the following in the course of directing the meeting.
Your comments are not appropriate at this time, Mr. Brown.
We should define the key problem at this point.
We want your Red Hat feelings, not why you hold them.
That is Black Hat thinking and out of order at this point.
That is not the way to treat an idea under the Green Hat. You should use
movement and not judgment.
Is this White Hat information? It seems like Red Hat emotions.
Clearly in practice there will and can be overlap between hats. You cannot set
the walls of the big boxes so high and so rigidly that nothing is accomplished
because everyone is fearful of commenting.
There may be an overlap between White and Red Hat thinking due to the mixture
of facts and opinions. It is impractical to switch hats with every remark. Make
the remarks fit the hat not the hat fit the remarks. In short, do not use the
heat to justify yo …
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