Thinking About Thinking: Decision Making

In this instalment of her digital series, Emma Gray explores the art of decision-making in education, using the creative and structured approach of the ‘Six Thinking Hats’ to enhance strategic thinking

Ronald Reagan once said “When I’ve heard all I need to make a decision, I don’t take a vote. I make a decision.” Many leaders find decision making the hardest part of an improvement process but the work you have put in so far has given you the evidence, and justification, you need to make decisions on the most suitable course of actions to achieve your improvement visions.

In education, we rarely make strategic decisions without seeking input from other staff or stakeholders, but it is important to approach this in a way which manages their expectations. Their response is not necessarily going to change the decision you have made; you are just asking for their perspective. One of the most effective ways to do this is to gather viewpoints using the ‘Six Thinking Hats’ process. This will ensure you don’t overlook important aspects of the actions you are proposing.

Invite five trusted colleagues, or peers, separately along to your thinking time space and talk them through your proposals. Everyone knows someone whose personality fits the descriptions of the hats; you could even add to the fun by giving them a coloured paper hat to wear.

Yellow Hat – Positivity – This individual is well on your side and would probably agree with anything you propose. Try to get them to tell you what they think the benefits and opportunities of the decisions will be.

Green Hat – Creativity – This colleague thinks outside the box, and it will be a lot of fun talking to them about your proposals. Let their ideas flow freely and just write them down without judgement. After the session you can think about whether any of them are worth incorporating into your action plan.

Red Hat – Emotional – We all have colleagues who wear their heart on their sleeve and regularly empty your box of tissues. Get them to tell you how your proposals make them feel. This way, you will be prepared for the reaction when you communicate your ideas more widely.

White Hat – Data focused – This colleague is probably the MIS expert in your school. They will take a very rational approach to your proposals; they will help you step outside your excitement about the ideas and get you to really think about impact.

Black Hat – Negativity – Every decision needs a “devil’s advocate” to make you fully aware of what might not work. You could ask your Headteacher or CEO to play this part. Even if they love your ideas get them to talk about the downsides.

Blue Hat – Process – This is you. Wear your blue hat with pride, keep the discussion going and pull out the approach you need from each colleague.

Some ‘Blue Hatters’ are experienced (and confident) enough to lead this process as one meeting but you need to ensure that you have every hat in the room, otherwise you might miss an important perspective.

Let’s go back to our previous example strategy headline;

‘Enabling the Nursery to grow to capacity and cover the cost of provision.’

Your problem-solving thinking time led you to the following decision.

• Rebrand the nursery and action a range of marketing initiatives to launch a refreshed provision in the community.

How might the hats respond?

Yellow – “Great Idea. This will really encourage parents to take another look at what we offer”

Green – “We could have a cake sale, print balloons and flyers, we’ve got a governor who designs logos, we could have a stand on the market…”

Red – “How will that impact the children in the nursery? We’ll need to manage the change with them, we need to maintain their sense of belonging.”

White – “What does local birth rate data tell us? How many potential pupils are in our community? What is our current share of pupils? What share do we need to be sustainable?

Black – “How much is this going to cost? How much work will be involved? I’m not blowing up balloons.”

You’ve now got lots of perspectives to build your decision into a practical action plan and, depending on the relationship of the hat wearers to your school, you have also started the buy-in process with a range of colleagues.

As tempting as it might be, we’re still not quite ready to rush off and put all our decisions into action. There is still some thinking to do, stakeholders to bring on board, and change to manage.

We’ve established six strategy headlines, and we have made decisions on the actions needed to make this improvement happen. But how do all these actions work together, how do get it all done without burning out completely? This is where systems thinking comes into the process.

Keep thinking.