Spent a really interesting hour chatting with David over a coffee at McDonald’s yesterday afternoon.  It’s amazing how new threads can spark off unexpectedly and I feel like our collaborative blogging efforts have encouraged a lot of discussion in just one week and two informal meetings.

We discussed the iTEC workshop in Paris and the emphasis on positive feedback during the scenario building sessions.  We were encouraged to challenge any ideas with only two questions: “why does that happen?” and “what happens next?”.  This seemed a constructive approach and allowed the group members to contribute their thoughts freely without fearing a negative response.  The “permitted” challenges allowed the idea to be explored further, with the original contributor being the one to reach the conclusion that an idea might not be feasible if this was the case.

This lead to me mentioning Edward de Bono‘s Six Thinking Hats process and how being steered away from donning “The Black Hat” was a good approach in for the iTEC workshop.  Sometimes the thoughts of the devil’s advocate are necessary but in a creative situation where as many ideas as possible were wanted this could have had a negative impact.

David related this idea of guiding communication to Gamification, something about which I know very little but will look to find out more about.

We also discussed the idea of a Six Thinking Hats widget in a similar vein to the 8LEM widget developed in the IEC.  Not entirely sure how this might work or be used but one idea was that different individuals or groups could be given a different metaphorical hat to wear as part of a larger discussion on a topic.  The widget could provide useful suggestions on how to approach a discussion while wearing a particular hat or simply provide a visual reminder of each colour of hat and its main characteristics.