Developing a work approach that is adequate to the challenges ahead
a world moving toward new and different futureS

Six action shoes (by Edward de Bono)

• A brilliant new way to take control of any business or life situation
• Author’s note
  • Think and then take action
  • Often we assume that action is easy and obvious
    • That thinking lays out the roads and decides which road is to be taken
    • That action is simple as walking along the correct road
    • It’s not that easy
  • The direct teaching of thinking
  • Education is too often about description and analysis
  • The real world involves action as well as knowledge
  • Operacy is just as important as literacy and numeracy
    • Has to do with operations
  • Six action shoes helps
    • In the training of action skills
    • In the use of those skills at the moment of action
    • Specific guidance about the action that needs to be taken
  • Choose your action style to fit the needs of the occasion
• Introduction
• Six pairs of action shoes
  • Introduction
    • Occasionally, thinking is an end in itself
    • Usually the purpose of thinking is to choose or design a course of action
    • Sometimes there is a distinct thinking phase and then an action phase
    • At other times thinking and action are intertwined
    • Shoes imply action
    • Situations require different styles of action
  • The perfect person
    • Knowing how to act appropriately in any type of situation
• Six styles of action
  • Introduction
  • The feel of a situation
    • The feel of a situation is all important
      • Based on experience
      • Also on perception
    • Six action shoes provide a framework
      • Become familiar with different types of situations
      • Then use this familiarity to react suitably in similar situations
    • The mind
      • Sees what it is prepared to see
      • Notices what it is ready to notice
      • Works as a self-organizing system
        • Information arranges itself into patterns
        • Once the patters are there then we see the world through these patterns
  • Two shoes in a pair
    • Have to respond to a particular situation without pretending that it is something that we would like it to be
    • Situations are rarely pure
    • Often require a combination of 2 types of shoes
    • 15 possible combinations
  • Color for the shoes
    • Must differ from the hats. To avoid confusion
    • Must suggest the nature of the mode
  • Physical nature of the shoes
    • Important for visualization and learning purposes
  • The shoes
    • Overview
      • Navy formal shoes
        • Routines and formal procedures
      • Grey sneakers
        • Exploration, investigation, and collection of evidence
        • Purpose of the action is to get information
      • Brown brogues
        • Involves practically and pragmatism
        • Do what is sensible and what is practical
        • Figure it out as you go using initiative, practical behavior, and flexibility
        • Almost the opposite of the formality navy formal shoes
      • Orange gumboots
        • Danger and emergency
        • Emergency action is required
        • Safety is a prime concern
      • Pink slippers
        • Suggest care, compassion, and attention to human feelings and sensitivities
      • Purple riding boots
        • Suggest authority
        • Playing out the role give by virtue of a position or authority
        • There is an element of leadership and command
        • The person is not acting in his or her own capacity but in an official role.
    • Once the framework has been learned and visualized, then there is no need to repeat the whole description of the action mode each time:
• The shoes in detail
  • Navy formal shoes
  • Grey Sneakers
  • Brown brogues
  • Orange gumboots
  • Pink slippers
  • Purple riding boots
• Combination of shoes
  • No formal framework for combining the different modes of action
  • See discussion of individual shoes for more suggestions
  • Types
    • Balanced combination
    • The uncertain situation
    • A modifying situation
  • See table
  • It is also possible to have flavors of more than two colors in a situation
  • In practice, situations are rarely pure examples of one or another action mode.
• Action, not description
  • The purpose of the framework is to set the style of the action in advance so that a person can behave within a certain style framework
  • Six action shoes are concerned with what is about to be done
  • Each person should be capable of operating in each of the different modes
  • Just as each person should be capable of using each of the six hats
  • Must resist the tendency to use the six action modes for purposes of description and categorization
• Simple and practical
• Language and terminology
• Action mode summary