Six action shoes
By Edward de Bono (includes links to many of his other books)
Amazon link: Six Action Shoes: a brilliant New Way to Take control of Any Business or Life Situation
YouTube: A brief celebration of Edward de Bono's
ideas on thinking
Note the audience’s age and clothing.
What is their socioeconomic group?
Who paid for their attendance and why?
How many are aware of the concepts of image thinking?
Edward de Bono interview — The Science Show
Educated at St. Edward's College, Malta, he then gained a medical degree from the University of Malta.
Following this, he proceeded as a Rhodes Scholar in 1955 to Christ Church, Oxford, where he gained an MA in psychology and physiology.
He represented Oxford in polo and set two canoeing records.
He then gained a PhD degree in medicine from Trinity College, Cambridge.
De Bono held faculty appointments at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge (where he helped to establish the university's medical school), London and Harvard.
He was a professor at the University of Malta, the University of Pretoria, the University of Central England (now called Birmingham City University) and Dublin City University.
De Bono held the Da Vinci Professor of Thinking chair at the University of Advancing Technology in Tempe, Arizona, US.
He was one of the 27 Ambassadors for the European Year of Creativity and Innovation 2009.
The originator of the term 'Lateral Thinking', de Bono wrote 85 books with translations into 46 languages.
He taught his thinking methods to government agencies, corporate clients, organizations and individuals, privately or publicly in group sessions.
He promoted the World Center for New Thinking (2004–2011), based in Malta, which applied Thinking Tools to solution and policy design on the geopolitical level.
In 1976, de Bono took part in a radio debate for the BBC with British philosopher A. J. Ayer, on the subject of effective democracy.
Starting on Wednesday 8 September 1982, the BBC ran a series of 10 weekly programs entitled de Bono's Thinking Course .
In the shows, he explained how thinking skills could be improved by attention and practice.
The series was repeated the following year.
A book with the same title accompanied the series.
In May 1994, he gave a half-hour Opinions lecture televised on and subsequently published in The Independent as "Thinking Hats On".
In 1995, he created a futuristic documentary film, 2040: Possibilities by Edward de Bon, depicting a lecture to an audience of viewers released from a cryogenic freeze for contemporary society in the year 2040.
Convinced that a key way forward for humanity is a better language, he published The Edward de Bono Code Book in 2000.
In this book, he proposed a suite of new words based on numbers, where each number combination represents a useful idea or situation that currently does not have a single-word representation.
For example, de Bono code 6/2 means "Give me my point of view and I will give you your point of view."
Such a code might be used in situations where one or both of the two parties in a dispute are making insufficient effort to understand the other's perspective.
Dr de Bono has also contributed to many journals, including the Lancet and Clinical Science.
Author's Note: Thinking and Action
Very few people just sit and think.
Most of us eventually take action.
You might think of something to buy at the supermarket, but then you buy it.
You might plan a new strategy for an electronics company, but then you implement the strategy.
Often we assume that action is easy and obvious—that thinking lays out the roads and decides which road is to be taken and that action is as simple as walking along the correct road.
It's not that easy.
Some people do seem to have a natural flair for action, just as some people have a flair for thinking and for creativity.
Such people benefit greatly from some additional training.
For those without a flair, training is essential.
I spend a great deal of time in the education world and am involved with the largest program in the world for the direct teaching of thinking in schools (the CoRT Thinking Programme).
Too often education is about description and analysis.
That is the academic tradition, and they are easier to teach than teaching how to act.
But the real world involves action as well as knowledge.
That is why I invented the word operacy, which is the skill of action.
Operacy covers the broad skills of action, of making things happen
Operacy involves such aspects of thinking as:
other people's views,
priorities,
objectives,
alternatives,
consequences,
guessing,
decisions,
conflict-resolution,
creativity
and, many other aspects
not normally covered in
the type of thinking used for information analysis
What will happen if we take this action?
Will it be acceptable?
Do we have the resources to do it?
How will people react?
How will competitors react?
What can go wrong?
What are the potential problems?
Will it continue to be profitable?
These things are part of 'pro-active' thinking, not the usual 'reactive' thinking.
The word operacy has the same base as the word operations.
Operacy is just as important as literacy and numeracy.
This book has very much to do with operacy.
The framework of the six action shoes is a help both in the training of action skills and also in the use of those skills at the moment of action.
"Be perfect," "Do the right thing," are instructions that are easy to give—but such instructions have little practical value.
By breaking down action into six distinct modes, the six action shoe framework gives specific guidance about the action that needs to be taken.
When you cook, you choose your ingredients.
In action you can choose your action style to fit the needs of the occasion.
- 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
combination table
Chapter 1: The Perfect Person
I had lunch with two senior police officers who were talking about the increasing pressures being felt by the police force.
On one side there was increasing crime, violence, drug-related offenses, and criminals who were more and more sophisticated.
On the other side the public was putting more and more pressure on the police to behave compassionately.
Not only was emergency action required from the police responding to earthquakes, fires, etc., but the police were being asked to perform the roles formerly played by doctors and priests in communities that were small and stable.
All those involved in training police officers were aware that the end product of the training was to be a perfect person who knew how to act appropriately in any type of situation.
But how do ‘,you get a perfect person?
How do you train perfection?
That was the problem.
Of course, people occasionally approach this ideal.
But how can more people attain that state of perfection?
There seem to be two traditional approaches to this problem:
Method 1: Establish rigid codes of behavior and expect people to learn these codes and follow them without deviation.
This method avoids the need to think out a response to individual situations.
To some extent this used to be the military approach.
But how do you establish routines that cover all possible situations?
How do people choose between a multitude of routines or act when there is no relevant routine to apply?
The effect can be disastrous if the wrong routine is selected.
The method works only within a limited range of situations under close supervision.
Method 2: Establish general guiding principles, and then allow people to design their own actions around these principles.
This method allows the action to fit the occasion.
The guiding principles are designed chiefly to avoid mistakes, and training consists of showing how people follow or fail to follow these guiding principles.
There is merit in this approach, but if the principles are very detailed, it is impossible to remember them all, and if the principles are very broad, then they don’t give much guidance.
Exhorting someone to behave in a perfect manner is not very useful.
We may fool ourselves into believing that we are achieving our objective, but at most we are making only slight improvements.
IBM has a slogan that says “Think.”
This may get people to stop, pause, think, reflect, and appreciate the value of thinking, but its value is limited because the basic instruction—to think—does not in any way explain how this is to be done.
The six hat method, simple as it is, does provide a framework for thinking.
The six action shoe method does the same for action.
In the course of this discussion on training the perfect person it occurred to me that instead of training one perfect person we should train six people, each of whom would be perfect for just one type of situation.
This seemed far more practical and easier to do.
Of course, these six people would all live under one skin.
That was the origin of the six pairs of action shoes.
The success of the six hat thinking framework suggested that something similar could be done for action.
The need for perfectly appropriate action suggested a need for breaking down action into six different styles, each of which could be developed.
Part IV: Grey Sneakers
"We need to know why there has been this increase in absenteeism.
Before we take any other type of action we need some grey sneaker action.
Let's get more information."
"We are investigating it.
We are still in grey action mode.
We'll let you know as soon as we have anything."
"Just find out all you can.
Limit yourself to grey sneaker mode.
Be as inconspicuous as possible.
Remember just the grey mode.
No heroics."
Sneakers are quiet, and you can pad around in them without being noticed.
In a sense, in grey shoe action mode the person is sneaking around, listening, and exploring.
The style is casual, relaxed, and quiet.
There is no desire to be noticed or even to affect other people.
In a grey mist and fog you cannot see clearly to find your way around.
All your energy is directed at getting information from the surroundings.
In the same way grey action mode implies removing the fog of ignorance.
We want to obtain as much information as possible.
Grey also suggests the grey matter of the brain, as in the colloquial, "Use your grey matter."
So the grey action mode includes both collecting information and also thinking.
When in the grey action mode, a person may use any aids to thinking that he or she wishes, such as the six thinking hats.
In the navy action mode you know exactly the next step that has to be taken because you are following a known routine.
In the grey action mode you are exploring, but you do not know what you are going to find.
What you find determines your next step.
If a clue turns up, then you follow that clue.
In the navy action mode you are reciting a poem you know by heart.
In the grey action mode you are conducting a conversation that may turn in any direction.
Note that the grey action mode includes all the activities that are necessary in order to obtain the information.
If the information is in a particular library, then tracking it down is part of the grey sneaker action mode.
It is not just a sit-and-think mode.
Scientists pursuing a theory, investigating journalists, detectives solving a crime, market researchers trying to assess response to a new product, pollsters, investment bankers contemplating a takeover, and tax inspectors are all using the grey action mode.
Perhaps the purest case of grey action mode would be the investigation of a computer fraud.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous detective, Sherlock Holmes, mainly involved himself in grey sneaker action.
In the end the criminal usually confessed, thereby removing the need for more vigorous action.
Today's television dramas allow less room for grey action mode and tend to emphasize orange and brown action modes.
The grey action mode can interplay with other action modes as information gathered reveals the need for other types of action.
Quite often there may be a pause in other types of action until you get the information that you need to go forward.
As with all the other action modes there is often an overlap of needs, and an action rarely consists of only one action mode.
Chapter 14: The Use of Investigation
You need to investigate when you have no idea as to what is going on.
You're fishing.
You're looking for leads.
You want some basis on which to build a hypothesis.
A scientist, an archaeologist, a searcher for oil, and a detective are often in this sort of position.
There is a leak of sensitive information from a government department.
Where do you start looking?
When a patient first visits a doctor, the doctor has to search for clues.
The doctor may indeed use some fixed routine for eliciting information—a combination of navy and grey shoe action.
When a doctor forms an idea, then this hypothesis can be checked out by means of tests.
So the first use of investigation is to make a start.
The mind can see only what it is prepared to see.
That is why a hypothesis is so useful.
Using the framework of the hypothesis you can start to notice things you would not otherwise have noticed.
The hypothesis also provides a direction in which to look for further information.
The second use of information therefore is to confirm or reject hypotheses.
In theory scientists should seek to destroy an hypothesis, but they first need something to destroy, so they attempt to confirm the hypothesis as theory.
This second use of investigation is the checking-out phase.
Choices often have to be made.
You may need to choose between two possible hypotheses or two courses of action.
You need information to make choices of any sort.
A person buying a new stove wants to get as much information as possible, not only from the vendor but from existing users of that brand of stove.
You need information to build a case.
A prosecutor wants the detective to provide enough information to get a conviction.
The designer of a new product wants as much information as possible about how the product will be perceived by the designated market.
The information may not reach the level of certainty of proof, but the information must build a reasonable case.
You need information when looking into the future.
You need to see the consequences of action—and also of inaction.
Today ecologists and green groups paint horrific scenarios about the greenhouse and other effects.
You need information to assess the seriousness of the danger.
Information about future possibilities gives a good basis for action.
Sometimes you need to know what you don't know.
You need to identify exactly what you don't know.
Chapter 15: Thinking, Ideas, and Information
Thinking is involved in collecting information and making the maximum use of that information.
Information may trigger ideas, which may trigger an information search.
Information does not easily yield up all the ideas that are present in that information.
The mind has to put things together in different ways—to generate possibilities and even provocations.
Sometimes there is information which everyone has looked at in a particular way.
Then someone comes along and uses lateral thinking to look at information in a different way and reaches a new hypothesis about it.
It is a mistake to believe that collecting enough information will do all our thinking for us.
Information is not a substitute for ideas and thinking.
On the other hand, there is a real need for information.
The key is to sustain an active interplay between thinking and information collecting.
Thinking directs information collecting and also makes the best use of what has been collected.
At the same time information may suggest ideas, confirm some ideas, and lead to the rejection of others.
Chapter 16: Use of the Grey Sneaker Action Mode
"Right now we are all in the grey sneaker action mode.
We have to find out what our competitors are planning to do.
That has to come first."
"Why are you trying to solve the problem in that way?
Have you given it some grey action mode, or are you just doing the first thing that comes to mind?"
"We have only got half a story here.
Get out there, put on your grey sneakers, and get the other half.
Then we can publish it."
"How much is it all going to cost?
Have you completed your grey actions on this?"
"He is always jumping to conclusions.
He never checks things out.
I don't think he likes the grey action mode.
Perhaps it is too quiet for him.
He prefers strong action."
"I congratulate you.
That's very good grey sneaker action.
That was a smart piece of investigation.
It is going to save us a lot of time and money."
"How is it that those two scientists could show the effect but no one else has been able to??
What is going on?
Did they cheat?
Did they make an honest mistake?
Did they just do things in a different way?
There is a great need for some grey sneaker action."
10:42 P.M. U.K. TIME: TIME FOR SLEEP BEFORE ARRIVING IN LOS ANGELES. STILL SUNNY AS WE TRAVEL WITH THE SUN.
Chapter 17: Motivation for Grey Sneaker Action
1What is the motivation for investigation and exploration?
Investigation may be a large part of your job as a scientist, detective, explorer, or spy.
Even so, some people satisfy the minimal requirements of such jobs, and some actually enjoy exploration.
Some people have a natural curiosity and a fascination with information.
They want to know things.
Other people may not have this curiosity but instead have an urgency to complete a task once the task has been started.
Such people may be slow to start grey sneaker action, but once started they are carried along by the momentum of what they are discovering.
Like the proverbial terrier, they cannot let go.
Other people want only certainties.
They are irritated by ambiguities and uncertainties.
They want everything to be neat and defined.
Such people are apt to switch into certainties and beliefs as soon as possible.
They quickly become dogmatic and move rapidly from possibility to certainty without any proper justification.
What is a belief?
A belief is an idea, a hypothesis, a theory, or a way of looking at the world which forces us to look at the world in a way that supports that belief.
The classic example is paranoia.
Paranoid people use complicated logic to show that all events are directed toward themselves.
Unlike some other types of mental illness in paranoia there is no lack of organization of information but a type of excess of organization.
Everything is fitted together into one master theory.
In an investigation this type of person rushes to generate an idea or hypothesis.
All further investigation is designed to fit that hypothesis, which soon becomes a belief—which must be true.
Anything that does not fit is ignored or changed so that it does fit.
Objective exploration ceases.
As a lawyer in court makes and argues a particular case, so does the investigator.
This is dangerous grey shoe action.
The best preventative for this premature closing of the mind is to insist that in grey shoe action at least two hypotheses are kept in mind and that the investigator should be able to make a reasonable case for both of them at any time.
The premature acceptance of a theory also causes trouble in science.
An early reasonable hypothesis causes scientists to look at the world in a particular way and then ignore evidence that does not fit the hypothesis.
All evidence is seen through this hypothesis.
It can take a long time for a breakthrough to break through even though the evidence was there all along.
1 1:50 AM. U.K. TIME AND 5:50 P.M. LOS ANGELES TIME: AWAKE AFTER A BRIEF SLEEP.
Chapter 18: What Should Investigation Be Like?
A formal collection of information can take the form of house-to-house inquiries in a murder hunt.
A scientist tests many possible variations of a chemical molecule.
A pollster defines a sample and steadily works through it.
This is navy type action used for grey purposes.
1
The data should be neutral and objective even though eventually they are looked at through the window of an idea.
Having more than one person involved in collecting the data reduces the personal bias of an individual.
This type of data collection is driven by a systematic method.
The other type of data collection is driven by a hunch or theory that hypothesizes what data to look for and where to find it.
It requires a conscious effort by the grey sneaker operator to make a clear distinction between a theory that helps data collection and data collection that simply supports the theory.
There may be a need for a second person to show that the same data can indeed be looked at in a different way.
There can also be the habit, suggested earlier, of always having at least two theories or hypotheses in mind.
There is no easy way around the dilemma that without a theory it may be difficult even to collect data but that the theory may so dominate the data collection that it is no longer neutral or comprehensive.
Instead of pretending that people can be objective it may be better to acknowledge that the mind cannot really be objective and then to take steps to address that lack of objectivity (like the habit of twin hypotheses).
1 OVER THE MIDWEST AT 39,000 FEET AND TRAVELING AT 926 KILOMETERS PER HOUR. ONE HOUR AND FIFTY-FOUR MINUTES TO ARRIVAL IN LOS ANGELES.
Chapter 19: Investigation Leads to Action
Navy shoe formality may be involved in collecting data, and that may lead to grey shoe activity.
This in turn may lead to brown shoe (or other) action.
Investigation itself is a form of action, but at some point grey shoe action gives way to other forms of action and activity.
A scientist moves from data to theory to experiment to data to publication of a paper.
A detective collects evidence to build a case, which is passed to the prosecutor, who then presents the case in court.
In between comes the arrest of the person to be charged.
A market researcher takes action to collect information, which is then passed to the client, who decides what action to take.
An interplay occurs between the collection of information and the action that is going to be taken as a result of that information.
The key question for the grey shoe operator to ask is, "At this moment what is the central purpose of my activity-to collect information?"
If the answer to that question is yes, then grey sneaker action is called for.
The movement from information collection to action depends on several factors:
What is the time pressure?
Is there a hurry?
Will delay have negative consequences?
What are the dangers of precipitate action?
What are the benefits of quick action?
What is the trade-off between more thorough data collection and the need for action?
If a criminal suspect is preparing to flee the country, further collection of evidence may make a better case, but there would be no suspect to try.
In some cases spending twice as much money and time in collecting data produces a benefit that is only 10 percent better.
That may not be a worthwhile investment if the information is for a market survey.
In other fields the extra information might be vital: in medicine one additional test may make the difference between recommending and not recommending a procedure.
Some ways of collecting information are more effective than others.
One way may take a long time and cost a great deal of money; another way make be quicker and cheaper.
The collection of data is an activity like any other and can be improved through careful and creative thinking.
It is not often that data must be collected regardless of cost.
Information is a product like any other.
What is the best way of producing that product?
The careful design of data collection is as important as the use of the data.
Chapter 20: Carrying Through Grey Sneaker Action
The data collector must be absolutely clear that at the moment he or she is in grey sneaker mode.
Information collection requires full concentration and must take precedence over other matters.
The casual and incidental collection of information does have a high value, but with grey sneaker mode the purpose of the action is direct collection of information.
Collecting the information is an end in itself.
Grey sneaker action requires effort and discipline.
It is easy to slip into other action modes that offer a reaction to the situation and make use of existing action habits.
Grey sneaker action is quiet and unobtrusive.
If the data collector uses an authority role (purple boot action mode), then the data provider might tell the collector only what is expected.
The information collector should be almost invisible.
That is why the color grey is so appropriate—a grey cat is always difficult to see.
Persistence is probably the most important characteristic needed for the grey sneaker mode.
If you do have persistence, then a lot else will follow.
If you do not have persistence, then all other qualities will amount to nothing.
2:40 A.M. U.K. TIME: STOP FOR SNACK AS WE APPROACH LOS ANGELES.
Exercises
Describe the grey sneaker action component in each of the following situations. Where and how is grey sneaker action required?
Working on an assembly line
Running for reelection
Marrying someone you have know for three months
Suddenly rising juvenile crime in an area
Driving along a highway to a destination that is 200 miles distant
Interviewing someone for a job
Deciding in what color to decorate a room
Buying a computer
Chapter 21: Grey Sneaker Action Style
Information collection as a priority.
Quiet, unobtrusive, and objective.
Collecting information as a basis for theories and then collecting information to test the theories.
Asking, looking, and listening.
Designing ways of collecting the information.
Collecting information most effectively.
Being conscious of the value of an hypothesis and also of the danger of an hypothesis, which can reduce objectivity.
Grey sneaker action style also includes thinking.
The formal application of thinking to a chosen target area.
The solution of problems.
Making the maximum use of available information and deciding what further information may be required.
In general, grey sneaker action mode is absorbing information and using it.
Action is required to collect information, and skill is involved in deciding how to collect the information, in collecting the information, and in making the best use of it.
Chapter 22: Summary
The grey sneaker action mode is one of the six action modes.
It emphasizes the collection and use of information.
Think of grey as indicating the grey matter of the brain because it is brain rather than muscle that is important in grey sneaker mode.
Think also of a grey fog or mist because the purpose of grey sneaker action is to remove the fog to make things clear.
The sneaker type of shoe suggests something that is casual, quiet, and unobtrusive.
In the grey sneaker mode the objectives are the collection and use of information.
They must take precedence over everything else.
Information may be collected systematically where this is possible, but other times a theory or hypothesis may be needed to suggest a direction.
Remember that the collection of information should be as comprehensive and neutral as possible.
It is only in the second phase that information collection may be directed at testing a hypothesis.
Information collecting is a valuable activity that is the basis for many other types of action.
Part V: Brown Brogues
"This is brown brogue stuff.
Get in there and see what you can do.
Be sensible, be practical.
Work it out as you go along."
"I'm operating in the brown brogue mode.
Each step is determined by the evolving situation.
I have a general sense of direction, but the choice of action at any moment is purely practical."
"There is no fixed price.
You just bargain.
It is a sort of brown brogue way of conducting business.
He sets the price flexibly, and you pay flexibly."
"You want to be told what to do.
Well, I'll tell you.
Use the brown brogue action mode.
Do what is sensible and practical at every moment."
Brown is a practical color.
The earth is brown, and mud is brown.
There is nothing exotic about the color brown, which is basic and indeed earthy Brown is an everyday color.
Brogues are stout shoes capable of hard wear; they are not smart shoes for formal occasions but day-to-day shoes for most occasions.
All these factors contribute to what is meant by the brown brogue action mode.
The emphasis in brown brogue action is on practicality, pragmatism, and good sense.
What can be done in this situation?
Navy shoe action is determined by a preset routine that has to be followed.
Brown brogue action is determined moment to moment by the actual situation.
Quite often the situation falls outside established routine or training.
Flexibility is a key aspect of brown brogue action.
You change your behavior as the situation changes.
If you cannot do what you set out to do, you modify your objective.
There is no rigidity about brown brogue action.
You do what can be done.
You do what you can do.
Brown brogue action is low key and unspectacular.
There is something to be done, and you do it.
Good sense, common sense, and a little wisdom are required.
General experience can be a help, but general experience may have set up bad habits of behavior that interfere with the true flexibility required for brown brogue action.
Experience can trap people in routines of perception and behavior and lead to navy shoe behavior.
But experience also can help to prevent overreaction and provide a sense of perspective.
Experience can provide a sort of calmness in coping.
Brown brogue action is not detached and advisory but is always involved: it is "get your hands dirty" action.
Without thinking there would only be mindless action, but the thinking is directed to what can be done in the moment.
What are sometimes called street smarts come under brown brogue action.
The general skills of doing-for which I invented the word operacy—are best illustrated by brown brogue action.
Schools teach about literacy and numeracy, but in the real world operacy is just as important.
Knowledge does not automatically lead to action.
Matters like assessing priorities and guessing well are important parts of life, of operacy, and of brown brogue action.
When I fly short distances, I ask for a window seat because I enjoy looking at the world outside.
When I fly long distances, I prefer an aisle seat because it makes it easier to reach the lavatory in the middle of the night.
That is a sort of brown brogue action although you could argue that the window person climbing over me might wake me up.
On balance, it seems to make sense to me.
I have often suggested that airport information desks should have simple overhead projectors providing instant information that could be updated as often as required.
Passengers then would know when and why delays occurred instead of crowding around desks to hear announcements.
I have been told that the idea is too simple and that the airlines are developing a complicated electronic screen-which probably will be out of order half the time.
Simplicity and practicality are key features of brown brogue action.
The small cartons of fruit juice have been a huge success.
The fruit juice is the same, but the handy size and the attached straw provide great convenience.
Brown brogue action is concerned with what is doable and what gives value.
This book is being written entirely on a flight from London to Auckland, New Zealand, where I have been invited to address the meeting of the Commonwealth Law Society.
Why?
Because writing a book is by far the best way to make the time pass quickly.
Because it is a period of total peace when I am not going to be interrupted by phone calls or other matters.
Because there is nothing else that I could, or should, be doing.
Because being 35,000 feet up does give one a certain detachment.
Because I have found it better to write books like this in one go rather than a piece at a time.
Because I wrote another book, Six Thinking Hats, on a plane trip from London to Melbourne.
On that occasion I used a Canon 5 Star electronic typewriter, which meant messing around with pieces of paper.
This time I'm using a small Psion MC400 mobile computer, which removes the need for paper and also is quieter.
Brown brogue action may also include twisting your tie back to front when eating on a plane so that dropped food does not ruin the tie.
These are minor points of practicality.
Brown brogue action is not heroics but small practical things that come together to give effectiveness.
Chapter 23: Pragmatism
Some people condemn pragmatism because they believe that pragmatism seems to be a way of acting without principles.
Pragmatism does not mean being unprincipled: it means the pragmatic use of principles.
Pragmatism is when you do what can be done to achieve an objective and put as much emphasis on practicality as on principles.
Action without principles is dangerous and intolerable in a civilized society because principles help society control action.
The main objection to pragmatism is that the end might come to justify the means.
If offering false evidence to convict a drug dealer is acceptable because the end is worthwhile, then the door is opened to all sorts of behavior.
Pragmatism, however, asserts that the end cannot justify the means without leading to total chaos.
Much theft, for example, would be justified on the grounds of need.
Pragmatism is concerned with where an action might lead-with the effect or consequences of the action-but it does not say that anything is acceptable as long as the outcome is positive.
Pragmatism should be contrasted with the arrogance (often based on principles) that declares, "I am sure that what I am doing is right, and I do not care what the consequences might be."
Pragmatism means being sensitive to a situation, to the people involved in the situation, and to what is practical.
Pragmatism is the art of the possible.
Politicians are pragmatic people.
The term expediency also has a bad image.
Politicians are said to do things in order to gain votes even though these things may be unprincipled.
Buying votes with favors is an unpleasant practice, and some types of expediency are not acceptable.
Nevertheless, it may not be hygienic to use a dirty handkerchief to staunch a flow of blood, but if there is nothing else on hand then one urgent need overrides the danger.
An infection can be dealt with later.
Chapter 24: Effectiveness
In the course of my work I have met a lot of highly intelligent and creative people.
But what seems to be more rare than intelligence or creativity is simple effectiveness.
Effectiveness is very much a part of brown brogue action.
Brown brogue action is not just concerned with survival and getting by, even though that may sometimes be the priority.
Brown brogue action is concerned with getting results.
Efficiency and effectiveness are not at all the same thing.
Efficiency is a balance between input and output.
There is an effort to cut down on input and costs so that the ratio looks good.
Effectiveness means making sure that the resources are available to get the results that you want.
If the resources are not sufficient to allow you to do everything that you need to do, then you list priorities and go down that list as far as you can.
But you make sure that each item you tackle is done effectively.
Effectiveness does not mean inefficiency.
It means focusing directly on what you want to achieve rather than on the balance between input and output.
An efficient operation may give a poor quality output.
To some extent the Japanese tend to put effectiveness first, whereas the Americans tend to put efficiency first: the Americans removed all extras from cars to decrease the price, and the Japanese put in as many extras as possible to increase the value.
It is a good habit to ask at every step, what is the most effective course of action here?
That is a good brown brogue habit.
4:30 A.M. U.K. TIME, 8:30 P.M. LOS ANGELES TIME: LANDING AT LOS ANGELES AIRPORT. SITTING IN THE TRANSIT LOUNGE.
Chapter 25: What Is the Basis of Brown Brogue Action?
Brown brogue action is a combination of good values, good sense, and good principles.
What are good values?
Human respect is an example of a good value.
From this basic value comes an avoidance of bullying, pressure, extortion, torture, prejudice, racism, etc. Human respect is a practical aspect of the love that religions advocate.
You can respect an enemy even when you feel you can't love that enemy.
Respect acknowledges others' dignity and right to exist.
Being unwilling to cause harm is another basic value.
One of the most basic values in medicine is not to cause more harm than help: sometimes the side effects of drugs do just that.
Respect for the truth is another basic value and so is respect for the environment.
There are individual values, community values, social values, and environmental values.
Unless the brown brogue action is specifically directed toward doing something directly in these areas, the minimum requirement is to avoid doing harm.
If a person is in good standing in a community, then to destroy that standing unreasonably is causing harm to the community.
To arrest a person as publicly as possible causes such harm.
An arrested person is not yet a convicted person (that is for the courts to decide), so there is no justification for this harm.
Should brown brogue action attempt to create benefits or positive values as such?
Probably not, unless this is the specific purpose of the action.
A slight additional effort may be able to create such additional values, but it is usually difficult enough to achieve the main objective of the brown brogue action, and blurring one objective with another may confuse the action and make it less effective.
What is good sense?
In hindsight, everything that works out well can be attributed to common sense and any failure to lack of common sense.
Good sense and common sense are most easily visible in hindsight when everything has been worked out.
It is not unlike standing beside a roulette table when the number twenty-three comes up.
If you had had the good sense to put your money on number twenty-three, then you would have won a lot of money.
Hindsight is easy.
So a plea for common sense is usually pointless.
Good sense is a combination of sensitivity, priorities, and practicality.
Sensitivity means clear understanding of the situation and of the people involved.
This is a matter of perception and also of trying out different perceptions.
This sensitivity does not mean sympathy or compassion but an understanding of what is going on.
Establishing priorities is very much part of brown brogue action.
Without a good sense of priorities it is difficult to lay down the necessary action steps.
Priorities set objectives and guidelines for action.
What do you want to achieve?
What matters most?
What needs to be done first?
The final component of good sense is practicality.
This is an acknowledgment of what is actually doable.
You might like to do some things, but they may not be feasible.
What can actually be done?
This should not give rise to a sense of timidity and the setting of timid objectives.
The sense of practicality extends to a feeling of what is likely.
What is likely to happen?
How is the situation likely to evolve?
What is the likely reaction to an intervention?
To some extent this assessment of what is likely depends on experience and understanding human nature.
But even a simple pause to ask, "What is the most likely outcome here?" can make a significant difference.
It is important to distinguish between the likely and the possible.
There are times when the possible does indeed happen, but in general you are going to be better off aiming for the likely.
What are good principles?
That the end cannot justify the means is a basic principle.
A concern for the truth is both a principle and a value.
There are general moral principles such as these and also practical principles of action.
The latter might include the need to define your role, your resources, and your objectives.
Another practical principle is to define the action mode that you want to use.
Is it really brown action mode, or might it be a purple action mode?
Being reliable when others have to depend on you is a further important principle.
These guidelines for behavior in the brown brogue action mode may seem much like the guidelines for training the perfect person who acts appropriately on every occasion.
This is true but refers to only one of the six action modes.
The pragmatic nature of brown brogue action requires a double sensitivity:
1. A sensitivity to the situation.
2. A sensitivity to guiding principles.
This is the definition of pragmatic behavior. The other five action modes do not have this characteristic.
Chapter 26: Initiative
Since there are no formal rules of procedure, then a person in the brown brogue action mode needs to use initiative.
Analyze the situation and determine priorities and objectives.
Behave in the most obvious and established way.
This depends on a personal repertoire of action steps provided by experience.
If the action does not work, then try another approach.
Always do the obvious thing first unless you are sure that surprise is important.
There may be a place for creativity if the value of a creative approach is high and the cost of failure low.
Is this the right situation in which to risk a new and untried approach?
Patterns of action depend on individual personalities and styles.
The extrovert may behave in a way that is different from the introvert.
No one pattern is right for everyone.
That is the difference between the navy action mode and the brown action mode.
With the navy action mode there is one routine that has to be used by everyone.
Brown action mode is more customized and more individualized.
Because brown action mode is individual, there is training value in discussing what has been done in debriefing sessions.
Why did you do that?
What did you do next?
In sales training colleagues quickly learn from the behavior of a master salesperson because there is a tangible measure of success (the sales volume).
This instant measurement of success is more difficult to find in other fields.
So training should include an acknowledgment of the success of the action.
This acknowledgment may be based on many criteria-effectiveness, speed, simplicity, low cost, low risk.
All these aspects need to be discussed.
Brown action mode does not mean having to create an action pattern from scratch on each occasion.
When you get up in the morning, you have a choice of clothes to wear (as distinct from having to wear a uniform).
So the brown action operator may choose from a range of available action patterns.
But the choice is up to the operator.
Chapter 27: Use of the Brown Brogue Action Mode
"There is no set way of doing this.
Keep your head.
Be practical.
Use the brown brogue mode.
Make your decisions as you go along."
"He's fine in routine situations.
A great navy action person.
But not so good at the brown brogue stuff.
He does not seem to have any common sense."
"We are going to put the books aside and use the brown brogue mode.
You know, practical and moment-to-moment action depending on what we find.
We have our objectives and our priorities for guides."
"I liked the way you used your initiative.
That was a very good example of brown brogue action mode.
You are getting pretty good at it."
"What do we do now?
I don't yet know.
We'll wait and see how the situation develops and then decide what to do.
Brown brogue stuff."
"I am sorry I just froze up.
I couldn't think of a thing to do.
I guess I am not very good at this brown brogue action mode."
"Yes, that is a reasonable plan of action.
You can try it, but if you find it does not work then switch to the brown brogue action mode."
"There are times when doing nothing at all is the correct brown brogue action mode."
"She is totally the wrong sort of person for that job.
She has no feel for situations.
She does not understand what is meant by pragmatism.
She wants to do everything by the book.
But the book does not cover all situations.
She just does not seem happy with brown brogue action."
Chapter 28: Source of Brown Brogue Action
Brown brogue action is determined in the first place by the needs of the situation.
What are you there for?
What are you trying to do?
What sort of situation is it?
Brown brogue action is, above all, responsive to the situation.
Brown brogue action follows a simple analysis, understanding, or appreciation of the situation.
What is going on?
How is it likely to develop?
What are the sensitive points in the situation?
What are the action points?
What are the needs?
Brown brogue action requires simple initiatives.
Keep things as simple as possible.
Do the obvious—except in a conflict situation where surprise may have a benefit.
Don't try to be clever.
Prefer to be practical.
Brown brogue action draws on your experience and also the experience of others.
What action patterns are available to you?
What did you do in the past in similar situations?
Although brown brogue action is responsive to the situation, always try to be in control of the situation.
Avoid letting the situation get out of control so that you are carried along and have to respond to the initiatives of others.
Chapter 29: What Should Brown Brogue Action Be Like?
Brown brogue action should be simple, practical, and effective.
There is nothing more to be said.
Everything is covered in those three words.
Use them to test any brown brogue actions:
• Are the actions simple enough?
• Are the actions practical (doable)?
• Are the actions likely to be effective?
If the answers to these three questions are not an easy yes, then think again.
Brown brogue action is not mindless action.
It includes the thinking necessary to choose suitable actions.
Exercises
For each of the following situations suggest a brown brogue course of action.
A father asks your advice because he suspects his son is a thief.
You are waiting patiently in a line when some newcomers move directly to the head of the line.
You are in a public meeting that is constantly interrupted by someone with a grievance who makes the same point over and over again.
You are in a store and notice that the man in front of you is stealing some of the merchandise.
At a party one of the guests gets drunk and wants to pick a fight with you.
5:54 A.M. U.K. TIME, 9:54 P.M. LOS ANGELES TIME: RETURN TO PLANE TE001.
A neighbor always parks her car so that it blocks the entrance to your garage.
When you come back late at night, you are unable to get into your garage.
Someone unknown is spreading false rumors that your business is in difficulties and is likely to go bankrupt.
You are driving a distance of fifty miles to get to an important meeting for which you cannot be late.
After twenty miles you hear a strange sound coming from the back of the car.
What do you do?
Chapter 30: Brown Brogue Action Style
The style is low key and practical.
You don't go in with any set plan, but you assess the situation moment to moment and act accordingly.
The emphasis is on practicality and effectiveness.
You do what is doable.
There is a need for a clear sense of objectives and a clear sense of priorities.
Within these guidelines you determine your actions.
Take initiatives and don't be passive.
Keep control of the situation.
Be sensitive to changes in the situation.
Give yourself space for action and fallback positions in case things do not work out as intended.
Have plans, but don't be trapped by them.
Be flexible: if the situation changes, then adjust to that change.
Keep your head and use it.
Pragmatism is the key aspect of brown brogue action.
Chapter 31: Summary
Think of brown earth and down to earth.
Think of mud and messy situations.
Think of the practicality of brogues, which are hard-wearing shoes suitable for most occasions.
The result is brown brogue action mode that is low key and practical.
Assess the situation, and then act on your own initiative.
Your actions will be guided by basic values, principles, good sense, and a feel for what is possible.
The emphasis is always on simplicity, practicality, and effectiveness.
Over time you will build up basic action patterns: pick and choose from these as the situation requires.
A strong sense of priorities and likelihood is useful in guiding your choice of action.
Be pragmatic, and be flexible.
Keep in control of the situation even as you adjust to it.
In brown brogue mode you watch and you act.
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