Wednesday, October 14, 2009

The Six Hats of Business Intelligence

Six Thinking Hats and BI

If you are one to enjoy giving your brain a work-out, like to think outside the square and want to learn how to do it better, or are interested in learning new management methodologies, you have probably read one of Edward De Bono's books in the past. The first time I heard about Edward De Bono was when I was teamed with a business improvement consultant who had previously worked with Michelin. Michelin were huge advocates of Edward de Bono's methodologies, as you can imagine in the tyre business one of the greatest differentiators is innovation. At Michelin it was De Bono's techniques that led to allowed the organisation to look at making tyres differently. The concept of looking at nature for innovative ideas was a new one at the time, and it was De Bono's lateral thinking principles that contributed to Michelin's leadership in lateral thinking. The interaction with this consultant inspired me to read the book "Six Thinking Hats" - an international best seller. It has been years since I read this novel and thought about the impact of lateral thinking to day-to-day activities, so I decided to pick it up and review the concepts in the context of Business Intelligence decision-making.

Review the Six Thinking Hats

You should buy or re-read the book if it's been a while, but briefly, De Bono outlines a methodology to problem solving and interacting which uses "role-playing" to analyse the problem from 6 different angles, each point of view is a different coloured hat. Not only is each hat a point of view, but together using the hats can facilitate meetings, discussions and used correctly can truly change the culture of a company to be more accepting of new ideas, and encourage giving different points of view without criticism. You can see already how this simple methodology can be effective. I'll review the hats quickly and then apply them in the world of BI.

White Hat - Facts and Figures. An objective and neutral hat.

Red Hat - Emotions and Feelings. This is an emotional view.

Black Hat - Cautious and Careful. Serious and a hat used to point out weaknesses.

Yellow Hat - Speculative - Positive. An optomistic hat with lots of hope.

Green Hat - Creative Thinking hat.

Blue Hat - Organising the use of the other hats. Executive hat.

Each of the hats can be combined with other hats, but for my analogy, I will assume a position including the use of only one hat at a time. If you are looking at the description of the hats, you probably already have an idea of which person you work with wears which hat most of the time. The concept that De Bono introduces is that although you may normally wear a yellow hat, if you put on a black hat for example, how would your decision change. In this article, I will play on the typical roles, departments and/or responsibilities in an organisation, and demonstrate how their hat might give them a certain point of view. I would also go on to say that if you are in one of these positions, that it is okay (in fact encouraged) to put on a different hat to see another department's point of view.

The Six Hats of Enterprise Business Intelligence

I will use an example of an organisation that has a variety of tools scattered about the enterprise. Some of the activity is "under the wire" but much of the reporting and analysis activity is known. It has been decided that a business intelligence strategy will be crafted and deployed. Here are some of the hats that will surface as we take this journey. Note: The concept of the Six Thinking Hats is if you typically wear one of these hats, to try to put on another hat for a differenct point of view. When each participant wears and "tries on" another angle using the Hats terminology, it can allow new ideas surface without hurting others feelings etc. Below I have tried to have a bit of fun and start with some of the hats that we often see, but challenge you to wear another hat.

White Hat - The white hat is often worn by the enterprise architects. Their role is to be unbiased, and provide an objective long-term strategy for business intelligence. Even though the business may be emotionally attached to solution, it may not be architecturally sound - physically or economically.

Red BI Hat - The emotionally charged red hat can sometimes come from a department that has a need to solve a dire problem like not being able to track profitable customers, not knowing which segments to target. Bonuses and KPIs may be matched against these outcomes, bringing a personal attachment to a solution that may need agreement by executives, IT support and other stakeholders.

Black BI Hat - The black hat should be worn by those involved with developing the business case that will outline a solution for enterprise reporting, or any solution for that matter. The cautious black hat should in fact be worn at various stages of discovery, evaluation and deployment. As De Bono states, the Black hat is the most important of the hats, and all involved with developing a BI strategy should put it on at one stage or another.

Yellow BI Hat - The optimistic yellow hat will be likely be worn by the planning and strategy team responsible for the development of a BI strategy, or can also be worn by external parties like BI consulting firms employed to support the initiative. This is an important hat since this hat will provide a vision, and a picture of what information and results can be obtained once the BI strategy has been actioned. This hat can really keep things moving when it seems there will never be an end to feral reports production!

Green BI Hat - Creativity is so important in deploying a BI strategy, and for success here all participants should try it on. Ideas on using existing infrastructure and software, narrowing the requirements, how to get more with less and creatively resourcing requirements at various stages. Again, this is a hat that is typically worn by all, but the core BI strategy team need to have it on often, and encourage stakeholders to wear it from time-to-time.

Blue BI Hat - The blue hat is reserved for the playmakers. The executive team that need to pull the BI team together, paint a vision for the future and enforce a sense of urgency. Within the cross-functional team there also needs to be a leadership hat that can be used to orchestrate the goals, talent and tools.

You may call me a mad hatter, but utilising the hat methodologies in a BI implementation helps to enact change, manage processes and create a common language. Being aware of the different hats in the organisation and some of the styles will allow effective implementation and drive you towards success.

Maybe you have other examples of hats that you have seen in a BI implementation (departmental or otherwise). Drop a note below with your examples. I'll be wearing my yellow hat with anticipation!