Example of The 6 Thought Hats

This case study focuses on a business decision.

The hacienda is a sugar mill that has offices and a production plant in a rural area of ??the department. As part of the strategy for the new year, the company is considering the possibility of moving the offices to the urban area, in an office cluster considered as a free zone. Some data to keep in mind are:

There aren't many office spaces left in the city.

Most of the staff live in the city.

The possibility of paying rent or buying the offices is offered.

In the offices of the rural area you must pay for security service and food transportation.

In the offices of the urban area there are restaurants for employees and includes the security service.

So, let's see the positions of the different hats. We start with the blue hat.

Blue hat speaking :

The purpose of this session is to evaluate the pros and cons of moving offices from rural to urban areas. I understand that we are all familiar with the case, so the estimated most unrestricted time of this session will be one hour.

We will start with white, then red, black, yellow and green, but this will not necessarily be a strict order. Remember that the hat change will take place only when it is mentioned and it is also possible that one of you will be asked to put on a specific hat.

Let's try that the intervention time while wearing each hat is one minute, except for Red, which will be 30 seconds.

White hat speaking :

This decision comes down to thinking, what is most beneficial? Even with a free zone and everything, transportation savings and others, the costs of moving are 20% higher than the costs of having our offices in the rural area.

Yes, but it is something that has been demanded by collaborators. Travel times exceed 1 hour from the city limits to the office. Even two hours for those who live in the northern part of the city, who are 40% of employees. They are 4 hours of a day lost on a bus.

I add to what they mentioned, that 85% of employees are tired of ordering lunch only at that restaurant. This is demonstrated by the staff satisfaction survey.

Note that what they mention is reduced to weighing between the emotional benefit of the collaborator versus the cost involved in moving.

80% of employees live in the city and 20% in rural areas. There I leave that information.

If this decision is not made now, we will not be able to do it later. The spaces for companies in the city are reduced and they are all on the outskirts of the city, yes, not as far as we have.

Red hat speaking :

It makes me sad when executives from other companies come to those offices that we have. The ceiling of the meeting room is full of moisture.

If we have been in the same offices for 15 years, why are we going to change? Today we are the largest sugar mill in the south-west of the country. Would moving offices change at all? No gentlemen.

Food is disgusting, and for that alone I would be willing to lower my salary in order to eat something better every day.

I don't know, I feel like we have to buy that now. Have you seen how quickly those offices have filled up? It is clearly not a bargain, but please, if the other mills have done it, why not us?

With Willington as president that decision was never thought about. Dr. Isa has been in the position for 6 months and already wants to come to change our workplace.

For you it is very easy because you live in the rural area near the company, but remember that we are 20% of the employees who live in the urban area. I do not agree.

Black hat speaking :

Are we really going to hand over company security to another company?

The financial results for the year do not allow us to pay rent or acquire offices.

Surely a yellow is going to say that we send those who live in the city to work in the city and those from the rural area to continue working here. But if we already have communication problems like this, imagine how it would be divided.

There are no spaces in the city to build offices and eventually there will not be in the suburbs either.

Yellow hat speaking :

Happy, well-fed workers work better.

Business trends have changed the design of offices. Ours are still old. The new offices will facilitate cooperation and teamwork.

Why say that communication will be difficult if we divide the staff from rural and urban areas? For that there is "chat."

Yes, it is true that the financial results were not the best. But with the economic opening of the city, the forecasts cannot be better.

With offices in the city the distribution work would be easier.

The design of the offices will allow us to improve our travel times. To go from hiring to shopping at the Ingenio, it took me 20 minutes. On the other hand, in the new offices it would take me 30 seconds at most.

Exact! Also remember that although the cost of offices in the city is higher, we have not considered the savings from having a distribution center in the city, in addition to the decrease in workplace accidents, because these offices are designed to be safer.

Blue hat speaking again :

What yellow mentioned we had not taken into account. Can anyone give us the savings data if we have a distribution center in town? Also, by how much do we think work-related accidents would be reduced?

White hat speaking again :

Without paying much attention, I estimate that with a distribution center in the city we would reduce by 23% the cost of distributing in the city and in the departments that are to the north and west. I do not have the data on occupational accidents at this time rhcsa cost.

Green hat speaking:

We could obtain energy savings by using bioclimatic alternatives such as skylights.

In the city there are more facilities to obtain agreements with restaurants, gyms and entertainment centers in the area.

What can we say compared to what Black mentioned?

We can outsource the food service within the mill, or build a restaurant to stop buying in the only restaurant in the rural area.

We could use solar energy in the new offices.

Blue hat closes the session by offering a summary of the aforementioned. Thus, attendees already have better points of view to make a consensual decision.