Everything is a mixed bag in life!
Nothing can ever be ‘all good’ or ‘all bad’.
Over the past 40 years of teaching higher order critical thinking skills we have seen that one of the most useful SOT thinking algorithms is the GBB.
When you do a GBB you deliberately judge the Good, the Bad and then you go even further to discern what could be Better.
G = GOOD. The good things about an idea why you like it.
B = BAD. The bad things about an idea why you don’t like it.
B = BETTER. What could be much better about an idea.
Everyone agrees that we should all be more broad-minded, more tolerant, more thoughtful, considerate, and more creative. Why don’t people THINK? How often have you heard that question?
It is easy to say to someone, “Why don’t you be more broad-minded?” But it is not so easy to actually do it. This is because it is impossible to focus attention on general attitudes like the ones mentioned above. They sound great as slogans and battle cries but have proved to be of little value as operating tools which can actually be practised and used.
However, a GBB is specific. It is possible to ask someone to “Do a GBB on this.” The thought-leader then takes pride in the skill of being able to deliberately see the Good, Bad and Better points in the situation.
DO A GBB!
Instead of just saying that you like an idea, or you don’t like it, you can use a GBB.
When you use a GBB, you give the good points, the bad points, and also the points which are neither good nor bad but are much better.
You can use a GBB as a way of managing ideas, suggestions, and proposals.
You can ask someone else to do a GBB, or you can be asked to do one yourself.
DFQ #19:
Do a GBB!Tomorrow is the last lesson in this 30-day leadership pipeline so today is a chance to reflect on your journey so far. Do a GBB on this month’s training!
• List 3 GOOD things.
• List 3 BAD things.
• List 3 things that could be BETTER.Post your GBB below:
Good:
1. Breaking down leadership into bite size pieces
2. Military references of high level training on the PTO
3. Ability to express myself and leave daily feedback and to also see what others have written
Bad:
1. Not directly measurable
2. No ‘recognition’ of having done the course
3. No feedback from comments
Better:
1. Sharing of success results post-lessons
2. Emailing all comments I’ve made to keep in my own personal training folder for review later
3. More links to videos from inspirational speakers pertinent to each lesson
Good – consistent, more interesting than the introductory course, relevant theories
Bad – too frequent (every 3 days would be better); don’t send on weekends, lack of content
Better – as above
Good – commitment, daily reminders, PTO most useful tool so far.
Bad – No direct questions posed, asking us to use PTO or other tools in situations we think of ourselves means we already have a bias before trying the tool.
Better – More content, if a set of situations were given to us to go over throughout the course it would be nice to compare quantity of answers to what other people came up with.
– List 3 GOOD things
Provides to time to think during a busy day
Forces participants to think about thinking
Adds new skills to participants i.e. using the pipe line and pealing oranges 🙂
– List 3 BAD things.
Got an error with the brief strength survey
No feed back on direction from lessons
The lack of examples on how the techniques have helped in the real world
– List 3 things that could be BETTER.
Discussion forum for students on each lesson to go hand in hand with comments
SOT staff comments on each lesson to be shown after comment is made to give further examples of lesson thinking
More video content to help add emphasis to the lesson description
Good: short tasks, well written, easy to follow
Bad: took up time, didn’t gain anything new, no direct reference to X10
Better: An interactive forum for trainees, feedback on responses, web page could be better.
good
sot always give another prospective
pipeline was good way to make commitment
new thinking methods..
bad
feel the contents is looking shorter
need more assists
no direct interactin with michael
better
easy to return back to the qns and lessons
good gabs
Good
– SOT training always gives another perspective
– Pipeline was a good way to make the commitment but ease the “commitment fear”
– New thinking techniques.
Bad
– Feel the content was a little shorter than previous trainings
– Would like more “real life” references to further assist the learning of skills
– Would love interaction with Michael
Better
– Easy to look back at others interpretation of the content and questions
– Pattern to the training, (Not in Mon-Fri order)
– Would like a “Thinkers Lounge” where other thought leaders can communicate and discuss ideas.
GOOD: made me think, made me see new ways, made me more open minded to what leadership actually is
BAD: annoying to click through so inhibited my time management working on different devices, the system never remembers my email, i saw in need to manage time better
BETTER: better with technology, better view on leadership, better view of the world.
Idea: Barcoding of all stock in the warehouse.
List 3 GOOD things.
Better stock control
Better stock management
Better cost management
List 3 BAD things.
Cost of purchasing Barcoding guns and software
Time for barcoding of all items within the store
Entry of data into Barcoding database
List 3 things that could be BETTER.
Control the access to the stock
Carry out routine checks on stock counts against what has been taken
Technicians become more responsible for stock taken from the warehouse
G: Regular reminders and opportunities to work on my thinking skills
New tools to use in developing those thinking skills
An opportunity to see how others respond to the questions
B: Lack of opportunity to interact with the trainer (questions and answers; comments and responses, etc.)
Lack of opportunity to interact with the other trainees
Lack of specific opportunities to measure one’s efforts; i.e. we describe how we would peel a particular
orange, but then there’s no opportunity down the line to report on how that peeling actually went
B: A forum where the trainer (or his chosen representatives, given that it might be unreasonable to expect that
Michael alone would be able to interact with everyone)
A forum where the trainees could interact with one another
Timeline DFQs which would allow for reporting on how the trainees were progressing on their particular
tasks