The power of thirteen

Two of the all-time greatest books which have captivated my imagination are ''Six Thinking Hats'' by Edward de Bono and ''Seven habits of highly effective people'' by Stephen R.Covey. These two icons are probably the greatest modern thinkers the world has ever seen. The thought-provoking morals ensconced magnificently in their principles provides the ideal wisdom for people who want to take control of their lives,business and careers. These principles not only help you to know yourself better, but it also changes how you envisage the world around you. The six-course and seven-course meal provided by de Bono and Covey respectively cultivates inner thoughts in such a manner that it results in an outward behavior more than sufficient to win the world.

But have we ever wondered how we can combine the power of the hats and the habits together leading to further improvement of our lives, thereby ensuring the everlasting process of Kai-zen. Six and seven always adds upto 13, which is considered as an unlucky number. But we shall not view 13 as unlucky, since the habits and hats have already changed our perspective by creating paradigm shifts in our vision. So, we shall now elucidate how can we change 13 into a lucky number by combining 6 and 7.

Dr Covey's Habit-1 says, ''Be Proactive'' instead of being reactive. Increase the time between the stimulus and your response, whereby, when confronted with a situation you can ensure that you use your entire thought process and think of different permutations and combinations before arriving at a decision. Whereas de Bono's Red Thinking Hat signifies ''Emotions and Feelings''. We shall take up the example of the captain of the warship as illustrated by Dr Covey, to analyze this situation:-

The captain of a warship sighted an obstacle(which he mistook to be another warship) midway in the sea and then instructed the signalman to change the obstacle's direction by 20 degrees. But the signalman refused. The captain replied, ''I am the captain, obey my order.'' The signalman again refused. This continued again and again until the captain chastised him severely. The signalman finally replied ''This obstacle is a lighthouse.'' The captain realized his clanger of being reactive in his instructions. Had he been proactive, he would have envisioned the possibility that the obstacle might have been a lighthouse. He could have handled the situation more efficiently and have avoided the discomfiture, had he put on his red thinking hat at the same time while being proactive. This would have removed him from all the egoistic emotions and feelings of being the captain of a warship. His ego could not simply accept the fact that an ordinary signalman can disobey the order of a Captain. This led to reduction in his proactivity and the consequent embarassment. Thus, we see how the combination of hats and habits can lead to more effective solutions to problems. After all, its all about hats, habits and the power of 13...!!!!!!