Jawaad Ahmad Khan

Assalamu Alaikum (Peace y’all),

Recently, I read a blog post on Leechon Films’ blog about ideas. It’s a really, really good post. It basically talks about all of the ideas that we all come up with and how to actually bring those ideas to a reality. It’s based on Edward de Bono’s “Six Thinking Hats” which is illustrated in the picture above.

A basic rundown (find more info in depth at Brother Belal (Leechon)’s blog post or Six Thinking Hats on Wikipedia):

The 1st step is to collect your ideas. Whenever one pops up, write it down. Then compile them all into one place. A good starting point was mentioned by Brother Belal:

Doesn’t matter whether the idea is “good” or not. Just write it down. Set yourself a goal where every day, no matter what you’ll write down at least three ideas. Do this over a period of ten days.

Now, the 2nd step is the evaluation. With the above system, you’ll have 30+ ideas ready. Now, the hard part is to pick the top three. Belal suggested the following when picking them:

• You can show them to your friends and see which ones get the best results
• You can randomly pick them
• You can have your mom pick them out
• You can see which one sounds cool
• You can pick three that start with the letter “C” (for no reason what so ever)

He basically says that it’s up to you. Because you’re only writing a few ones down everyday, then usually, they’re all pretty good.

Now, the evaluation of those ideas lies with the Six Thinking Hats. You must use each hat, but what do they mean? (below’s just some very basic descriptions of each hat, be sure to check out Belal Khan’s Leechon.com post about this, or the Edward De Bono’s “Six Thinking Hats”)

White hat – Facts & Info.

Basically, you look at the idea neutrally and see any type of data or information involved. It includes things such as “how many?” “what value?” “what observations may affect my idea?”

Red hat – Feelings & Emotions

What feeling does this idea trigger? Do you feel hyped up and excited? Do you feel powerless and defeated? This is generally how you feel about the idea and more importantly, how the audience or people affected by the idea will feel.

Black hat – Critical Judgment

This is where the bad comes in. Think about what problems may arise from the execution of the idea. What could go wrong? Usually, you’d weigh the amount of fitna (Islamic word for ‘confusion’ or ‘trouble’) vs. the amount of benefit. If the benefit outweighs the amount of hardship it would take to get the end product, you got yourself a new project.

Yellow hat – Positive Judgment

This is where the good comes in. Think about the potential of the idea and the value of it. What goodness can arise from it? What opportunities may come as a result of it being done? What would be its impact? This, again, you’d compare to the evaluation from the black hat and see if it’s feasible.

Green hat – Alternatives & Creativity

What’s so cool about this idea? Also, what kind of other things can come from this idea. Here is basically where you’d also observe the critical problems seen through the black hat and find creative solutions that could conquer these troubles before they even happen. This part can go anywhere and may be the greatest improvement of your idea.

Blue hat – Big Picture

Here’s a final look at the idea as a whole. Don’t really look at the idea, look at the concept of the idea.

*Note: All of the above info was paraphrased and summarized from the blog post at Leechon.com and the Wikipedia post on the “Six Thinking Hats”

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Okay, I wasn’t really supposed to write all of the above, because the real point of this post was for me to set a goal.

I realize that a lot of people come up with ideas everyday, but never have the means of bringing them to reality. I want to be one of them that actually brings my ideas to reality. It reminds me of something my father, Naseeb Khan, was advising another brother about his organization. He basically said that because of the problems he was having with his organization’s image (being supported by the Muslims you see on the news), that he should just start registering a whole bunch of other organizations to do the essential work they’d like to do. Start up and do  a lot of projects and eventually, the work will get done.

This also reminded me of a small lecture by Muhammad AlShareef about Leaving a Legacy (I believe you can find that here, pretty far into the video, about 3/4 I believe). He basically tells you about the really effective deeds that will be remembered. If you do something like teaching a class, you’re legacy will live on in those students. In Islam, all the good work and things they do based on the knowledge you taught them will give you a reward for it.

SO, I now plan on trying post up my ideas on this blog regularly InshaAllah. I’ll start with one I’d thought of after reading about the Six Hats:

Perhaps there should be a website that is VERY VERY simple (much like twitter). Basically, you enter an idea you have. That idea enters a whole bank full of ideas. The ideas, when submitted, are organized into different categories with tags and everything. So, users from around the world can track their ideas and people can ‘take on’ ideas and try to bring them to reality. That would seem like a cool idea. Now, I’m gonna try to develop something. Maybe it should resemble something like Vimeo’s hubnut.

*the above taken from my comment on Leechon’s blog post about ideas.

I’ll try to post up some of my ideas every…let’s start with once every two weeks. I feel that I may be lazy in documenting and screening my ideas, so I’ll start my goal small and eventually build on it InshaAllah.

Wasalaamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatu

(And may peace and blessings be with all of y’all)