Krátka a tematicky obmedzená reflexia z ALA.
Black Hat on a sabbatical
“Do
you know what a boogieman does before he goes to sleep every night? He checks
his closet for Chuck Norris.”
 |
| Taken from bitstrips.com.
Poor
boogieman. As if he did not know that he will not find Chuck Norris, even if he
is there – unless Chuck decides to be seen…
|
Have you ever thought what de Bono’s black hat is afraid of? No, not
the red hat. The red hat is too spontaneous to be on the ball, it’s the easiest
target. A proper black hat would tear a red hat apart every second. The white
hat? Nothing to be afraid of. A white hat is essentially a brother in arms: he
prevents the inaccurate data from entering the reckoning. The yellow and the blue
hats are obnoxious. The first one seeks positives and harmony, ultimately
overlooking the self-evident fact, that if it
does not work, there will be no benefits. The blue hat has the magical
power silencing the black hat and allowing the unworthy to come up with more … ideas,
more … nonsense.
The true nemesis of the black hat is the green one. One reason for
that is inexhaustibility of the green hat: this guy will just not listen. The
second, and more important is that the green hat will eventually win. For
practical problems a solution has to be chosen eventually. If a bad one is
chosen – “I told you” – the black hat will feel undervalued. (“I told you, I
told you, you would not listen.”) If a viable creative idea – horribile dictu! – is adopted, the green
hat will get all the praise. Sadly, nobody remembers the black hat for his
thorough demolition of 632 bad ideas.
I am a seriously good black hat. This is partly a diagnosis, and
partly a vocation, as nobody beats me at
finding negatives.
Teaching and coaching requires a black hat to occasionally make unpalatable
compromises or delegate the jobs of motivating and praising to someone else. This
is a necessity, not a change of heart, though. Yet, being a proper black hat
all the time gets tedious.
When I was leaving Slovakia, I was asked to offer solutions, not
only critique at ALA. I was in a too excited mood to argue that this fell
outside my portfolio, and later decided to give it a try. Metaphorically, I
decided that the black hat could have a sabbatical. And even rest. After all,
it looked like this approach could work here. I saw Mr. Bradford conjure up CS
II during a conversation with Wissem and Yonathan. A whole new subject! A
subject led by students, a subject they will get credit for, a subject ALA will
try to present to its partner universities as academically rigorous.
Of course, my attempts were feeble in some respects. My AS Physics
student might testify that raised eyebrows and telling nods made their
appearance all too often. I was also too quick to tell them what they had done
wrong, instead of giving praise.
I want to think about how to avoid this in future, though.
There were a few highlights. The Scientific Research class liked
both the pentomino, and “the creative nonsense” challenge. I did manage to put
together a poem in Xhosa after a two-day struggle. I told the Story of the Axe.
It still awaits its completion, but its part was presented. The idea to have a
pre-match presentation before the last Staffulty vs. Students bout somehow
materialised within my head. I also came up with a couple of nonsensical and politically-incorrect
ideas such as naming the row with (the) rocket(s) on Agrinovation farm “Beirut”
row.
And I profoundly enjoyed it.
What are the reasons for black hats sticking
to their well-earned niches? While there might be little originality in the
following, there is a bit of personal experience behind this, so bear with me.
After all, not all of us had he luck to have SLC.
The first motive
for my sticking to the black niche is
the lack of self-belief. Critique – if presented in a socially acceptable way –
is a safe bet. There is no recipe or blueprint for success in a creative
endeavour, and the ever-present demon of small imagination will always whisper “What if you do not do well? You will be for
a fool.” If you are a shy person, you would bear a failure of a group
project particularly unwell. If you are a perfectionist or used to not failing,
changing your mind-set is doubly hard.
My second reason for being
cautious would normally be lack of support. Tiny self-belief can be augmented in
a supportive team, but then I am rarely in a team. I am not that abrasive but I do prefer to work on
my own. Truth be told, I have never been taught to do otherwise.
ALA made both
premises invalid. Choosing to do something new, wild, crazy is encouraged here.
Whatever reasonable project I proposed, I was always supported. I even came up
with one on the line, and Dean Bradford okayed it. There was no fear of failure,
or – rather – it diminished a lot.
Second, it is
highly probable that you will be able to find a supportive team at ALA. In the
end, the whole Scientific Department stood behind me leading the Scientific
Research class, although I did not have great credentials. When I mooted the
idea of a chess league, Morema and Mr. Webster almost made me organise it. They
pushed me enough to overcome my uncertainty about the endeavour.
At times I have
managed to step out of my comfortable role of a black hat at ALA. Surprisingly,
it did not lead to a disaster, and it was enjoyable. It also gave me more
confidence to try some adventurous things. While I know there is a long way (in
order to be creative) to be walked, I might have taken a few steps. There are
other things I will be taking from my year here, but this is perhaps the most
surprising one: I can be creative.
