Hexagonal Thinking is a structured approach to problem-solving and idea generation that encourages participants to explore connections and relationships between concepts. By visualizing ideas as interconnected hexagons, this technique promotes holistic understanding and facilitates the synthesis of complex information.
Hexagonal Thinking begins with the identification of key concepts or ideas relevant to the topic or problem at hand.
Each concept is represented as a hexagon, with the concept name or keyword written inside.
Connection Lines:
Participants draw lines between hexagons to indicate connections or relationships between concepts.
These connections can represent causal relationships, similarities, differences, dependencies, or any other relevant associations.
Synthesis and Analysis:
As participants create and connect hexagons, they engage in both synthesis (identifying patterns and relationships) and analysis (examining individual concepts in depth).
This dual process facilitates a deeper understanding of the topic and helps uncover insights that may not be apparent through linear thinking.
Iterative Exploration:
Hexagonal Thinking is an iterative process that encourages participants to continuously refine and revise their diagrams as they gain new insights or perspectives.
By revisiting and reevaluating connections between concepts, participants can uncover new possibilities and refine their understanding of the topic.
Implications of Hexagonal Thinking
Holistic Understanding: Hexagonal Thinking promotes holistic understanding by encouraging participants to explore connections and relationships between concepts.
Critical Thinking: The technique fosters critical thinking skills by requiring participants to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information in a non-linear manner.
Innovative Problem-Solving: By visualizing ideas as interconnected hexagons, Hexagonal Thinking facilitates innovative problem-solving and idea generation by encouraging lateral thinking and exploration of alternative perspectives.
Use Cases and Examples
Education and Learning:
Hexagonal Thinking can be used in educational settings to facilitate active learning and promote deeper understanding of complex concepts.
Students can use the technique to explore connections between different topics, theories, or historical events, fostering a more nuanced understanding of the subject matter.
Business Strategy and Innovation:
Organizations can apply Hexagonal Thinking to strategic planning and innovation processes to identify opportunities, assess risks, and develop creative solutions to complex challenges.
Teams can use the technique to map out connections between market trends, customer needs, and technological advancements, helping to inform strategic decisions and drive innovation.
Strategies for Implementing Hexagonal Thinking
To effectively implement Hexagonal Thinking, consider the following strategies:
Define Clear Objectives:
Clearly define the objectives of the Hexagonal Thinking exercise, including the problem or topic to be explored and the desired outcomes.
Provide participants with clear instructions and guidance on how to create and connect hexagons to achieve the desired results.
Encourage Collaboration:
Foster collaboration and open dialogue among participants by providing opportunities for discussion and reflection during the Hexagonal Thinking process.
Encourage participants to share their perspectives, ask questions, and challenge assumptions to promote a diverse range of insights and ideas.
Facilitate Reflection:
Allow time for reflection throughout the Hexagonal Thinking exercise to encourage participants to revisit and refine their diagrams as they gain new insights.
Facilitate group discussions to debrief the exercise and identify key takeaways, insights, and areas for further exploration.
Benefits of Hexagonal Thinking
Holistic Understanding: Hexagonal Thinking promotes a holistic understanding of complex topics by visualizing connections and relationships between concepts.
Creative Problem-Solving: The technique encourages creative problem-solving by facilitating the exploration of alternative perspectives and innovative solutions.
Collaborative Learning: Hexagonal Thinking fosters collaboration and knowledge sharing among participants, leading to richer discussions and deeper insights.
Challenges of Hexagonal Thinking
Complexity: Visualizing and exploring connections between concepts can be challenging, especially in complex or abstract topics where relationships may not be immediately apparent.
Time-Consuming: Hexagonal Thinking can be time-consuming, particularly when working with large groups or complex topics that require extensive exploration and analysis.
Subjectivity: The interpretation of connections between concepts may vary among participants, leading to subjective interpretations and potential disagreements.
Conclusion
Hexagonal Thinking is a powerful technique for fostering holistic understanding, promoting critical thinking, and facilitating innovative problem-solving in various contexts. By visualizing ideas as interconnected hexagons and exploring relationships between concepts, participants can gain deeper insights into complex topics and uncover new possibilities for exploration and action. While the technique offers numerous benefits, including holistic understanding, creative problem-solving, and collaborative learning, it also presents challenges related to complexity, time constraints, and subjectivity.
Technique
Description
When to Apply
Mind Mapping
Visualizes ideas and their relationships.
When exploring connections between ideas.
Brainwriting
Silent brainstorming where participants write down ideas.
When you want to encourage individual input without group influence.
SCAMPER
Modifies existing ideas through Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, Reverse.
When you need structured creativity to improve or change an idea.
Round-Robin Brainstorming
Participants take turns contributing ideas.
When ensuring equal participation in idea generation.
Affinity Diagrams
Groups ideas into categories for analysis.
When organizing a large number of ideas into meaningful categories.
SWOT Analysis
Identifies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
When assessing strategic position and opportunities.
Fishbone Diagram (Ishikawa)
Identifies root causes of problems.
When solving complex problems by tracing causes.
Six Thinking Hats
Examines ideas from multiple perspectives.
When needing a comprehensive evaluation of an idea.
Brainstorming Sessions
Group activity to generate ideas.
When needing to generate a wide range of ideas quickly.
Rapid Ideation
Generates ideas quickly under time constraints.
When time is limited and you need a burst of creativity.
Idea Board
Visual display of ideas for collaboration.
When needing a central place to gather and refine ideas.
Random Word Association
Uses random words to trigger new ideas.
When stuck in conventional thinking patterns.
Brainstorming Web
Connects related ideas visually.
When exploring the relationships between different ideas.
Reverse Brainstorming
Focuses on how to cause a problem instead of solving it.
When needing to identify potential pitfalls or weaknesses in an idea.
Gap Analysis
Identifies gaps between current and desired states.
When assessing the current situation against goals.
Wishing Technique
Participants wish for ideal outcomes.
When looking for aspirational and innovative ideas.
Concept Fan
Expands on an initial idea to generate more ideas.
When needing to deepen or broaden an initial concept.
Question Storming
Generates questions to uncover new ideas.
When needing to explore a problem deeply through questioning.
Starbursting
Explores an idea through questions starting with Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How.
When needing a thorough examination of an idea from all angles.
Trigger Method
Uses triggers to spark new ideas.
When needing external stimuli to generate ideas.
Lotus Blossom Technique
Expands on core ideas by surrounding them with related ideas.
When needing to develop a central idea in detail.
Idea Box (Morphological Analysis)
Combines different parameters to generate ideas.
When needing to explore all possible combinations of factors.
Crawford’s Slip Writing
Participants write down ideas anonymously.
When needing to gather uninfluenced and honest ideas from participants.
Nominal Group Technique
Structured method for group brainstorming.
When requiring structured and equal participation from all group members.
Disney Creative Strategy
Uses three roles: Dreamer, Realist, and Critic.
When needing to refine ideas by looking at them from different perspectives.
BRAIN
Blueprint, Random connections, Assimilate, Integrate, New thinking.
When needing a structured approach to creative problem-solving.
Attribute Listing
Lists attributes of a problem and explores variations.
When needing to dissect and innovate on a specific aspect of a problem.
Analogies and Metaphors
Uses analogies to generate new ideas.
When needing to think about problems in a new and unfamiliar way.
Collaborative Brainwriting
Participants build on each other’s ideas in writing.
When encouraging collaborative idea development without verbal discussion.
Dot Voting
Participants vote on the best ideas using dots.
When needing to prioritize ideas quickly and democratically.
Forced Connections
Combines unrelated concepts to generate new ideas.
When needing to break free from conventional thinking patterns.
Negative Brainstorming
Focuses on what not to do.
When needing to identify risks and potential pitfalls.
Freewriting
Writes continuously to generate ideas.
When needing to bypass internal filters and generate raw ideas.
Crowdsourcing
Collects ideas from a large group of people.
When needing a wide range of ideas from a diverse group.
Idea Lottery
Randomly selects and combines ideas.
When needing to combine elements in unexpected ways to generate new ideas.
Whiteboarding
Uses a whiteboard to visualize and connect ideas.
When needing a collaborative space for group idea generation.
Bodystorming
Acts out scenarios to generate ideas.
When needing to physically engage with a problem to generate ideas.
Role Storming
Participants assume different roles to generate ideas.
When needing to see a problem from various perspectives.
Group Passing Technique
Each participant adds to the previous idea.
When needing collaborative idea building with a structured process.
Storyboarding
Visualizes ideas in a sequential format.
When needing to communicate and develop ideas through a narrative.
Mind Scripting
Writes scripts to explore different scenarios.
When needing to explore and develop ideas through detailed scenarios.
Idea Ranking
Ranks ideas based on criteria.
When needing to prioritize ideas based on their potential impact and feasibility.
Circle of Opportunity
Uses a circular diagram to explore ideas.
When needing to visualize and connect various opportunities.
Problem Reversal
Reverses the problem to find new solutions.
When needing to think about a problem from a completely different angle.
Word Storming
Focuses on key words to generate ideas.
When needing to generate ideas centered around specific terms or concepts.
Concept Mapping
Visualizes relationships between concepts.
When needing to explore and understand the connections between various ideas.
Hexagonal Thinking
Uses hexagons to connect ideas.
When needing to visually and spatially organize and connect ideas.
Idea Speed Dating
Pairs participants to rapidly exchange ideas.
When needing quick and varied input from multiple participants.
Empathy Mapping
Uses empathy to understand user needs and generate ideas.
When needing to generate ideas that are deeply rooted in user needs and perspectives.
Visioning
Imagines future scenarios to generate ideas.
When needing to think long-term and generate aspirational ideas.
Divergent Thinking
Generates many different ideas.
When needing a broad range of ideas and solutions.
Convergent Thinking
Narrows down ideas to the best ones.
When needing to refine and select the best ideas from a large pool.
User Stories
Creates user scenarios to generate ideas.
When needing to develop ideas based on specific user needs and experiences.
Customer Journey Mapping
Visualizes customer experiences to find opportunities.
When needing to identify pain points and opportunities within the customer journey.
Action Priority Matrix
Prioritizes ideas based on impact and effort.
When needing to focus on the most impactful and feasible ideas.
Thought Experiment
Explores ideas through hypothetical scenarios.
When needing to test and explore ideas in a safe, theoretical context.
Pre-Mortem Analysis
Anticipates potential failures to improve ideas.
When needing to identify and address potential risks before implementation.
Brain-netting
Conducts brainstorming sessions online.
When needing to collaborate and generate ideas remotely.
Painstorming
Focuses on pain points to generate ideas.
When needing to address and solve specific problems or challenges.
Idea Splicing
Combines parts of different ideas to create new ones.
When needing to innovate by merging existing concepts.
Socratic Questioning
Uses deep questioning to generate ideas.
When needing to explore ideas through rigorous and thoughtful questioning.
Five Whys
Asks “why” five times to get to the root cause of a problem.
When needing to uncover the underlying causes of a problem.
Innovation Tournament
Competes to generate the best ideas.
When needing a competitive element to drive idea generation and refinement.
SWOT Brainstorming
Combines SWOT analysis with brainstorming.
When needing to assess and generate ideas based on internal and external factors.
Idea Matrix
Organizes ideas into a matrix for evaluation.
When needing to systematically evaluate and compare ideas.
Brainwriting Pool
Collects written ideas in a pool for group discussion.
When needing to gather and pool ideas for collective evaluation and discussion.
Innovation Sprint
Short, focused sessions to generate ideas.
When needing rapid and intense idea generation and development.
Role Play Brainstorming
Uses role play to generate ideas.
When needing to understand and generate ideas from different perspectives.
Chunking
Breaks down problems into smaller parts to generate ideas.
When needing to manage and solve complex problems by addressing smaller components.
Opportunity Mind Map
Maps opportunities visually.
When needing to visualize and explore various opportunities.
Sailboat Retrospective
Uses a sailboat metaphor to reflect and generate ideas.
When needing a creative and engaging way to reflect on progress and generate new ideas.
Idea Journaling
Keeps a journal to capture and develop ideas.
When needing to continuously capture and refine ideas over time.
Affinity Mapping
Groups similar ideas together.
When needing to organize and make sense of a large number of ideas.
Futurism
Envisions future possibilities to generate ideas.
When needing to think ahead and generate ideas based on future trends and scenarios.
Customer Feedback Analysis
Uses customer feedback to generate ideas.
When needing to generate ideas based on actual customer insights and experiences.
Business Model Canvas
Maps business components to find opportunities.
When needing to explore and innovate on business models.
Lean Canvas
Simplifies the business model canvas for rapid idea generation.
When needing a quick and efficient way to develop and test business ideas.
Problem Framing
Reframes problems to generate new ideas.
When needing to see problems in a new light to find innovative solutions.
Lightning Decision Jam
Rapidly generates and decides on ideas.
When needing quick and actionable ideas with immediate decision-making.
Ethnographic Research
Observes users to generate ideas.
When needing deep and contextual insights into user behavior and needs.
Idea Tournament
Competes to refine and select the best ideas.
When needing a structured competition to drive innovation and idea selection.
SWOT Workshop
Conducts workshops combining SWOT and brainstorming.
When needing to integrate strategic analysis with creative idea generation.
Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
Analyzes failures to generate improvement ideas.
When needing to proactively identify and mitigate potential failures.
Analogical Thinking
Uses analogies to generate ideas.
When needing to leverage similarities between different concepts to generate new ideas.
Interactive Brainstorming
Uses interactive tools to facilitate brainstorming.
When needing dynamic and engaging methods to generate ideas.
Stakeholder Brainstorming
Engages stakeholders in idea generation.
When needing input and buy-in from various stakeholders.
Idea Parking Lot
Keeps a list of ideas for future consideration.
When needing to capture and save ideas that cannot be addressed immediately.
Strategic Brainstorming
Focuses brainstorming on strategic goals.
When needing to align idea generation with long-term strategic objectives.
Productive Thinking Model
Uses structured thinking to generate ideas.
When needing a systematic approach to creative problem-solving.
Opportunity Canvas
Focuses on opportunities within the business model.
When needing to identify and develop new business opportunities.
Conceptual Blockbusting
Overcomes mental blocks to generate ideas.
When needing to break through creative barriers and generate fresh ideas.
Hybrid Brainstorming
Combines different brainstorming techniques.
When needing to leverage multiple methods for diverse idea generation.
Challenge Mapping
Maps challenges to find solutions.
When needing to understand and address specific challenges in detail.
Design Charrette
Intensive planning session to generate ideas.
When needing a focused and collaborative effort to solve a design problem.
Braintrust Sessions
Uses a trusted group to generate and refine ideas.
When needing expert input and collaboration for idea refinement.
Value Proposition Canvas
Develops value propositions through brainstorming.
When needing to create and refine value propositions for products or services.
Innovation Jam
Intensive, collaborative brainstorming sessions.
When needing a concentrated burst of creativity and idea generation.
Delphi Method
Uses expert consensus to generate ideas.
When needing to leverage expert knowledge and consensus for idea generation.
Creative Problem Solving (CPS)
Structured process for generating ideas.
When needing a step-by-step approach to solve complex problems creatively.
World Café
Facilitates large group brainstorming through roundtable discussions.
When needing to engage a large group in collaborative idea generation.
A failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) is a structured approach to identifying design failures in a product or process. Developed in the 1950s, the failure mode and effects analysis is one the earliest methodologies of its kind. It enables organizations to anticipate a range of potential failures during the design stage.
Agile Business Analysis (AgileBA) is certification in the form of guidance and training for business analysts seeking to work in agile environments. To support this shift, AgileBA also helps the business analyst relate Agile projects to a wider organizational mission or strategy. To ensure that analysts have the necessary skills and expertise, AgileBA certification was developed.
Business valuations involve a formal analysis of the key operational aspects of a business. A business valuation is an analysis used to determine the economic value of a business or company unit. It’s important to note that valuations are one part science and one part art. Analysts use professional judgment to consider the financial performance of a business with respect to local, national, or global economic conditions. They will also consider the total value of assets and liabilities, in addition to patented or proprietary technology.
A paired comparison analysis is used to rate or rank options where evaluation criteria are subjective by nature. The analysis is particularly useful when there is a lack of clear priorities or objective data to base decisions on. A paired comparison analysis evaluates a range of options by comparing them against each other.
The Monte Carlo analysis is a quantitative risk management technique. The Monte Carlo analysis was developed by nuclear scientist Stanislaw Ulam in 1940 as work progressed on the atom bomb. The analysis first considers the impact of certain risks on project management such as time or budgetary constraints. Then, a computerized mathematical output gives businesses a range of possible outcomes and their probability of occurrence.
A cost-benefit analysis is a process a business can use to analyze decisions according to the costs associated with making that decision. For a cost analysis to be effective it’s important to articulate the project in the simplest terms possible, identify the costs, determine the benefits of project implementation, assess the alternatives.
The CATWOE analysis is a problem-solving strategy that asks businesses to look at an issue from six different perspectives. The CATWOE analysis is an in-depth and holistic approach to problem-solving because it enables businesses to consider all perspectives. This often forces management out of habitual ways of thinking that would otherwise hinder growth and profitability. Most importantly, the CATWOE analysis allows businesses to combine multiple perspectives into a single, unifying solution.
It’s possible to identify the key players that overlap with a company’s business model with a competitor analysis. This overlapping can be analyzed in terms of key customers, technologies, distribution, and financial models. When all those elements are analyzed, it is possible to map all the facets of competition for a tech business model to understand better where a business stands in the marketplace and its possible future developments.
The Pareto Analysis is a statistical analysis used in business decision making that identifies a certain number of input factors that have the greatest impact on income. It is based on the similarly named Pareto Principle, which states that 80% of the effect of something can be attributed to just 20% of the drivers.
A comparable company analysis is a process that enables the identification of similar organizations to be used as a comparison to understand the business and financial performance of the target company. To find comparables you can look at two key profiles: the business and financial profile. From the comparable company analysis it is possible to understand the competitive landscape of the target organization.
A SWOT Analysis is a framework used for evaluating the business’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It can aid in identifying the problematic areas of your business so that you can maximize your opportunities. It will also alert you to the challenges your organization might face in the future.
The PESTEL analysis is a framework that can help marketers assess whether macro-economic factors are affecting an organization. This is a critical step that helps organizations identify potential threats and weaknesses that can be used in other frameworks such as SWOT or to gain a broader and better understanding of the overall marketing environment.
Business analysis is a research discipline that helps driving change within an organization by identifying the key elements and processes that drive value. Business analysis can also be used in Identifying new business opportunities or how to take advantage of existing business opportunities to grow your business in the marketplace.
In corporate finance, the financial structure is how corporations finance their assets (usually either through debt or equity). For the sake of reverse engineering businesses, we want to look at three critical elements to determine the model used to sustain its assets: cost structure, profitability, and cash flow generation.
Financial modeling involves the analysis of accounting, finance, and business data to predict future financial performance. Financial modeling is often used in valuation, which consists of estimating the value in dollar terms of a company based on several parameters. Some of the most common financial models comprise discounted cash flows, the M&A model, and the CCA model.
Value investing is an investment philosophy that looks at companies’ fundamentals, to discover those companies whose intrinsic value is higher than what the market is currently pricing, in short value investing tries to evaluate a business by starting by its fundamentals.
The Buffet Indicator is a measure of the total value of all publicly-traded stocks in a country divided by that country’s GDP. It’s a measure and ratio to evaluate whether a market is undervalued or overvalued. It’s one of Warren Buffet’s favorite measures as a warning that financial markets might be overvalued and riskier.
Financial accounting is a subdiscipline within accounting that helps organizations provide reporting related to three critical areas of a business: its assets and liabilities (balance sheet), its revenues and expenses (income statement), and its cash flows (cash flow statement). Together those areas can be used for internal and external purposes.
Post-mortem analyses review projects from start to finish to determine process improvements and ensure that inefficiencies are not repeated in the future. In the Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK), this process is referred to as “lessons learned”.
Retrospective analyses are held after a project to determine what worked well and what did not. They are also conducted at the end of an iteration in Agile project management. Agile practitioners call these meetings retrospectives or retros. They are an effective way to check the pulse of a project team, reflect on the work performed to date, and reach a consensus on how to tackle the next sprint cycle.
In essence, a root cause analysis involves the identification of problem root causes to devise the most effective solutions. Note that the root cause is an underlying factor that sets the problem in motion or causes a particular situation such as non-conformance.
A break-even analysis is commonly used to determine the point at which a new product or service will become profitable. The analysis is a financial calculation that tells the business how many products it must sell to cover its production costs. A break-even analysis is a small business accounting process that tells the business what it needs to do to break even or recoup its initial investment.
Stanford University Professor Ronald A. Howard first defined decision analysis as a profession in 1964. Over the ensuing decades, Howard has supervised many doctoral theses on the subject across topics including nuclear waste disposal, investment planning, hurricane seeding, and research strategy. Decision analysis (DA) is a systematic, visual, and quantitative decision-making approach where all aspects of a decision are evaluated before making an optimal choice.
A DESTEP analysis is a framework used by businesses to understand their external environment and the issues which may impact them. The DESTEP analysis is an extension of the popular PEST analysis created by Harvard Business School professor Francis J. Aguilar. The DESTEP analysis groups external factors into six categories: demographic, economic, socio-cultural, technological, ecological, and political.
The STEEP analysis is a tool used to map the external factors that impact an organization. STEEP stands for the five key areas on which the analysis focuses: socio-cultural, technological, economic, environmental/ecological, and political. Usually, the STEEP analysis is complementary or alternative to other methods such as SWOT or PESTEL analyses.
The STEEPLE analysis is a variation of the STEEP analysis. Where the step analysis comprises socio-cultural, technological, economic, environmental/ecological, and political factors as the base of the analysis. The STEEPLE analysis adds other two factors such as Legal and Ethical.
Activity-based management (ABM) is a framework for determining the profitability of every aspect of a business. The end goal is to maximize organizational strengths while minimizing or eliminating weaknesses. Activity-based management can be described in the following steps: identification and analysis, evaluation and identification of areas of improvement.
PMESII-PT is a tool that helps users organize large amounts of operations information. PMESII-PT is an environmental scanning and monitoring technique, like the SWOT, PESTLE, and QUEST analysis. Developed by the United States Army, used as a way to execute a more complex strategy in foreign countries with a complex and uncertain context to map.
The SPACE (Strategic Position and Action Evaluation) analysis was developed by strategy academics Alan Rowe, Richard Mason, Karl Dickel, Richard Mann, and Robert Mockler. The particular focus of this framework is strategy formation as it relates to the competitive position of an organization. The SPACE analysis is a technique used in strategic management and planning.
A lotus diagram is a creative tool for ideation and brainstorming. The diagram identifies the key concepts from a broad topic for simple analysis or prioritization.
Functional decomposition is an analysis method where complex processes are examined by dividing them into their constituent parts. According to the Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK), functional decomposition “helps manage complexity and reduce uncertainty by breaking down processes, systems, functional areas, or deliverables into their simpler constituent parts and allowing each part to be analyzed independently.”
The multi-criteria analysis provides a systematic approach for ranking adaptation options against multiple decision criteria. These criteria are weighted to reflect their importance relative to other criteria. A multi-criteria analysis (MCA) is a decision-making framework suited to solving problems with many alternative courses of action.
A stakeholder analysis is a process where the participation, interest, and influence level of key project stakeholders is identified. A stakeholder analysis is used to leverage the support of key personnel and purposefully align project teams with wider organizational goals. The analysis can also be used to resolve potential sources of conflict before project commencement.
Strategic analysis is a process to understand the organization’s environment and competitive landscape to formulate informed business decisions, to plan for the organizational structure and long-term direction. Strategic planning is also useful to experiment with business model design and assess the fit with the long-term vision of the business.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
