爱德华·德博诺思维课程：CAF - 考虑所有因素
31 Dec 2000
(c)de Bono Thinking Ltd 2000
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PART 1
SECTION 4: CAF
(CONSIDER ALL FACTORS)
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4.1 Introduction
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CAF stands for Consider All Factors (this is pronounced as one word " caf"). This tool is an instruction to you (or to others) to scan the situation.
A factor is something which we need to consider when thinking about a matter. This is a circular definition which in effect says: consider all those things which need to be considered. For example, if you are frying eggs for breakfast, the colour of the carpet in the hallway may not be relevant but the temperature outside might be (because on a very hot day fried eggs may not be acceptable). The division between what is relevant and what is not relevant is a difficult one. It can ready only be made after a factor has been considered. Nevertheless we have to be practical in our scanning so we set out to consider all those factors which might have a relevance for what we are thinking about.
"Everything is worthy of notice, for everything can be interpreted," Hermann Hesse, The Glass Bead Game.
This section includes the following components:
4.2 The purpose of CAF
4.3 Doing a CAF Analysis
4.4 The Use of Checklists as an Alternative to doing a full CAF
4.5 Focussing on Important Issues
4.6 Summary
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SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTION (SAQ) 14.1
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Consider all the factors in designing a door handle (i.e. do a CAF). List all the factors. You should have at least ten factors in the list.
Your Name
Your email address
Your response
You are sleeping in a strange hotel bedroom. In the middle of the night you get up to go to the bathroom. You cannot find the light switch so you pick your way in the dark and strike an object. You analyse the situation. The object is low and in the middle of the room: it could be your suitcase; it could be a coffee table. You feel it and find your way around it. If you had been able to find the light switch you would have had a very clear picture of the "terrain" in the room and would have found your way to the bathroom with ease. **_
4.2 The purpose of CAF
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When you have a clear map then finding your way around is always easier. The purpose of the CAF tool is to help bring about such a map. In other words, the CAF tool seeks to direct our attention in a scan around the matter that is being thought about. This is difficult because directing attention is difficult. We can only notice something after we have noticed it. In practice we make an effort to do a CAF and we do it as thoroughly as we can. We can, however, never be sure that we have not left out something important.
The main practical purpose of the CAF tool is to hold us in this exploring phase before rushing to make judgements, deductions and plans. We want to continue exploring the map before choosing a route.
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The Spectacles Analogy
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In Venezuela after the year's pilot scheme in the introduction of the CoRT Thinking Lessons into schools, a journalist asked me whether the teaching of thinking was not "brainwashing". She felt that teaching thinking was really about teaching people what to think and therefore implied a certain set of values. The journalist happened to be wearing spectacles. So I removed her spectacles and asked her whether wearing spectacles was "brainwashing". The purpose of the CoRT lessons and the purpose of tools like CAF is to enable the thinker to see the situation more clearly and more broadly. He or she then reacts more appropriately to the situation with whatever values he or she has.
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SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTION (SAQ) 14.2
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Do a CAF on choosing a place to go for a holiday (summer). List all the factors that you would consider. You should have at least 10 factors in the list.
Your Name
Your email address
Your response
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4.3 Doing A Caf Analysis
The "four stage list" method _**
The process of caf analysis is as follows:
- Step 1: develop an initial list of items including everything that comes to mind about the situation
- Step 2: examine this list. Identify themes or headings within it
- Step 3: examine each heading in turn and explore what else can be found under each heading
- Step 4: search for what has been left out of your lists.
Each of these steps will now be addressed in turn.
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Stage 1.
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Using a continuous open list, just put down everything that comes to mind about the situation. Make no attempt to divide these items into categories. As something comes to mind just add it to the bottom of the list. From time to time read through the list in order that what you have already written down may trigger additional factors.
The following open list might have formed the first part of a CAF exercise on dealing with a gunman who was holding a family hostage in a cottage:
- his character
- his mental history
- who knows him
- what weapons he has
- how dangerous he is
- what food there is in the cottage
- how tired he is
- who is likely to influence him.
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SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTION (SAQ) 14.3
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Take the above list and continue to extend it in this open fashion, just adding further items to the list. Some of these may well overlap with what is already there.
Your Name
Your email address
Your response
The main point about this open (stage 1) list is that the thinker should not be inhibited from putting down any factor which occurs to him or her. Sometimes a new factor may just be a different way of expressing a factor which is already noted. At other times the factors may be of a different order of generality: One may indicate a broad principle and another may be a mere detail. Nevertheless all of them should go down. If the item has occurred to the thinker and if it is relevant it goes down on the list. The thing to remember is that this list is only a starting point.
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Stage 2.
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We now take the open general list and we go through this and try to put the different factors together under headings. In other words we make an attempt to group the factors. We may put down some provisional headings and see how well they work. If one or two items are left out we can always have a "miscellaneous" heading for such odd items. We now re-work the list using these headings and putting the individual items from the open list down under the appropriate heading. Be sure to leave a lot of space at the end of the sub-list for each heading as you will want to add to these lists later.
With the gunman and hostages for example, the broad headings might have been:
- mental state of gunman now
- mental state of gunman in future
- danger to hostages
- likely influences on gunman
- past experience in similar situations
- how long can he hold out?
- how long can he stay awake?
- possibility of surprise attack on gunman.
In doing a CAF on the decoration of a living room the following points came up on the open list:
- existing decor
- the lighting
- the mood that was required
- the impression the decor would make
- how well the decor would go with the existing furniture
- the decor and existing carpets
- amount of material needed
- who would do it?
- the cost
- how soon would it need redoing?
- could it be pre-tested?
- could it be a disaster?
- the taste of the husband
- the taste of the wife
- the advice of outsiders
- the advice of a professional decorator
- has the particular colour scheme been seen anywhere before?
- the texture of the material
- would it show dirt?
- the ages of the children
- the fashion at the moment
- how might it affect the sale of the house?
- do any friends have the same colour scheme (wallpaper, etc)?
- what effect is one striving for? **_
Note
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There can be a danger in broad headings. We may feel that if we put down a broad heading among the factors to be considered then that broad heading covers a broad range of factors. In the choice of decoration example we might have put down "cost" and felt that this takes care of this aspect. Logically, of course, it does, because it includes all aspects of cost. Yet, just because all the different aspects of cost are logically included under the heading, it does not mean that we have considered them. For example there might be the cost of repairing a small part of the decor, or there might be the cost of changing from this decor to another one (does the paper have to be stripped?). There might be the cost of application: some decors could require very skilled application (for instance patterned as compared with unpatterned wallpaper).
In a discussion it is a common mistake to mention some broad heading and then to assume that everything under this heading has thereby been considered. A broad heading might, for example be the "people involved" in a situation. Unless each of these is specified (at least each type) then these factors have not been considered. Broad headings are useful both for tidiness and also for directing our attention, but awareness of a broad heading is not the same as direct consideration of all that comes under it.
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SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTION (SAQ) 14.4
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Take this open list, add any other factors you may think of, then group the items under different headings. Pick out the headings and transfer the items to these headings.
Your Name
Your email address
Your response
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Stage 3. _**
At this point we now have a number of sub-lists with a broad heading at the top of each one. We take each of these lists in turn, and using the heading as a scanning direction we make a deliberate attempt to see what else we can find under that heading. For example, with the gunman and hostages we might have a broader heading of "people who might influence him". Looking through that frame we could come up with: family members, relatives, doctor, priest, psychiatrist, friend, girl-friend, school master, skilled sales person.
Whereas the open list was casting around in any direction, at stage 3 we have a definite heading and we look at what might come under this heading.
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SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTION (SAQ) 14.5
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In doing a CAF on planning a holiday the following broad heading is found: "the sort of people there would be at the holiday place". Create as full a sub-list as you can under this heading. You should have at least 10 items in your list.
Your Name
Your email address
Your response
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Stage 4.
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This stage is concerned directly with "what might have been left out". The thinker goes through the various lists in an attempt to see if there is any omission. This is a very difficult task because you cannot tell what has been left out until after you have noticed it. In practice it is often possible to pick out gaps and omissions. Imagine that the lists have been provided by someone else and that your task is to point out what has been omitted.
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SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTION (SAQ) 14.6
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In choosing toothpaste the following factors are considered:
- price
- size
- taste
- effect on teeth
- effect on gums
- past experience
- acceptability to those having to use it.List any factors which you feel might have been left out.
Your Name
Your email address
Your response
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4.4 THE USE OF CHECK-LISTS as an alternative to a full caf
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Checklists are useful for directing attention. In the four-stage list method we start with an open list and then extract headings which subsequently become our check-list. On the whole this is a better method than using a standard checklist - but it does take more time. Depending on the time available and the importance of the matter a thinker may sometimes prefer to use a simpler checklist in order to scan the factors. One such checklist is given here:
- Channels
- Ingredients
- Costs
- Influences
- People involved
- Dangers
- Uncertainties
- Timing
- Tethering factors
- Resources.
We will now consider each of these items in turn.
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Channels:
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This covers the channels through which action would take place, the mechanisms of action, the effect or mechanisms. It deals with how something is done: the procedure.
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Ingredients:
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This covers the ingredients that form the substance of the thinking or action. If you are making a cake then the ingredients include flour and eggs. If you are thinking about a holiday then the ingredients include travel, accommodation, recreation and people.
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Costs:
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This includes actual money cost but it also includes costs in a much broader sense. It covers cost in time, effort, hassle and even in reputation.
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Influences:
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Those items which might modify or impart a flavour to what is being considered. For example, political instability in a country might influence choice of a holiday place.
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People involved:
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This covers all the people who have to be considered. The thinking involving other people forms the subject of a later section.
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Dangers:
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The things that might provide actual danger. A cholera epidemic, for example, or a high crime rate, or a travel company going bankrupt, may present dangers in the choice of a holiday place.
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Uncertainties:
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This covers the unknowns, the things that might go wrong, the things that might not turn out as expected. The standard of cooking in an unknown hotel is always an uncertainty.
Risks are considered under uncertainties - although the risk of a real danger may be considered under "dangers".
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Timing:
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This needs to be considered in its own right. How important is the timing? How critical is the timing? What factors need to be considered under the heading "timing"?
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Tethering factors:
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What are the inhibitions? What holds one back? What are the constraints? What are the limiting factors in the broadest sense?
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Resources:
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What is available in terms of money, time and motivation? The resources available to carry out an action need to be assessed. This consideration may also have to look at the resources available at a particular moment not just the resources in general. A rich man may actually have very little spending money at a particular moment.
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SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTION (SAQ) 14.7
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Use the checklist given here to do a CAF on buying a car. Under each heading on the checklist you should have a minimum of four entries.
Your Name
Your email address
Your response
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4.5 Focusing on important issues
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A later section (Section 6) of the course deals directly with priorities. When that section has been worked through then the attitudes and processes discussed there can be applied to the CAF operation. At the moment we can, however, look at a simple approaches to prioritising issues
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The "inner and outer ring" approach
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This is a simple form of assessing priorities. The factors in the inner ring are the more relevant and the factors in the outer ring only need to be noted. In going through a CAF list you can assign inner (I) or outer (O) ring values to each item. You may then prepare two separate lists: one for inner ring items and one for outer ring items. The danger is that an item assigned to the outer ring is then completely ignored. To avoid this danger it is useful to think again in terms of a map analogy. The terrain around where you are at the moment is the most important but the rest of the map is also important.
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Listing and Ignoring _**
The purpose of doing a CAF is to bring to mind all those things that need to be considered when thinking about something. So we list these things in order to pay attention to them. It therefore seems paradoxical to list something in order deliberately to ignore it. Why bother to list it in the first place? In fact the process is a valuable one. From the general CAF list we may extract certain points which we specifically put on an "ignore" list. This means that we are aware of these points and also aware of their relevance but that we have decided not to let these points influence our thinking. For instance a young girl considering a career may specifically choose to ignore the advice of an aunt who feels that girls should not have careers. An inventor may choose to ignore the feelings of his colleagues who all think he is mad. Unless we make such points explicit in order to ignore them then they can have a hidden influence.
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SELF ASSESSMENT QUESTION (SAQ) 14.8
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You are choosing what to wear at a New Year's Eve fancy dress party. Do a simple CAF on choosing a costume. Create three lists of considerations: an inner ring, an outer ring and an ignore list.
Your Name
Your email address
Your response
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TUTOR ASSESSED ACTIVITY (TAA) 14.9
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Do a full CAF (using the four-stage list process) on the choosing of a career. This might be done in three ways:
- If you are setting out to choose a career.
- If, as an older person, you are advising a youngster on the choice of a career.
- As an older person contemplating a career switch.
Imagine that you are placed in any ONE of these positions.
Your Name
Your email address
Your response
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Summary
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Before we finish this session please note **
Before we finish this session please note lets just summarise a few very important CAF principles:
- Doing a CAF is useful before choosing, deciding or planning.
- It is better to consider all the factors first and then pick out the ones that matter most.
- You may have to ask someone else to tell you whether you have left out some important factors.
- If you have left out an important factor your answer may seem right but will later turn out to be wrong.
- If you do a CAF on someone else's thinking you may be able to tell the person what has been left out
You need to be aware that:
- You ought to be able to see the other point of view whether you agree with it or not.
- Every point of view may be right for the person holding it but not right enough to be imposed on others.
- Different people have different positions, background, knowledge, interests, values, wants etc., so it is not surprising that in the same situation viewpoints may differ greatly.
- Try to see whether the other person can see your viewpoint.
- Be able to articulate the differences and similarities between viewpoints.
In considering all factors, we should always take account of the views of others. In the next section, therefore, we move on to consider another important thinking tool, "OPV", in which we ascertain other people's views on our ideas.
(c)de Bono Thinking Ltd 2000