Thinking with Hexagons

Re-patterning with hexagons

The power of hexagon thinking rests on the nature of the hexagon geometry.   You can take a hexagon and add one to each side, connecting the one in the middle to six others.   This immediately disrupts our normal linear thinking, and allows us to present a set of ideas in a way that helps our minds see them in relationship.   Our verbal language, for example “the cat sat on the mat”, freezes the relationship between the cat and the mat to just one of several possibilities.  Place the ‘cat’ in a hexagon and it now has potentially six relationships of which ‘mat’ is only one.    

You can of course put some rectangular stickies into a cluster, but experience shows that is much weaker as a thinking tool because you cannot build up the number of connections in the way you can with hexagons.

Building on the power of the hexagon cluster you can move on to using the way it enables re-patterning, with the accent on the ‘re’.   Hexagons can be moved around into different patterns and clusters. If thinking gets fixed in a pattern you can challenge this through trying different patterns and combinations.

The weakest form of clustering is just to categorise ideas that are all about the same thing, and there are times when that is all that is required.   Typically, however, the point of H3Uni methods is to open up a creative response to a situation and that will need a different thinking approach that is generative.  The basic idea of generative thinking is ‘1 + 1 = 3’, in other words, taking two ideas and seeing a fresh connection that is not contained in either of them.   A simple way to contrast categorical and generative thinking is to compare the way you arrange clothes in your wardrobe, and how to pick them out to go out for the night: the first (if you are tidy) is a categorical organization, the second is a creative combination that is more than the sum of the parts.

As an exercise, take a topic where ideas have been segregated into two or more distinct classes. Take one idea from one class and another from a different class. Put them on hexagons next to each other, with a blank one between them.

Ask yourself what new idea or ideas are suggested by the juxtaposition?  Is there an idea that goes beyond both whilst retaining some of their significance?  Try this a few times.  Notice the way that just having this arrangement in front of you encourages your mind to hunt for a creative combination.  You will find this approach to generative hexagon thinking used in Dilemma Navigation.

Having explored alternative clusters, and converged on one, a further skill is that of telling a narrative behind the hexagons.  Being able to tell a story that weaves the hexagon topics together helps to bring out their systemic interaction.  Try this out for the different processes and see for yourself what simple story holds the cluster together.  Developing your instincts around this is key for helping a group come up with a cluster label.

There is a skill in selecting the approach to hexagon mapping and clustering so that you are bringing out new connections not in the prevailing mindset, and as a facilitator you need to develop this skill to see when this is what is needed.  H3Uni methods are structured into steps to help set up the appropriate approach to clustering and provide guidance on what is required for that method.

Basics of capturing hexagons

There are a few basic guidelines to get the best out of using hexagons:

• Using them with a point uppermost works better than a flat edge, and is the standard technique assumed in all H3Uni methods. It provides space for the numbering, and works better when you want to put them side by side for generative thinking.   You can also use the space at the bottom point for coding or classification e.g. to record who made a point.
• Write clearly in capitals, and don’t use more than eight words – this will ensure the points are simple and readable by everyone.
• If you haven’t got something clear, or the person doesn’t agree with your distillation, you need to be ready to start again, so make sure you have plenty spare.
• Some processes benefit from having more than one colour. Yellow, red, green and blue are enough for everything.

Hexagon mapping and influence diagramming process

The best way to understand the use of hexagons is to work through the Hexagon Mapping Facilitation Guide, treating yourself as the ‘client’ who is being facilitated.  This will show you how the basics of capture and clustering support a simple yet powerful approach to system thinking that we call influence diagramming.  This basic method can be used in all sorts of situations to do initial enquiry and is an excellent way to get started on a project and guide the use of other H3Uni Methods.

Hexagons are deceptively simple.  H3Uni methods treat them as idons which are symbols containing significant meaning for the participating group.  The power comes from the whole technique of using a large white space representing the shared mind of the group.  This is the space equivalent to the ‘front of the mind’ in an individual.  So the clustering and influence diagram build up group mind around the topic.  A key process aspect of the method is that the clustering and relating express an emergent property of the group conversation which is supported visually as well as verbally.  And unlike graphical facilitation, everyone participates.  The end result is that people’s individual mental models have been slightly deconstructed and reconstructed through the process to form a shared mental model.  Of course everyone will still interpret it in their own way but extensive use of the method shows that the level of attunement, alignment and mutual understanding in the group increase significantly.

Method

The Hexagon Mapping method is both a self-contained process for exploring any complex issue, but also provides steps that can be used in any other H3Uni method for clustering the output of one step as input to the next.