Saturday, September 12, 2009

Blue Bonnets

Coming to you from Louisville, Kentucky, room 308 - currently posing as Highlowaha Headquarters. Treats and last minute packaging everywhere!

While I am talking treats... imagine our surprise when we entered our rooms to find four gift bags sitting on our desk! In true HLA form, these thoughtful random acts of kindness were left anonymously. Only a note was enclosed in each bag reading, "Thanks for sharing with us." So, whoever you are... thank you for sharing with US.

Now to the blue hat.

Turns out the blue hat is responsible for thinking about thinking. Perfect for me, as I am one of the "those" people who thinks about what I'm going to think about while doing things such as showering, driving to work, or falling asleep a night.

Here's what I think about thinking.

I think we've come a long way.

We started out the week sharing factual information (white hat) about blogs, about Highlowaha, and about our blog readers. Then we got emotional (red hat). Readers freely shared what they liked and didn't like about the five tag lines displayed in Tuesday's post. Wednesday it was cloudy with black skies. It was our day to share our concerns and cautions about each of the five tag lines (black hat). Three tag lines survived black hat thinking, along with the resurgence of two oldies but goodies ("We Saved You A Seat" and "Where Creativity and Community Meet"). The sun came out on Thursday and nothing but hope and possibilities were shared (yellow hat).

Friday we started off by declaring the concept of the neighborhood the overriding favorite. Yesterday's Green Hat question...

Neighborhood + "We Saved You A Seat"
+
"Where Creativity and Commu
nity Meet" = ???????????
Many of you were generous enough to share an idea or two.

Today I will coordinate our thinking by trying this Blue-Hat experiment. The first person to post must give us a White Hat (factual) thought. The second person of the day will share a red (emotional) thought about whatever was said. Third person... a black (cautious) thought about whatever the red hat said. The fourth person will counter the Black Hat with his/her Yellow Hat (positive) thinking. The fifth person will finish it off with Green Hat (creative/idea generating) thinking.

Once we get through the cycle, we'll start over again. White, red, black, yellow, and green.

How about we set a goal of getting through the cycle at least once? Twice makes me smile even bigger!

Signing off until Monday!

10 comments:

Cheryl Houston said...

Coming from Room 308 at a very cool hotel... Claudia and Katie shuffled out of the room about 15 minutes ago to go for a walk. I couldn't go back to sleep so my iPod is playing, I've had a banana from my treat bag (THANK YOU SO MUCH WHOEVER YOU ARE!), I'm dressed and headed to the gym.

Here's the White Hat Fact Today: Participating at Highlowaha may sometimes be fast and furious but it is always fun!

I met Melanie, Laura and Peggy yesterday. Peggy was a trooper with helping us last night and it was SO MUCH FUN!!

Can't wait to see everyone today and hear from everyone else. I'm off to my tread mill. Have a great day today!

Robin said...

Claudia, I get the thinking about thinking. I've had trouble sleeping all night (as I often do) because I'm thinking. Tonight's thoughts were: 1) Don't forget to tell Hilary, who is taking the ACT today, that she can't take mechanical pencils (her fav) to the test. and 2) Don't forget the Kitchen Aid,

"Here's the White Hat Fact Today: Participating at Highlowaha may sometimes be fast and furious but it is always fun!"

Red Hat: It's hard to jump in. I was scared and not sure I'd be accepted. What if I made a fool of myself? I had no idea what was going on really, but after a few days of reading, I thought - "I'd best just jump in or I'll never get the swing of it..."

Can't wait to meet you guys in a few hours!

Cheryl Houston said...

Robin, I take great comfort in knowing we have "thinking" in common!

White: Involvement in HLA may be fast and furious, but it's always fun.

Red recap: Joining HLA can feel scary and wondering if you will fit in.

Black Hat: Most people might don't have enough free time to give HLA the time or the energy it seems is necessary to feel "at home" on HLA.

Can't wait to meet many of you in just a little while.

cassie p said...

It's too early for thinking...I may be "up" but my brain is still asleep. It'll be about 9am before I am ready for some thinking...perfect timing I suppose...even more excited TODAY IS THE DAY!!

Katie K said...

Good morning, HLA Land!!! I can't wait to meet so many of you in just a little while!

White: Involvement in HLA may be fast and furious, but it's always fun.

Red recap: Joining HLA can feel scary and wondering if you will fit in.

Black Hat: Most people might don't have enough free time to give HLA the time or the energy it seems is necessary to feel "at home" on HLA.

Yellow Hat: We have a fun thriving community that is welcoming! When someone does stumble in and we are having an active day here at the blog, people are enticed and their curiosity is peaked to join right in!!!

Chaotic Kristi said...

White: Involvement in HLA may be fast and furious, but it's always fun.

Red recap: Joining HLA can feel scary and wondering if you will fit in.

Black Hat recap: Most people might don't have enough free time to feel "at home" on HLA.

Yellow Hat recap: We have a fun thriving community that is welcoming!

Green Hat: What about contacting new posters to help them feel part of the neighborhood? A Welcome Wagon type phone call maybe, explaining things like 218, Ray, the originating idea, etc and a chance for them to ask questions they might feel "too new" to post.

on a side note: I will not be here much this coming week. Karen has a disc in her back with behavioural issues. We spent part of Thursday night and all of Fri morn at hospital. She is in lots of pain (which means I got no sleep) and is unable to do any of the day to day tasks that are required when you run an animal rescue from your home. She is currently soaking in epsom salts so I am going to take a nap. YAWN.

heather said...

Oh chaotic I hope that Karen's back feels better soon and things get back to normal for you guys!

Wish you could have made it this weekend...you were a key missing piece of the festivities.

Claudia said...

All in all a great weekend of Taste of USA. Thanks to all who participated.

heather said...

White: Involvement in HLA may be fast and furious, but it's always fun.

Red recap: Joining HLA can feel scary and wondering if you will fit in.

Black Hat recap: Most people might don't have enough free time to feel "at home" on HLA.

Yellow Hat recap: We have a fun thriving community that is welcoming!

Green Hat: What about contacting new posters to help them feel part of the neighborhood? A Welcome Wagon type phone call maybe, explaining things like 218, Ray, the originating idea, etc and a chance for them to ask questions they might feel "too new" to post.

White Hat: Our highlowaha community feels like a real community.

heather said...

shoot I put white hat and then put a feeling...

So white hat:
The highlowaha group is dedicated and committed to the message of the site.

Red hat: The hla community FEELS like a real community.