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Part 4 of the Maltese Mental Models series on Edward de Bono’s thinking tools
This is why Edward de Bono created CAF (Consider All Factors)—because the factors that destroy plans are rarely the obvious ones.
🔍 Why CAF Matters: The Hidden Factor Problem
Our brains are prediction machines, constantly filtering information to focus on what seems important. This efficiency becomes a liability when making decisions. We naturally consider 3-5 obvious factors and feel confident we’ve been thorough. Meanwhile, a dozen critical factors lurk in our blind spots.
Decision Type | Typical Factors Considered | Critical Factors Often Missed |
---|---|---|
Job Change | Salary, role, location | Commute impact on family, learning curve stress, industry trajectory, manager’s reputation |
Product Launch | Features, price, competition | Support burden, partner dependencies, seasonal factors, regulatory changes coming |
Home Purchase | Price, size, neighborhood | School redistricting plans, flood plain maps, planned construction, HOA politics |
CAF doesn’t just add a few more factors to your list—it fundamentally changes how you approach decisions. It’s the difference between a flashlight and a floodlight.
🛠 The CAF System: Three Layers of Discovery
CAF works through systematic expansion of your thinking radar. Unlike PMI which evaluates a single idea, CAF maps the entire territory before you make a decision.
Layer 1: The Obvious Core
Start with factors that immediately come to mind. Don’t judge their importance yet—just list them. This typically yields 5-10 factors and takes 2-3 minutes. These are your “flashlight” factors—what everyone sees.
Layer 2: The Stakeholder Expansion
Now systematically consider each stakeholder affected by your decision. But here’s the advanced move: classify them by alignment:
Category | Description | Strategy |
---|---|---|
✅ Aligned | Share your goals, benefit from success | Understand their success factors |
⚠ Non-Aligned | Different goals, potential opposition | Identify their concerns early |
🤝 Potentially Aligned | Could be won over with right approach | Find mutual benefits |
😐 Neutral | Unaffected but could influence others | Keep informed to prevent opposition |
☠ Toxic | May appear aligned but harmful to broader good | Minimize influence while managing carefully |
The Toxic Stakeholder Paradox: Some stakeholders might support your project for reasons that ultimately harm the broader community. A payday lender might love your financial app integration, but their involvement could hurt your reputation and users. Identify these actors early—they often appear as enthusiastic allies but operate from extractive rather than generative mindsets.
The Coalition of the Willing Principle: Build your coalition carefully. Sometimes success depends less on convincing everyone and more on assembling the right alliance of genuinely aligned stakeholders who share your values and can influence the neutral while managing both the non-aligned and toxic actors.
For each stakeholder group, ask: “What factors matter to them?” This typically doubles your factor list while revealing political dynamics.
Layer 3: The Dimension Scan (TRICK²)
Finally, run through these dimension checks using the TRICK² mnemonic (TRICK squared—because the Contrarian dimension doubles your insight):
Dimension | Questions to Ask | Often Reveals |
---|---|---|
⏰ Time | What changes over time? What has different impacts short vs. long term? | Seasonal variations, lifecycle issues, timing dependencies |
💰 Resources | What resources are needed? What competes for these resources? | Hidden costs, opportunity costs, resource conflicts |
🔁 Interactions | How do factors influence each other? What creates ripple effects? | Feedback loops, unintended consequences, system dynamics |
🌎 Context | What external factors influence this? What trends affect it? | Regulatory changes, cultural shifts, technology evolution |
⚖ Konstraints | What limits exist? What can’t be changed? (K for Key limits) | Legal requirements, physical limitations, policy boundaries |
🔍 ²Contrarian | What minority views exist? Who disagrees and why? Is our info firsthand? | Suppressed concerns, future risks, orthodoxy blind spots |
The Contrarian Check: The Second C in TRICK²
After TRICK, always add the Contrarian dimension (the ² in TRICK²):
- Minority Report: What are the dissenting voices saying? Not just the loud critics, but the quiet skeptics?
- Information Quality: Is your information firsthand or filtered through corporate PR, media narratives, or groupthink?
- Sacred Cows: What assumptions is everyone afraid to question? What “obviously good” ideas might have dark sides?
- Future Heretics: What views seem crazy now but might be mainstream in 5 years?
Remember TRICK²: The squared Contrarian check often reveals the factors that sink “sure things”—the concerns everyone dismissed as fringe that turn out to be fundamental.
💡 CAF in Action: The Complete Process
Example: Implementing a 4-Day Work Week
Layer 1 – Obvious Core (2 minutes):
- Productivity impact
- Employee satisfaction
- Customer service coverage
- Salary adjustments
- Competitor advantages
Layer 2 – Stakeholder Expansion (5 minutes):
Stakeholder | Alignment | Additional Factors They Reveal |
---|---|---|
Employees with children | ✅ Aligned | Childcare availability on the fifth day, school schedule conflicts |
Remote workers | ✅ Aligned | Time zone coverage gaps, async communication needs |
IT department | ⚠ Non-aligned | System maintenance windows shrinking, security coverage concerns |
International clients | ⚠ Non-aligned | Their work week expectations, Friday meeting conflicts |
Part-time staff | 😐 Neutral | How to calculate equivalent benefits, scheduling complexity |
HR team | 🤝 Potentially aligned | Policy rewrite workload, recruitment advantage potential |
Coalition opportunity: Employees with children + Remote workers + HR team could champion the change, addressing IT and client concerns proactively.
Layer 3 – Dimension Scan (TRICK²) (5 minutes):
Dimension | Specific Factors Discovered |
---|---|
⏰ Time | • Q4 is always busiest—worst time to reduce coverage • 6-month adjustment period before productivity stabilizes • Summer Fridays already informal—easier transition |
💰 Resources | • Need $50K for scheduling software upgrade • Overtime budget increases 15% for deadline weeks • Office utilities save $200K/year with one day closed |
🔁 Interactions | • Compressed schedule may increase burnout, reducing the happiness gains • Better retention could reduce hiring costs by 30% • Innovation sessions need 2+ hour blocks—easier with longer days |
🌎 Context | • New labor law mandates overtime for 10+ hour days • Three competitors announced 4-day trials last month • Post-pandemic work expectations have permanently shifted |
⚖ Konstraints | • Union contract requires 6-month notice for schedule changes • Client SLAs guarantee 5-day coverage • Building lease requires 24/7 security presence |
🔍 Contrarian | • Two senior engineers privately worry about “always-on” pressure increasing • Microsoft’s 4-day trial failed—but their report was buried • Parents without childcare say this helps wealthy employees only • One client privately called this “tech industry virtue signaling” |
Total factors discovered: 38 (vs. the initial 5—and the Contrarian check revealed 4 critical risks no one was discussing openly)
🎯 The CAF Power Move: Factor Prioritization
After expanding your factor list, you need to focus. Not all factors deserve equal attention. Use this prioritization matrix:
Impact → Control ↓ |
High Impact | Low Impact |
---|---|---|
High Control | 🎯 CRITICAL Address these first |
📋 QUICK WINS Handle if time permits |
Low Control | ⚠ MONITOR Plan contingencies |
👁 AWARE Note but don’t obsess |
This prevents CAF paralysis—when discovering many factors leads to decision gridlock. You acknowledge all factors but focus energy where it matters most.
⚡ CAF + PMI: The Decision Power Combo
CAF naturally flows into PMI. Once CAF reveals all factors, use PMI to evaluate your options against these factors:
- Use CAF first to map the complete decision landscape
- Prioritize factors using the impact/control matrix
- Apply PMI to each option, considering high-priority factors
- Make decisions with confidence you’ve seen the full picture
This combination is particularly powerful for complex decisions with multiple stakeholders and long-term implications.
⚠ Common CAF Mistakes and Fixes
Mistake | Why It Happens | The Fix |
---|---|---|
Factor Explosion | Listing 100+ factors, becoming paralyzed | Use the priority matrix; focus on top 20 |
Surface Scanning | Staying in Layer 1, missing hidden factors | Force yourself through all three layers |
Solo Thinking | Relying only on your perspective | Ask others: “What am I not considering?” |
Present Bias | Focusing on immediate factors only | Always ask: “How does this change over time?” |
Category Blindness | Missing entire categories of factors | Use the dimension scan systematically |
Consensus Trap | Ignoring contrarian views and minority concerns | Always run TRICK² including the Contrarian check |
🎮 Practice Exercises: Build Your CAF Muscles
Exercise 1: Personal Decision CAF
Take a decision you’re facing. Set a timer for 12 minutes:
- 2 minutes: Layer 1 (obvious factors)
- 5 minutes: Layer 2 (stakeholder factors)
- 5 minutes: Layer 3 (dimension scan)
Count your factors. Aim for 25+. Notice which layer revealed the most surprising factors.
Exercise 2: Retroactive CAF
Think of a decision that went wrong. Apply CAF retroactively. Which missed factors caused the problems? Which layer would have caught them? This builds pattern recognition for future blind spots.
Exercise 3: Speed CAF
Practice on small decisions (where to eat lunch, which movie to watch). Do a 3-minute CAF. This builds the habit of comprehensive thinking even for minor choices.
Exercise 4: Group CAF
In your next team meeting, when facing a decision, suggest: “Let’s do a quick CAF—what factors are we considering?” Watch how the three layers reveal factors no individual would have seen.
Exercise 5: Domain CAF
Become a CAF expert in your field. Create a template of factors common to your type of decisions. Update it after each use. Over time, you’ll develop superhuman factor awareness in your domain.
🚀 Making CAF Second Nature
The goal isn’t to run formal CAF analysis for every decision. It’s to develop what de Bono called “factor sensitivity”—an automatic awareness of hidden factors. This happens through practice:
The CAF Journey: Your Personal Evolution
- Starting Out: Full CAF process feels overwhelming but reveals surprising factors (15-20 minutes per decision)
- Building Confidence: You begin applying quick CAF to everyday choices, catching factors others miss (5-10 minutes)
- Natural Integration: You automatically consider stakeholders and run TRICK² without conscious effort
- CAF Mastery: Factor awareness becomes your superpower—you spot missed elements in every plan, proposal, and conversation
Everyone’s journey is different. Some people develop stakeholder sensitivity first, others master TRICK² quickly. The key is consistent practice. Start with decisions that matter to you, where discovering hidden factors has real value.
You’ll know you’ve internalized CAF when you can’t help but notice: “But what about the impact on X?” or “Has anyone considered how this changes when Y happens?” This isn’t being negative—it’s seeing the full picture while others squint at fragments.
📊 Summary: Your Factor Awareness Upgrade
CAF transforms you from someone who considers the obvious to someone who sees the full system. In a world of increasing complexity, this is a superpower.
Tool: | CAF (Consider All Factors) |
Purpose: | Comprehensive factor discovery before decisions |
Process: | Three layers: Obvious → Stakeholders → Dimensions |
Time Required: | 12-15 minutes for thorough analysis |
Key Benefit: | Catches factors that derail plans |
Works Best With: | PMI for evaluating options against factors |
🎯 Next Steps
You now have two complementary tools: PMI for balanced evaluation and CAF for comprehensive factor awareness. Together, they form a decision-making foundation that’s both thorough and practical.
Ready to add another dimension? In the next article, we’ll explore OPV (Other People’s Views), which takes CAF’s stakeholder awareness and transforms it into deep empathy and perspective-taking.
But first, practice CAF on three decisions this week. Notice how many factors you typically miss. Watch how the three-layer process reveals what matters most. You’ll never make decisions the same way again.
Navigation: ← Previous: PMI (Plus, Minus, Interesting) | Series Start | Next: OPV (Other People’s Views) →
Part of the Maltese Mental Models series • Teaching Edward de Bono’s thinking tools for the AI age