The cycle of hatting, as given in HCO PL 7 Mar 72, Est 0 Series 1R, is HAT some and get production, hat more and get production, hat more and get Production. Hat to total specialization, get production. Hat to more generalized skill and get production. Hat an activity until it can do own and everyone else’s hat in the activity and get production.

You HAT to get a PRODUCT.

Hatting is very largely done “on the job”. It is done constantly by the individual himself by referring to policy when he is not sure of the policy for the action he is doing or about to do. A survey just done of top level Scientology executives, some of the highest producers in the world, has disclosed all of them, without exception, operate on this basis — they keep policy at hand and refer to it frequently while producing. All have done more Admin study on post while doing their job than they have done in the classroom. They have an actual rule which they invariably apply in practice, which is, “If not certain of the policy in handling something, always locate and study it no matter how long it takes and then handle according to that policy.”

The interesting thing about this is that the above operating basis SAVES immense amounts of time in the long mn, as a staff member or executive operating on policy to this degree very soon gains a high level of CERTAINTY on what he is doing and therefore works very fast.

A Hatting Officer hats executives and staff members “on the job”.

One of the simplest and most effective ways to do this is as follows:

The Hatting Officer visits the person while he is working on post. He observes what the staff member is doing right now. He finds out what PRODUCT the person is working to produce. He ascertains whether or not the staff member is having any difficulty producing it. We’ll say he finds that the staff member is having difficulty. The Hatting Officer then goes away and RAPIDLY locates the policy letter that covers how to do that, how to produce that product. He gives this to the staff member and orders him to study it right now, saying he will return in, say, 10 minutes and check him out on it. In 10 minutes the Hatting Officer returns (with his E-Meter), WCM4s the staff member on the policy and gives him a proper starrate checkout, demonstrations and all. He then has the person complete the cycle of action he was engaged in and produce the product using the policy he has just studied.

This completes one cycle of action of hatting. The Hatting Officer goes off then to hat another.

You will find that upon completion of just one such cycle of action of hatting the staff member will have VGIs and will be more certain on his post. When you have done this several different times with a particular staff member, always ending up with a product, he will begin doing it himself. And you will be amazed at how fast his certainty and speed of production increase.

There are several variations of the above. The Hatting Officer may upon visiting a staff member find that he thinks he is having no difficulties but notice he is doing something in an off-policy way. The Hatting Officer says nothing then, simply goes away and finds the policy that applies (or finds it in the Staff Member’s own hat) and gives it to him to study. He then proceeds through the full routine and gets the product or sub-product produced “on-policy”.

Again a Hatting Officer may find a staff member is having no difficulty with what he is currently doing but by searching around his area, such as in the person’s “pending basket”, find something he is just not handling. Again he locates the applicable HCO PL but this time has the staff member agree to come and inform him as soon as he completes the cycle of action he is currently working on. The Hatting Officer then has him study the policy, checks him out on it and has him tackle the thing he has been avoiding and, using the PL, produce the product.

There are any number of ways the Hatting Officer can find the “difficulty” to tackle — a down statistic in the staff member’s area may indicate it, a pile of papers on the corner of his desk, a non-complied with order, etc. The point is you find one, locate the policy, check the person out on it, have him apply it and produce the product.

Today, with the various policy indexes available, such as the “LRH Policy and Directives Index” issued by LRH Comm WW, the Flag produced “Indexed Summary of Scientology and Dianetic Policy” and the OEC Volumes, policy is easy to find. A Hatting Officer MUST be an expert in using these indexes and in locating specific policies fast (any staff member should be really). By doing this hatting procedure and using the indexes you will become such an expert fast.

This system could be called “Training on Post” or “on-the-job training”. It is Hatting.

Hatting Officers will find staff members will cooperate with them fully on this type of hatting, especially after you have done it a couple of times with a person and he has had a couple of wins. Product Officers will be delighted with you, too — especially if you do a couple of successful ones on them first! You are, of course, in this, working fully in accord with the staff member in getting his job done and with the Product Officer in getting his products out.

Occasionally a Hatting Officer will find he has trouble getting to an executive to hat him — some executive who has done the FEBC, for example, and thinks he knows far more than the Hatting Officer, which he undoubtedly does. However, if a Hatting Officer is to be fully successful, he must hat from the very top of the org down. In such circumstances the Hatting Officer must get smart. He must find where that senior exec is having difficulty on his post by one means or another and politely direct him in some way to the policy which covers. Initially this could be done by attaching a despatch to the appropriate PL drawing the exec’s attention to it in relation to the situation the exec is trying to handle. After a few successes with this, the Hatting Officer will find he can walk into the area and hat him just like any other staff member.

Hatting Officers should, by good example and training, hat Div Heads to do this type of on-the-job hatting with their staff. It is an executive’s responsibility to hat and train his staff. A busy exec may send a staff member off to the STO in Qual to do the checkouts. If after checkouts and Hatting Officer attention the person is still not producing, he should be sent to admin cramming.

There are other aspects to hatting. A Hatting Officer gets people through their basic staff hats, sees that they get through Staff Status I & II, gets them trained on their mini-hat and then their full post hat, divisional packs, etc. But the above system of hatting is the day to day, routine hatting action. Done constantly, by enough Hatting Officers for the size of the staff, the org will soon flourish with extremely certain and competent executives and staff.

Of course all such hatting is directed towards getting staff instant hatted and producing initially, then mini-hatted and producing, then fully hatted for and fully competent on his post.

HATTING ACHIEVES CONTROL OVER POST.

This is the exciting field of the Dept 1 Hatting Officer. These are the wonderful effects a Hatting Officer can produce. And even an org which has a full Est O System operating, would still have Hatting Officers in Dept 1 doing this.

So, Hatting Officer, do it. See how simple it is. And see what great effects you can create in your org! L. RON HUBBARD expects it of you.