Edward de Bono

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Edward de BonosSix Thinking Hats

• An aid to decision making and problem solving.

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What is it?

• 'Six Thinking Hats' is a powerful technique that
  helps you look at important decisions from a
  number of different perspectives.
• It helps you make better decisions by forcing you
  to move outside your habitual ways of thinking.
• As such, it helps you understand the full
  complexity of the decision, and spot issues and
  opportunities to which you might otherwise be
  blind.

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How can I use it??

• Six Thinking Hats is a simple, effective
  parallel thinking process that helps people be
  more productive, focused, and mindfully involved.
  
• It encourages you to separate thinking into six
  valuable functions and roles.
• Each thinking role is identified with a colored
  symbolic "thinking hat."
• By mentally wearing and switching "hats," you can
  easily focus or redirect thoughts, the
  conversation, or the meeting.
• It is a good problem solving and decision making
  strategy.

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The White Hat

• The information seeking hat.
• What are the facts?
• What information is available? What is relevant?
• When wearing the white hat we are neutral in our
  thinking.

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The Red Hat

• What do you feel about the suggestion?
• What are your gut reactions?
• What intuitions do you have?
• Dont think too long or too hard.

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The Black Hat

• The caution hat.
• In black hat the thinker points out errors or
  pit-falls.
• What are the risks or dangers involved?
• Identifies difficulties and problems.

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The Yellow Hat

• The sunshine hat.
• It is positive and constructive.
• It is about effectiveness and getting a job done.
• What are the benefits, the advantages?

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The Green Hat

• This is the creative mode of thinking.
• Green represents growth and movement.
• In green hat we look to new ideas and solutions.
• Lateral thinking wears a green hat.

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The Blue Hat

• The control hat, organizing thinking itself.
• Sets the focus, calls for the use of other hats.
• Monitors and reflects on the thinking processes
  used.
• Blue is for planning.

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Six Thinking Hats
Cautious
Intuitive
Informative
Creative
Reflective
Constructive
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A Simple Example

• The Problem
• Students Talking While Others Are Talking Or
  Teaching .

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White Hat

• Informative.
• What are the facts??
• Take a minute to jot these down.

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Facts

• students are talking when instructor, Ms. Smith,
  is talking
• there is noise so that others are distracted or
  can't hear
• students don't know what to do after Ms. Smith
  has given directions
• many students get silly or off task

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The Red Hat

• Intuitive.
• Your gut reactions.
• State the emotions.
• Take a minute to write the emotions down.

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Emotions

• Ms. Smith feels offended
• Students are frustrated because they can't hear
  directions
• Those talking enjoy joking around and being
  heard

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The Black Hat

• Cautious.
• Look at the bad points.
• Write down the bad points.

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Bad Points

• time is wasted
• learning is compromised
• those who legitimately have the floor feel that
  listeners don't care about what they are saying
• chaos in the classroom

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The Yellow Hat

• Optimistic viewpoint.
• What are the benefits, the advantages?
• Constructive.
• Take a minute to write the benefits.

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Constructive Thoughts

• everyone gets to say what is on their mind
• it can be fun
• you don't have to wait until you speak and
  therefore don't forget what you what to say
• not just the "smart" kids get to speak

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The Green Hat

• Creative ideas!
• What are ways to work this out?
• New ideas and solutions.
• Jot down your creative thoughts.

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Creative Solutions

• Ms. Smith will be more aware of the amount of
  time that she "talks"
• Ms. Smith will try to include interaction from
  many different students, not just the "smart"
  ones

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Creative Solutions

• students will work on resisting the need to say
  everything that comes into their mind. They will
  ask themselves if this is "on topic" and if this
  needs to be shared at this time.
• students will think about whether their comment
  will interfere with other people's learning.

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The Blue Hat

• Reflect.
• Use the other hats.
• Sum it up.
• Write down your reflective thoughts as a
  solution.

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Reflecting and Summing it up!

• Ms. Smith learned that she needs to limit the
  amount of time she uses "Talking" as a form of
  teaching
• Ms. Smith needs to involve all students in
  discussion. She needs to look for the one who
  rarely offers comments or is quietly waiting to
  be picked to answer.
• Ms. Smith needs to realize that some students
  need "think time" before they are ready to
  contribute to a discussion. Allowing time for
  these students to think is important part of
  class discussion so they don't tune out.

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Reflecting and Summing it up!

• students now realize that when they talk when
  others are talking it makes the person talking
  feel like a fool or unappreciated.
• students realize that just to "get the laugh" of
  the moment, they are jeopardizing other people's
  learning
• students learned that speaking whenever you want
  show a lack of self-discipline and that not
  everything that goes through our minds is worth
  sharing.

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Uses

• Six Thinking Hats and lateral thinking tools can
  be used on a wide variety of business challenges.
  
• Blue Hat thinking is the process control hat, the
  thinking about the thinking hat, the organizing
  the thinking hat.
• It is really important to take time in the
  beginning of a Six Hats session to develop
  clearly targeted focus statements.

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Some business examples

• How could we improve employee morale in our work
  environment?
• How could we educate upper management about
  consumer preferences in each of our global
  markets?
• How could we get more product display space?
• How could we use the Internet to save time?
• What new services could we provide?

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• de Bono, E. (1985). Six thinking hats. Boston
  Little, Brown.