The Six Thinking Hats

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The Six Thinking Hats
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Edward de Bono

• Edward de Bono has written 65 books with
  translations in 37 languages. He has been invited
  to work in 52 countries.He was born in Malta and
  graduated from the University of Malta. He
  proceeded as a Rhodes Scholar to Oxford and has
  held appointments at the Universities of Oxford,
  Cambridge, London and Harvard.
• Dr de Bono is the originator of the term 'lateral
  thinking' which now has an official entry in the
  Oxford English Dictionary. He is regarded as the
  leading international authority in conceptual and
  creative thinking, and also the direct teaching
  of thinking as a skill.

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Who uses this stuff?

• IRELAND
• 1. Eagle star Insurances2. FAS3. NRB4.
  Sonopress Ireland5. Glanbia.ltd6. ESB7. Alps
  Electric8. Department of Enterprise and
  Employment9. Irish Life investment Managers10.
  3M Ireland

• WORLD-WIDE
• 1. Du Pont2. IBM3. Siemens4. Statoil5.
  British Airways6. Shell7. Monsanto 8.
  Motorola9. Prudential Insurance10. Peter
  Ueberroth

Source http//www.edwarddebonofoundation.com/clie
nts.htm
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Thinking is a skill, that is all about using what
youve got
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Thinking is a skill, that is all about using what
youve got
An excellent driver will get great performance,
even out of a banger.
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Thinking is a skill, that is all about using what
youve got
A poor driver wont get a good perfomance out of
a great car.
An excellent driver will get great performance,
even out of a banger.
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Thinking is a skill, that is all about using what
youve got
A very intelligent person with bad thinking
skills wont be creative.
A person of average intelligence with good
thinking skills can be very creative.
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The Six Thinking Hats

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Traditional Meeting

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Parallel Thinking

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Parallel Thinking

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Parallel Thinking
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Parallel Thinking

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Parallel Thinking

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The Six Thinking Hats

• Each hat represents a perspective or way of
  thinking
• They are metaphorical hats that a thinker can put
  on or take off to indicate the type of thinking
  they are using

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The Six Thinking Hats

• In a group we can ask members to put on
  different hats in a sequence to aid the problem
  solving process
• This can help overcome the problem of each group
  member adopting random positions at random times

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The Six Thinking Hats

• It also permits us to control people who insist
  of sticking to one perspective - we can ask them
  to assume a different hat
• Many major international organisations use this
  technique for problem solving

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The Six Thinking Hats
Managing the Thinking Setting the focus Making
summaries Overviews conclusions Action Plans
Blue Hat
FOCUS
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The Six Thinking Hats
Managing the Thinking Setting the focus Making
summaries Overviews conclusions Action Plans
White Hat
Blue Hat
Information Data Neutral and objective Checked
and believed facts Missing information Where
to source it
FOCUS
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The Six Thinking Hats
Managing the Thinking Setting the focus Making
summaries Overviews conclusions Action Plans
White Hat
Blue Hat
Information Data Neutral and objective Checked
and believed facts Missing information Where
to source it
FOCUS
Why it may work Values Benefits (both known and
potential) Logical reasons must be given
Yellow Hat
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The Six Thinking Hats
Managing the Thinking Setting the focus Making
summaries Overviews conclusions Action Plans
White Hat
Blue Hat
Information Data Neutral and objective Checked
and believed facts Missing information Where
to source it
FOCUS
Why it may work Values Benefits (both known and
potential) Logical reasons must be given
Black Hat
Yellow Hat
Why it may not work Cautions Dangers Problems
Faults Logical reasons must be given
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The Six Thinking Hats
Managing the Thinking Setting the focus Making
summaries Overviews conclusions Action Plans
White Hat
Blue Hat
Information Data Neutral and objective Checked
and believed facts Missing information Where
to source it
FOCUS
Why it may work Values Benefits (both known and
potential) Logical reasons must be given
Creative Thinking Possibilities
Alternatives New Ideas New Thinking Overcome
black hat issues Reinforce yellow hat issues
Black Hat
Yellow Hat
Green Hat
Why it may not work Cautions Dangers Problems
Faults Logical reasons must be given
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The Six Thinking Hats
Managing the Thinking Setting the focus Making
summaries Overviews conclusions Action Plans
White Hat
Red Hat
Blue Hat
Information Data Neutral and objective Checked
and believed facts Missing information Where
to source it
Feelings and Intuition Emotions and hunches No
reasons or justifications At this point Keep it
short
FOCUS
Why it may work Values Benefits (both known and
potential) Logical reasons must be given
Creative Thinking Possibilities
Alternatives New Ideas New Thinking Overcome
black hat issues Reinforce yellow hat issues
Black Hat
Yellow Hat
Green Hat
Why it may not work Cautions Dangers Problems
Faults Logical reasons must be given
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The Six Thinking Hats
Managing the Thinking How do we sequence the
events Explain? Summarize. What is your
conclusion? What next? Action plan? What is the
main idea?
White Hat
Red Hat
Blue Hat
Feelings and Intuition What does your intuition
tell you? Did your feelings change? How? What
prejudices are present? What are you feeling
now? What is your hunch about?
Information Data Who, what, when, where? What
do you know about? What are the facts about? What
do you need to know? Where do you locate this?
Questions
Questions
FOCUS
Creative Thinking What if? What is good
about? What else can we do? What is the value
of? How can we make this work? What are the
alternatives?
Why it may work What are the benefits? What is
good about? What is a positive outcomes? What is
the value? Can this be made to work?
Black Hat
Yellow Hat
Green Hat
Why it may not work What are the risks of? Why
wont/didnt this work? What were the
difficulties of? What are the consequences
of? What should you be cautious about?
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The Six Thinking Hats

• We tend to use all of the Six Hats on a daily
  basis, but people tend to have default hats that
  they use more often.

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The Six Thinking Hats

• Which two hats do you feel more comfortable
  using?
• Hat 1 __________________
• Hat 2 __________________

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The Six Thinking Hats

• Which two hats do you feel dominate in your
  team/organisation?
• Hat 1 __________________
• Hat 2 __________________

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The Six Thinking Hats

• What impact does that have on your teams
  effectiveness?
• _____________________________
• _____________________________
• _____________________________
• _____________________________
• _____________________________