Six Hat Thinking

Damian Groark

CEO Challenging Learning

damian@challenginglearning.com

ProblemsEmotions

Helplessness

Confusion

ProblemsProblemsProblemsProblemsProblemsProblems

How do we think?How do we think?How do we solve them?How do we solve them?

Full Colour Thinking

After lunch

two children have been fighting and both want you to listen to their point of view

you want the class to solve the problem on the board.

One of the children can’t read the problem and wants help.

Lucy throws up

A child falls of his chair and a dog is loose on the playground.

The secretary comes in to berate you because your dinner numbers are wrong.

Should we

Should we

move house?

move house?

Should I go for Should I go for promotion?promotion?

What colour tiles

What colour tiles

in the bathroom?

in the bathroom? Should we change

Should we change

the car?

the car?

Where should

Where should

we holiday?

we holiday?

Where do we park?Where do we park?

What should I wear?

What should I wear?Should we marry?

Should we marry?

Who shall I inviteWho shall I invite to the party?to the party?

Turn to a partner

Identify a real life problem in your life that you are

having.

Should we get a dog?Should we get a dog?

We did!!!!!We did!!!!!

Let’s play a game!

The rules are dead simple:

When you see the colour, shout out the word written on the slide.

Wow!Wow!

Think!Think!

Yes!Yes!

No!No!

New!New!

Facts!Facts!

New!New!

No!No!

Yes!Yes!

Facts!Facts!

Think!Think!

Wow!Wow!

New!New!

Wow!Wow!

Facts!Facts!

No!No!

Yes!Yes!

Think!Think!

Does this presentation seem Does this presentation seem chaotic?chaotic?

Is this disconnected and hard to Is this disconnected and hard to follow?follow?

Have you come here to gain Have you come here to gain meaning and yet you are being meaning and yet you are being

lead merely into confusion?lead merely into confusion?

I agree!!!!!!

Edward de Bono

• Edward de Bono  is regarded by many to be the leading authority in the world in the field of creative thinking and the direct teaching of thinking as a skill.

• “I am one of the very few people in history to have had a major impact on the way we think - rather than on what we think.” (modest)

• Oxford scholar with a background in Medicine and Psychology

Using the Six hats to solve the problem of facial adhesion.

De Bono Talks about Six Hat Thinking

The Red Hat

“What do I feel about this?”

Emotions blur thinking and clarity

Feelings, we bring prejudices, aethetics and anxiety to problems

Hunches, we have gut reactions to things

These need to be acknowledged when solving problems if we dont do this we try to disguise our feelings as LOGIC.

The Yellow Hat

“What are the good points here?”

What are the benefits?

Good Points

Benefits

Reasons that the idea will work

Likelihood

This is the sunshine hat looking for the positives

The Black Hat

What is wrong with this?

Checking for evidence

Checking for logic/feasibility

Checking for impact

Checking for fit

Checking for weakness

The Hat is there to help us making mistakes. it is there to point out dangers or difficulties.

There is a world of difference between looking at an idea to attack it and looking at an idea to improve it.

The White Hat

What information do we have?

What information do we need?

How do we get the information that we need?

gather data, seek information, use and select the information that you have in order to inform the problem solving process.

The Green hat

What Ideas do we have?

Let’s look at things from a different/zany angle.

Lets get creative.

Be alternative

Generate ideas

Green shoots of creativity. You can’t assess an idea until you have one.

The Blue Hat

What thinking has been done?

What is the next step?

What thinking is needed

Metacognition

Reviewing and summarising the thinking

Finding the next steps

Unlike the other hats, which are states of mind, this is a way of guiding the process to empower greater thinking.

Red hat to find out what we feel about this idea.

White to consider what information and facts we already

have or will need to know.

Yellow hat to think about the good points and give reasons.

Black hat to point out some of the problems we might need to

think about and why.

Green hat to see if we can think of some really wacky ideas!

Blue to think about all the thinking and

decide on the next steps.

Red hat to reflect on how we feel about our decision.

Thinking about the thinking

METACOGNITION

Mr Groark the head teacher has decided that from September 2010 St Benets school day will start at 10.30am rather than 9.00am.

We will use the 6 Hats to think carefully about this idea and decide whether it is a good idea or not.

Red hat to find out what we feel about this idea.

White to consider what information and facts we already

have or will need to know.

Yellow hat to think about the good points and give reasons.

Black hat to point out some of the problems we might need to

think about and why.

Green hat to see if we can think of some really wacky ideas!

Blue to think about all the thinking and

decide on the next steps.

BLUE HAT

Which hat were you wearing when you had most to say?

What happens if someone mostly wears:Yellow?Green?Red?Black?

Six Hat Thinking

Damian Groark

CEO Challenging Learning

damian@challenginglearning.com