Six thinking hats
CREATIVE BRAINSTORMING
CONTENTS• Understand importance of thinking
• Argumentative vs. Parallel thinking
• Introduction of Six Thinking Hats
• Benefits of using Six Thinking Hats
• Details of Six Thinking Hats
• Usage in Work life
• Testimonials
THINKING ABOUT THINKING• Thinking defines quality of life including work performance, relationships and growth
• No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking. - Voltaire
• A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. – Abraham Lincoln
THINKING ABOUT THINKING• The main difficulty of thinking is confusion
• Thinking is not same all the times; varies as per day, weather, mood, topic, vision of futue
• Difficulties in involving participants actively in meetings.
• Difficulties in changing long held perceptions of self and others
Can thinking be controlled or directed to get better outcomes/decisions?
ARGUMENTATIVE VS. PARALLEL THINKING
• Argumentative – in a discusion each party deliberatly takes an opposite view
• Parallel – each party looks in parallel from the same point of view
• Argumentative – in case of disagreement one party tries to prove other party wrong
• Parallel – both views of disagreement are put down in parallel. Decision is made, if required, later on
• Argumentative – Generally based on “What is”
• Parallel – based on “What Can be„
SIX THINKING HATS• Tool by Edward De Bono to implement parallel thinking in group
• Six colored hats correspond to six directions of thinking – white, red, black, yellow, green, blue
• Set of rules to be followed by everyone
Edward De Bono gave the concept of lateral thinking and his tools are widely used in Government and educational & commercial enterprises.
SIX THINKING HATS
SIX THINKING HATS - BENEFITS
• Maximum utilisation of intelligence, experience and knowledge of all the participants
• Huge time savings as members are thinking in parallel rather than argumenting
• Uses ego constructively in discussions
• In Argumentative thinking, ego is biggest obstacle to quick and effective thinking.
• One thing (information, emotions, caution, creativity, optimism, control) at a time
• Confusion is the biggest enemy of good thinking
SIX THINKING HATS - DETAILS
SIX THINKING HATS – BENEFITS
• Brain is more sensitised to problems/issues than positive value in situation/idea
• Will help in finding positive values by deliberate effort and removing confusion
• Many great opportunities are lost just due to wrong assumptions and negative thinking
• Will help in assessing opportunities objectively by balancing emotions and creativity
• Customer and senior management always want solution and not problems
• Will help in finding 3-4 creative solutions to problems
SIX THINKING HATS – HOW TO
Guidelines
• There is no one right sequence to follow
• Some sequences are appropriate for exploration, some for problem solving, for dispute settlement , for decision making, and so forth
A Blue hat should always be used both at the beginning and at the end of the session
SIX THINKING HATS – 1ST BLUE HAT
• Why we are here
• What we are thinking about
• The defintion of the situation (or problem)
• Alternative defintions
• What we want to acheive
• Where we want to end up
• The background to the thinking, and
• A plan for the sequence of hats to be used
SIX THINKING HATS – LAST BLUE HAT
• What we have acheived,
• Outcome,
• Conclusion,
• Design,
• Solution and
• Next steps
SIX THINKING HATS – TESTIMONIALS
• NASA, IBM, DuPont, NTT, Shell, BP, Federal Ex and others
• Use six thinking hats successfuly for problem solving effectively and creatively
• Optus (Australia)• Discussion is concluded in 45 minutes only even planned time
was 4 hours
• ABB• Cuts short project discussion time from 20 days to 2 days