This post is all about the book "Six Thinking Hats" by Edward de Bono.
About the Author : I feel that the author, Edward de Bono, is one of the few, who could make complex things easily understandable. He is also the author of the books called "Lateral Thinking" & "Parallel Thinking". His language is very simple to read.
About the Book / Concept : The books talks about the thinking mechanism and how get the most out of it. In fact, it was quoted in the book that using this principle / concept, in many big companies, discussion time were dramatically reduced to a great extent [say from 3 hours to 20 minutes!!]. Moreover, in many companies, they have this taught as part of their corporate training. Very interesting.
Why This Book ?
About the Author : I feel that the author, Edward de Bono, is one of the few, who could make complex things easily understandable. He is also the author of the books called "Lateral Thinking" & "Parallel Thinking". His language is very simple to read.
About the Book / Concept : The books talks about the thinking mechanism and how get the most out of it. In fact, it was quoted in the book that using this principle / concept, in many big companies, discussion time were dramatically reduced to a great extent [say from 3 hours to 20 minutes!!]. Moreover, in many companies, they have this taught as part of their corporate training. Very interesting.
Why This Book ?
- Many times, we would have noticed that we feel something really good and after sometime we would have felt otherwise. Why this swing?
- Invariably, though we understand the pros and cons, we stick ourselves with one side and discuss. Mostly towards the fag end it turns out to be an argument. How to avoid this?
- We feel that going back to and fro from +ves and -ves are bad. Is it good or bad?
- It would be frustrating, when we are +ve about something and somebody is exactly opposite about the same. There is nothing good or bad about this, but still there is a frustration. How to make it a win-win?
- How to reduce the discussion timings ?
About the concept : The author classifies our thinking into six types and refers them by six distinct colours. He symbolises thinking as Hat.
The following are the details of each Hat :
Blue Hat Blue colour is associated with sky. The upper limit, and hence signifies controlling factor. This is the thinking, which we use to make decisions, prepare agenda for a meeting, making a summary of a meeting etc.,
White Hat White colour refers to peace, neutrality. That means more to do with data. This thinking leads us to collect more information, stats / facts about a particular thing. It is only based on this white hat thinking, the blue hat thinking can make appropriate decisions.
Black Hat Black is associated with dark. Hence Black Hat thinking is to do with cautious thinking. This is like thinking about all the bad things that could happen, any danger. Over usage of this hat may lead to slowness.
Yellow Hat Yellow is associated with light, sun. Yellow hat thinking means positive thinking. More on the good things. Over usage of this hat may lead to over promising and hence overloading ourselves.
Red Hat Red is associated with blood. Red hat thing is more to do with emotions. It purely depends on the individual(s), culture, psychology etc.,
Green Hat Green is associated with vegetation. It symbolises mother nature. Green hat thinking is creative thinking.
White Hat White colour refers to peace, neutrality. That means more to do with data. This thinking leads us to collect more information, stats / facts about a particular thing. It is only based on this white hat thinking, the blue hat thinking can make appropriate decisions.
Black Hat Black is associated with dark. Hence Black Hat thinking is to do with cautious thinking. This is like thinking about all the bad things that could happen, any danger. Over usage of this hat may lead to slowness.
Yellow Hat Yellow is associated with light, sun. Yellow hat thinking means positive thinking. More on the good things. Over usage of this hat may lead to over promising and hence overloading ourselves.
Red Hat Red is associated with blood. Red hat thing is more to do with emotions. It purely depends on the individual(s), culture, psychology etc.,
Green Hat Green is associated with vegetation. It symbolises mother nature. Green hat thinking is creative thinking.
How to use these Hats - an use case : Assume you are going to conduct a group discussion about "Team Changes". This is just only an usecase. First as a coordinator, you may come up with the agenda for the meeting and plan the sequence of the hats usage - eg.
1. Red Hat, 2. Black Hat, 3. White Hat, 4. Yellow Hat, 5. Green Hat, 6. Red Hat, 7. Blue Hat again.
This is Blue Hat thinking. Under each Hat thinking, I've given the example statements under each hat thinking in quotes.
1. Red Hat "I don't like this" "Again one more round of learning / training" - This may be the feeling of all including the coordinator.
2. Black Hat "What will happen to the knowledge gained so far?" "Is it really required right now?" - This is anyway everyone feels the same
3. White Hat "About 90% of the members who got team changed were more than 2 to 3 years old in the existing team" "About 8% of the members who got team changed were more than 1 year old in the existing team" "Only about 2% of the people were shifted 2 time a year and that too because of urgent project requirements" - Now this opens up a new dimension to the whole thinking.
4. Yellow Hat "This gives us opportunity to learn new technologies" "This gives opportunity to mingle with new set of people" "Keeping ourselves challenged is a great way to keeping ourselves ahead and active" - This is also true and everyone agrees.
5. Green Hat "May be come mentoring and some stipulated training time provided would make the transition smooth" "Some award scheme for the people who had transformed quickly and got into the new job quickly" - This opens up the doors to possibilities.
6. Red Hat again "Logical and can't help it" "Once in a while it is OK' - See how the thinking has changed.
7. Blue Hat to summarize "To summarise - Finally, the members felt that the team change is a logical and said it is ok to change the team once in a while".
2. Black Hat "What will happen to the knowledge gained so far?" "Is it really required right now?" - This is anyway everyone feels the same
3. White Hat "About 90% of the members who got team changed were more than 2 to 3 years old in the existing team" "About 8% of the members who got team changed were more than 1 year old in the existing team" "Only about 2% of the people were shifted 2 time a year and that too because of urgent project requirements" - Now this opens up a new dimension to the whole thinking.
4. Yellow Hat "This gives us opportunity to learn new technologies" "This gives opportunity to mingle with new set of people" "Keeping ourselves challenged is a great way to keeping ourselves ahead and active" - This is also true and everyone agrees.
5. Green Hat "May be come mentoring and some stipulated training time provided would make the transition smooth" "Some award scheme for the people who had transformed quickly and got into the new job quickly" - This opens up the doors to possibilities.
6. Red Hat again "Logical and can't help it" "Once in a while it is OK' - See how the thinking has changed.
7. Blue Hat to summarize "To summarise - Finally, the members felt that the team change is a logical and said it is ok to change the team once in a while".
From the above usecase, it is evident that the Six Hat Thinking help use to converge on things which would otherwise take longer duration.
Advantages of Using different Hats :
1. At the end of the discussion you would have felt that everyone felt the same.
2. It was easy to change the thinking using this hat concept
3. Since everyone in the discussion are made to wear the same colour hat, it is easy to converge and no distraction in between the discussion
4. Using different hats make users to give their comments freely without sticking to their original comments. Does not affect the ego of the person when changing the thinking
5. If we use the right mix of the hat, we can easily converge for a quick decision.
2. It was easy to change the thinking using this hat concept
3. Since everyone in the discussion are made to wear the same colour hat, it is easy to converge and no distraction in between the discussion
4. Using different hats make users to give their comments freely without sticking to their original comments. Does not affect the ego of the person when changing the thinking
5. If we use the right mix of the hat, we can easily converge for a quick decision.
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