dr. edward de bono

Dr. Edward De Bono

• Edward De Bono is a world-known expert in creative thinking. The 6 Thinking Hats is one such technique.

• The main idea is to have the group only “wear one hat at a time” when considering a problem. The wearing of the hat is metaphorical. At any one time, everyone will wear the same colour, in other words, look at the problem at hand from only one perspective, the perspective indicated by the hat colour.

Edward De Bono'sSix Thinking Hats

Introduction

Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats techniques help you to a balanced assessment of your ideas, problems and challenges. By asking you to wear six different thinking hats that represent the six different aspects of how you can possibly think.


You can use Six Thinking Hats for anything you deal with in life. Use it in your business, use it at school or use it at home. And as a side affect you'll find the overall quality of your creative thinking improve tremendously.


So, why wear six different thinking hats?

Traditional arguing involves two or more parties opposing each other. Whatever one party offers as an input to the discussion, the opponents will come forth with critique. There are several reasons for this: discovering the truth, investigating certain subjects, defending viewpoints, just winning an argument or coming to a synthesis of the various standpoints.



Even if we agree mostly with our discussion partners, we are still inclined to focus on the details we disagree on. "Yes, BUT..." This habit doesn't do justice to the input as a whole. We will overlook valuable points of consideration and lose a lot of time bickering over rights and wrongs. Arguing isn't constructive nor creative. It may result in some improvements but it won't lead to innovation. Arguing is simply not going to build you new roads...



De Bono's Six Thinking Hats offer us a simple yet powerful alternative to discussion. With this method we investigate together the facts, the feelings, the pro's and cons, and the creative solutions we can come up with. De Bono calls this parallel thinking. The result of this is a sincere dialogue in which personal gains are set aside in favor of working together to reach clarity.



Use the Six Thinking Hats to assess existing problems, innovative ideas, work processes, study topics, possible decisions, solve disputes and much, much more. The method is simple, but extraordinarily effective. This has lead to the situation that many prominent organizations have implemented this technique in their daily businesses today.



Learning the methods and techniques of De Bono's Six Thinking Hats is easy. Yet it will strongly affect your thinking. It is concrete, tangible, simple to use and changes all thinking behaviors instantly.


Six Colored Hats - Six Types of Thinking

The colors of the hats are: whitewhite, red, black, yellow, green and blue. These colors were chosen for a reason. They're associated with certain situations which will help you remember the objective of each separate hat.

Six hats with six different colors, all representing a different aspect of your thinking. When you wear a specific hat, the rule is you stick to the kind of thinking it represents. When you want to switch to a different style of thinking, you need to switch hats as well.


Blue Hat

Managing of the thinking itself. Defining the topic, giving the summaries, making decisions and drawing conclusions.


Managing the Thinking Process

A cool blue sky allowing you the overview over the thinking processes which take place. Here's the manager's blue hat. You take a little distance from your thinking and watch the process unfold. Guide it and control it. And draw the conclusions in the end.


Managing the Thinking Process

Sets the agenda.Sets the timing.Decides on the next step.Keeps everyone on the focus.Handles requests.Keeps the discipline when using the hats.Handles the summary and conclusions.Asks for decisions.


White Hat

Focus your thoughts on information - the facts and figures. What info is available? How do we get it?


Information Available & Needed

Imagine white paper and computer print-outs. Most of the time paper is white. The white hat, just like most paper, refers to information and facts. So when you wear it, stick to the fact and figures. Only objective information is what you want right now.


Information Available & Needed

What information is available?What information would we like to have?What information do we need?What information is missing?Include both sided of disputed information.


Red Hat

Unlimited use of feelings, intuition and emotions which don't have to be justified.


Intuition and Feelings

Imagine the red glow of a soaring fire. You're sitting close. Feel the warmth coming from the flames. The red hat refers to your feelings and emotions.Those can be based on complex experiences and aren't always easily analyzed. Usually they're left out of the discussion since they're neither based on facts nor logic. Yet feelings which are heard stop nagging in the back of your head. Thus sharing them helps to clear your thinking.


Intuition and Feelings

Take no more than 20 to 30 secondsThis is to signal intuition, feelings and emotions.Remind yourself that no explanation is needed!Give feelings and intuition validity.


Black Hat

Warning! Difficulties, dangers and problems. What can go wrong? And does this comply with our knowledge and experience?


Caution, Difficulties, and Problems

Have you ever experienced the feeling your future seemed to look pitch black? Only troubles, mistakes, problems and all sorts of dangers awaiting... You were wearing a black hat. Very useful at times. Now wear this hat to alert you to where you could go wrong.


Caution, Difficulties, and Problems

What could be the possible problems?What could some of the difficulties be?What are points for caution?Right now we are using the black hat, so you must make a real effort to come up with the negatives.


Yellow Hat

Focus the thinking on benefits, values and attainability. What are the positives?


Benefits and Feasibility

Remember a bright and sunny day. Walking outside in a gentle breeze, how easy it gets to feel optimistic about life. Your yellow hat represents the positive and logical aspects of your thinking. So it's not about your hopes! Your statements have to be backed up by reason as well. Looking for benefits, added value and observing how realistic your expectations will be.


Benefits and Feasibility

What are the benefits?What are the positives?What are the values?Are there savings?Is there a competitive advantage?Is there potential value?Is there a concept in this idea that looks attractive?


Green Hat

Conscious creative effort. Generating ideas and looking for alternatives. Solving problems.


Alternatives and Creative Ideas

Leaves growing on the trees and bushes, the first flowers unfold in the young and lush meadows and all is vibrant with the creative energy of life. Your green hat represents your conscious creative efforts. New ideas arise, innovative solutions pop up. No logic required this time. Just let your imagination run wild.


Alternatives and Creative Ideas

We need further alternatives.We need to make a creative effort.Are there other ways to do this?What else could we do here?How else might we carry through this concept?What are the possibilities?What will overcome our difficulties?


Preparing a Session

First of all you need a concept. An idea, a problem to solve, a product to create, a service to promote, etc….. What is your thinking going to focus on? What are we thinking about? What are we working towards? What results do we expect of this thinking session?


Preparing a Session

Thinking in itself is the most effective is we have clarity about what we want to think about.

In general your thinking can be focused in two ways:


Preparing a Session

•determine a general subject in which a specific area is made the focus of our thinking - to generate new ideas. •determine a specific subject that has a clearly described focus for our thinking - to solve a problem, improve a process, accomplish a task, overcome a difficulty, add a new feature.


Practical examples:

"I would like to think in general about how people at home brush their teeth". "I need some better designs for a toothbrush". "I need stronger material for the brush of a toothbrush".


Some typical thinking pitfalls

When describing your concept, be specific about where you want your thinking to go. If you want to think about designing an umbrella, a broad description for you focus - like "Preventing people from getting wet" - will not suffice. You could end up with the conclusion that all bus stops need shelters. Add to your concept description. Use several descriptions.



Resist the temptation of looking for deeper meanings though. The general purpose of using the Six Thinking Hats is to come to constructive and creative thinking. Utilize your thinking for practical solutions.


Example:

"People don't want a drill, they want holes". Not completely true: people want the holes for a reason, they serve a purpose. Thinking along these lines can easily distract you from the original objective: designing a better drill.



To help the focus stick to our subject, it's useful to summarize the results of each separate hat session. This will also help the group to feel we're actually accomplishing something. Which in turn helps to keep all participants motivated and actively involved.


Applying the Six Different Hats

A particular hat is used in itself to emphasize a certain way of thinking or switch to a different style.Before and after using the hat the conversation is a traditional argument or discussion. Utilizing the hat this way can for example serve as a time-out which helps to clear the thinking.

How do I use these Six Thinking Hats then?

Incidental



Decide on a topic you want to think about. Determine a sequence for using the hats: your thinking agenda. Then use the different hats in turn.


Systematical



The systematical approach is particularly useful when:The thinkers have different opinions and dig in their heels leading to a dispute. The discussion is becoming incoherent and leading nowhere. There is little time available while a subject does deserve a thorough investigation.

How do I use these Six Thinking Hats then?Systematical



First of all: there's no such thing a THE right sequence for using the Six Thinking Hats. Sequences differ according to subject and participating thinkers. Also remember that in reality every hat can be used as many times as is desirable.


Different sequences for different focus points



Let the facilitator of a meeting - the one wearing the blue hat - propose a sequence or if time allows, decide on this as a group. But even with a set sequence: if applicable - be flexible!


Different sequences for different focus points



You can do an incredible amount of thinking in a relatively short period of time. Especially when it is known their is little time and you have a clear idea of what you're wanting to achieve with your thinking. Your thoughts will be sharper and the time limit prevents your thoughts from abbreviations.


How much time do you spend per hat?



With very practical topics 90 seconds per hat can produce an impressive amount of output. Also it appears to be wise to limit the time even more for people who are used to endless discussions.





Of course the timing also depends on the number of people participating. But in general 3 to 4 minutes per hat suffices - as a group!





Allow limitless time for white hat when much information needs to be digested. But keep the thinking focused on subject!


Rules of thumb for timing:



Don't limit black hat thinking as long as new viewpoints are brought forward. Breaking off prematurely will always result in strong resistance.





For the same reasons also don't limit yellow hat thinking.





Be flexible with green hat thinking: switch to a different hat once the flow of ideas has stopped. You can always come back to the green hat later on. Only when using specific creative thinking methods allow for enough time to utilize them.





Restrict red hat thinking to 30 seconds to prevent people from wanting to explain or justify their feelings. Only allow more time when intuition and feelings form a major part of our subject. (For instance when acceptability of a new idea is an issue.)





Always limit the thinking session for each hat at forehand. If it turns out to be appropriate, allow for extra time. The timing is the task of the facilitator wearing the blue hat.




When do I apply this thinking method?

Both the incidental as the systematical application of the hats is useful during meetings. Important is that all participants are always wearing the same hat! The facilitator usually has the blue hat on and structures the dialogue. But everyone can make blue hat

Meetings - more than 2 people



The most common way to use the hats during a conversation between two people, is incidental. Use the hats to guide the thinking and to ask for a different point of viewing the topic.

Conversations - two people



Though the hats were originally 'designed' for interpersonal use, they can be used in individual situations as well. They structure your thoughts and prevent people from forgetting certain ways of thinking. It does take discipline!

Individual


Always think in the style of the hat you're wearing. Any other ideas and thoughts that surface are to be ignored. The hats represent a style of thinking. They do NOT describe people, thinking habits or thoughts. Instead of arguing use parallel thinking to display different views next to each other and compare later.

Follow the ritual of the hats and the colors. Take the method as a serious game. And stick to its rules. The hats are meant to simplify the thinking and make it more efficient. So don't complicate things!

Key Points to Remember


Short Sequences

blue - definition of subject

white - ready knowledge

green - generating ideas

First ideas:


Short Sequences

yellow - benefits and valuable elements

black - dangers and difficulties

Evaluation:


Short Sequences

black - inventory of weak points

green - improving those points

Improvement:


Short Sequences

white - factual situation

green - possible causes

Explanation:


Short Sequences

red - gut feelings

black - dangers and difficulties

Direct action:


Short Sequences

green - possible alternatives

yellow - positives of alternative

black - negatives of alternatives

red - gut feelings

Choice:


Short Sequences

red – feelings

white - actual situation

green - different viewpoints

blue - conclusion

Emotions:


Short Sequences

yellow – benefits

white - ready knowledge

green - creative action

Chances:


Short Sequences

green – alternatives

blue - compare alternatives with needs

red - choose alternative

Decision:


Longer Sequences

blue - definition of problemwhite - available infogreen - possible solutionsyellow - reality check solutionsblack - weak points solutionswhite - connect to infoblue - draw conclusion

Problem Solving:


Longer Sequences

blue - purpose of creativitywhite - topic infogreen - generating ideasyellow - idea benefitsblack - idea down sidesgreen - solving down sidesred - gut feelings

Creative Effort:


Longer Sequences

blue - definition of investigationwhite - available infogreen - hypothesizingwhite - investigate more infoblue - summarize

Investigation:


Longer Sequences

blue - topic of decisiongreen - offer alternativeswhite - factual situationyellow - suitability alternativesblack - un-suitability alternativesred - making the decisionblack - assessing decision

Decision Making:


Longer Sequences

blue - necessitywhite - topic descriptiongreen - alternative viewsred - choice of approachblack - assessing choice

Communication:

Prepared by Tsen Kui Loi Feb 2010

SOALAN ???Question??

Six Thinking Hats

White Hat: state the facts- students are talking when Teacher is talking- there is noise so that others are distracted or can't hear- students don't know what to do after Teacher has given directions- many students get silly or off task

Students Talking When Teacher is Teaching:

Six Thinking Hats

Red Hat: states the emotions- Teacher feels offended- Students are frustrated because they can't hear directions- Those talking enjoy joking around and being heard


Six Thinking Hats

Black Hat: negative aspects- 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


Six Thinking Hats

Yellow Hat: positives of the situation are examined- 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


Six Thinking Hats

Green Hat: creative ideas that come with seeing the problem in a new light- Teacher will be more aware of the amount of time that she "talks"- Teacher will try to include interaction from many different students, not just the "smart" kids


Six Thinking Hats

- students will work on resisting the need to say everything that comes into their mind. They will askthemselves if this is "on topic" and" if this needs to be shared at this time. There needed to be furtherdiscussion on "how" students would work on this problem.


Six Thinking Hats

- students will think about whether their comment will interfere with other people's learning- we will keep these charts up so that we can refer back to the learning of this moment and reassess how we are doing.


Six Thinking Hats

Blue Hat: Sum up what is learned- Teacher learned that she needs to limit the amount of time she uses "Talking" as a form of teaching- Teacher 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.


Six Thinking Hats

- Teacher 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 do not tune out.


Six Thinking Hats

- 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


Six Thinking Hats

- 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.- teacher/student needs to revisit this topic and check how we are doing


Using the Six Hats to Respond to Literature

•Title•Author and Illustrator•Awards that the book may have won (CBC Picture Book, Bilby Award)•Plot- what happened, story map, Top Level Structure, •Characters- names, what they look like•Setting

White Hat: Information and facts about the book


•Title•Author and Illustrator•Awards that the book may have won (CBC Picture Book, Bilby Award)•Plot- what happened, story map, Top Level Structure, •Characters- names, what they look like•Setting

Red Hat: Discussing feelings, likes and dislikes


•What was the advantage of solving the problem that way?•What are the advantages of…?•What are all the good points about...the character, the setting, the ending etc?

Yellow Hat: Benefits, good points and advantages


•What was the advantage of solving the problem that way?•What are the advantages of…?•What are all the good points about...the character, the setting, the ending etc?

Black Hat: Disadvantages, dangers and problems


•Lets write a new ending•Write an acrostic about the main character•Draw new illustrations for the story•Think of a different way to solve the problem•Write an innovation on the story

Green Hat: New ideas, creating, adapting, innovating

dr. edward de bono

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