De Bono came up with this thinking style concept 27 years ago. The thinking concept is called Parallel Thinking.
Parallel thinking is when at any point of time, everyone is looking at the same direction. This thinking thing is very beneficial to use especially when we are in a meeting, doing some planning, brainstorming for ideas and much more.
The six colours of hats represents six types of thinking and those hats help a Group of people use parallel thinking. Each hat identifies a type of thinking and you can put on and take off a hat. It is like you think a certain way when you put on different colour of hats. Furthermore, it helps us to move outside our habitual thinking style.
The six colours are about.... |
The six hats are about... |
Followed by White Hat. This hat asks questions on ' what do we know? and 'what do we need to know? or 'what we do not know?'
Next comes Yellow Hat. Typical questions would be 'what are the advantages?' 'what benefits will be get from it?' or 'what are the good aspect about this matter?'
Followed by Red Hat. When wearing this hat, the questions one would ask are 'how do you feel about the suggestion or idea?' 'what does your intuition tell you?'.
Green Hat represents the creative hat. The kind of questions are ' what are the alternatives?' ' how can we come up with new ideas on this?' ' what are the new ideas or innovative ways to tackle this situation?'
Black Hat asks questions such as 'why it won't work? ' what are the logical thing about this?' ' what are the weaknesses or drawbacks?'
Lastly, Blue Hat takes control by reconciling or gathering the information obtained from a meeting or discussion.
But remember, any of those hats does not represent someone's style of thinking, you do not go around and tell people ' she is a yellow hat thinker'.
So, the next time you carry out any meeting or discussion, put on those hats!
...........................................................................................................................................
I conducted a session on Six Thinking Hats to further equip my students with the right decision-making problem-solving tools. It was a fun and interactive session and I find that the person who learn the most is myself.
say cheseeeeee!! |
myself and the gang... |
warming-up before presentation.. |
peace ya'all... |
look at the hats!! |