Author:Edward de Bono
I read Edward de Bono's first book, Lateral Thinking, when it first came out. I chose it as my prize for something that I was awarded at my school's speech day. I can't remember what the prize was for but I remember the book!
Six thinking hats may well have a similar impression on me, although it is by no means new to me: I haven't reviewed it before, that's all. I have reread this book because I am now embarking on a project that has the six thinking hats idea at its core although it is by no means a six thinking hats book. That's not such a wacky idea as you will see when the project's finished.
de Bono has conjoured up the imagery of six different coloured hats as the back drop to the way that we should think, speak and act. The colours he has chosen are meant to help with the imagery, too. Here's the list of the six hats together with the their role and meaning
- White Hat White is neutral and objective. The white hat is concerned with objective facts and figures.
- Red Hat Red suggests anger (seeing red), rage and emotions. The red hat gives the emotional view.
- Black Hat Black is sombre and serious. The black hat is cautious and careful. It points out the weaknesses in an idea.
- Yellow Hat Yellow is sunny and positive. The yellow hat is optimistic and covers hope and positive thinking.
- Green Hat Green is grass, vegetation and abundant, fertile growth. The green hat indicates creativity and new ideas.
- Blue Hat Blue is cool, and it is also the colour of the sky, which is above everything else. The blue hat is concerned with control, the organization of the thinking process and the use of the other hats.
The book centres around the use of the six hats in the context of a series of meetings or part of a meeting. That's useful as it gives us a great deal of insight into how to conduct your self when wearing the appropriate hat.
I have to say that the idea of wearing different hats is something of a turn off for me as I first came across the idea in 1980 when an Insector came to inspect the college I was working at and he was presistently saying things like, I am now wearing my Inspector's het but if I were wearing my teacher's het ... the number of times that man changed his het beggars belief. Notice the spelling of hat, too: he said het and that jarred too!
So it took me a while to bring myself even to think about the six thinking hats: that old fashioned imagery dates the book, by the way in my opinion and that's borne out by the fact that it was first published in 1985.
That's it really: learn to focus you mind and your meetings by employing the six hats thinking methodology and you'll reap the rewards. de Bono makes these claims, however: it takes the emotion out of discussions and decisions as we are only allowed to think and talk in the six hats way. This is a relatively short book that can be read in a couple of hours or so and de Bono provides us with a lot of examples, so there is no need to go astray with it.
In the preface to the book de Bono writes:
- A major corporation (ABB) used to spend 30 days on their multinational project team discussions. Using the parallel thinking of the six has method, the discussions now take as little as two days
- Statoil in Norway had a problem with an oil rig that was costing about $100,000 a day. A certified trainer introduced the six hats method and in twleve minutes the problem was solved ...
Powerful stuff ... takes us well beyond the meetings scenarios that de Bono concentrates on in the book. So you need to make the final leaps yourself: should be well worth the effort if the two examples above are anything to go by. Of course, there could be other reasons for these successes but I'm not in a position to say so with any certainty or any foundation whatsoever!
If you are involved in meetings and decision making, buy and read this book and watch out for my reviews of de Bono's other books in this area: six values, six shoes and a few more.
Reviewer: Duncan Williamson - see all Duncan's courses here
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