Collaboration is required component for innovation. Thinking about challenges and opportunities from different points of view is absolutely necessary.“Six Thinking Hats” developed by Edward de Bono, is a powerful tool for masterminding a problem or opportunity. For those who may not know, de Bono is regarded by many to be the leading global authority in the field of creative thinking and the direct teaching of thinking as a skill.
We use the Thinking Hats technique in our group creative sessions when we are seeking to validate ideas. When diverse people are all thinking in the same room at the same time, there can be tension and a tendency to go with the strongest voices in the room. Six Thinking Hats is a powerful tool because it inspires transparent and inclusive parallel thinking. Next time you have a group problem solving session, try using the Six Thinking Hats to improve the quality of your thinking and decision-making that follows. Each “Thinking Hat” is a metaphor for a different style of thinking:
White Hat:
With this thinking hat, you focus on the raw information at hand. It’s about the facts and nothing but the facts. Look at the data and see what you can learn from it. Look for gaps in your knowledge, and either try to fill them or take account of them. This is where you analyze past trends, and try to extrapolate from historical data.
Red Hat:
Wearing the red hat, you look at the decision using intuition, gut reaction, and emotion. What are you afraid of? Also try to think about how other people will react emotionally, and try to understand the intuitive responses of people who do not fully know your reasoning.
Black Hat:
Black hat thinking is cautious and defensive. It’s our common tendency to be the devil’s advocate, pointing out the flaws and why an idea won’t work. This is important because it highlights the weak points in a plan or course of action. It allows you to eliminate them, alter your approach, or prepare contingency plans to counter problems that arise down the road. Black Hat thinking helps you spot fatal flaws and risks before you embark on a course of action. Black Hat thinking is one of the real benefits of this technique, as many people tend to think too positively and under-estimate complexity, leaving them under-prepared for difficulties.
Yellow Hat:
The yellow hat helps you to think positively. It is the optimistic viewpoint that helps you to see all the benefits of an idea and the value in it, and spot the opportunities that arise from it. Yellow Hat thinking helps you to keep going when everything looks dark and difficult.
Green Hat:
The Green Hat stands for creativity. This is where you can develop unbridled creative solutions to a problem. It is a freewheeling way of thinking, in which there is little criticism of ideas. Green hat thinking is about possibility and potential with no limits and no logic.
Blue Hat:
The Blue Hat stands for process control. This is the hat worn by whom ever is facilitating your discussion. When ideas are running dry, or there a blocks in your process, the Blue Hat referees and can decide to move the conversation into any other thinking hat mode that keeps the thinking alive and moving.
Try this technique out. We have a good deal of fun every time we use it.
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IMO, it’s smart to use Edward De Bono’s techniques for creative thinking and innovation. More organizations should.
I find his book, “Serious Creativity: Using the Power of Lateral Thinking to Create New Ideas,” to be a fantastic resource for this. In it, he introduces his Six Thinking Hats as one of many lateral thinking tools and techniques.
I particularly like his Provocation technique to provoke new ideas through purposeful discontinuous thinking, as it forces people to think “outside the usual boundaries of ‘reasonableness’ … established by our experiences.” It’s a temporary “madness,” if you will. Provocative statements establish the starting point from which you work back to new ideas or concepts.
A few examples he gives are:
- Cars should have square wheels.
- Planes should land upside down.
- Letters should be closed after they have been posted.
- Estimate the height of a tall building by putting it on its side, walk along its length, and remember to count your steps.
And, I appreciate how he provides clear and simple ways to provoke. For example,
— Escape — You cancel, negate, drop, remove, or deny that which we take for granted. E.g., “Restaurants offer food / Restaurants do not offer food.” From this can come the idea of a restaurant that instead offers room where people can bring their own food into the elegant surroundings.
— Reversal — “I drink orange juice for breakfast / Orange juice drinks me for breakfast.” From this can come the idea of a shower head that offers different scents you can choose to scent the water you immerse yourself in during your morning shower.
— Exaggeration – “There are not enough police to patrol an area and keep watch.” Exaggeration: “Police have six eyes.” From this came the idea of enlisting people in the neighborhood to help keep an eye on things, and thus the Neighborhood Watch program. This is a real case De Bono was involved in.
– Distortion – You take normal arrangements and change them. E.g., Letters are closed after they receive postage. This can lead to the idea that if you don’t want to pay the postage, your letter will remain open for a direct mail advertiser, who can insert their mailer and pay the postage for you.
– Wishful Thinking – “My plane waits for me if I’m stuck in traffic.” From this can come the idea that all flights are scheduled half an hour ahead of the actual departure time, and if you arrive late, you can still board, but you pay a surcharge; or you get a discount if you check in early; or, you are automatically re-booked for the next flight.
And, I wholeheartedly agree with De Bono hat organizations need to have what we might call a Chief Concept Officer and to have a Creativity Center that drives creativity throughout the organization, supported by Creative Process Managers and Trainers.
There is a real need for this, but given the nature of so many organizations, perhaps the best way to approach this is to hire an outside firm to train them in these matters, and then help them manage and drive the creativity and innovation they need to survive and thrive.
Love the “six thinking hats” concept… everyone has a focus with something to add to the mix. Great creative thinking! I want to wear Green at the next party! Paz