CREATIVITY - Book analysis: De Bono, Edward - Six Thinking Hats

De Bono struck me even from class as a remarkable person. He is best known for his lateral thinking concept also knows as structured creativity. He considers that people should be more creative, so he devised a series of techniques like lateral thinking (more on that topic can be found in his 1992 book called “Serious Creativity”) which were considered to be more effective than existent unstructured creativity methods such as the well known brainstorming method.
The book that intrigued me the most was “Six Thinking Hats”. I will discuss it throughout my next postings on the blog. The full title is: De Bono, Edward (2000). Six Thinking Hats Little, Brown and Company, Boston. This book seemed very friendly and full of useful examples that clarified the concepts he tried to explain. It is comprised of approximately 180 pages that are divided into 42 chapters. There are several copies at the Jönkoping Library and I advise you to go through it if you have the chance.

Introduction

The author starts by describing the huge impact this thinking strategy has done around the world. De Bono claims that by using the method of the parallel thinking of The Six Hats, corporations can reduce their project team discussions from 20 days all the way to two days. For that, he uses a series of examples, starting with IBM, a company whose researchers announced a reduction of 400% of the time spend in meetings. Norway’s Statoil Company, a firm that had a problem once with one of their oil rigs (costing them $100.000 a day), also solved its issues within 12 minutes by implementing the thinking hats strategy! The statement was given by Jens Arup, a certified trainer working for the corporation. More examples of successful implementation are given, from businesses like Siemens all the way to the judicial system.

As far as I understood, the success behind the strategy is the possibility to separate emotions, information, creativity, etc which make our decisions way to complicated. By simplifying our thinking, the author claims that we are able to reduce confusion and allow ourselves to successfully focus and process simpler decisions. By placing ourselves in the character defined by the hat we are wearing, we can narrow our field of vision and take the best decision for only that particular role we are playing.

The parallel thinking ideology the author is using is based of analyzing all aspects of the problem, not only from one perspective. De Bono uses an example involving four people observing a house. Instead of fighting who is the one who sees the house correctly, he suggests that they should rotate and inspect all views, thus having at least one moment when everyone is looking in the same direction.
Hats implement the same logic. They make the people rotate around the issue, but everyone will take the other’s role and eventually inspect the problem with the same eyes as the others did or will do. Overall, as far as I understood, Hats label thinking and direct the way people should perceive an issue, so that the aspects of the problem are viewed in parallel from all perspectives by everybody.

Why hats? The author gives a number of reasons:
-symbol to indicate a role, a direction of thinking
-easily can be put or taken off
-it is visible by the rest

The author also sets some confinements when using the hat:
-hats describe directions of thinking, and not descriptions, meaning that the idea said should be under the umbrella of the thinking concept assumed by the color of the hat. One should not state an idea and then describe it using different hats, but form the idea towards the direction imposed by the hat he/she is wearing.
-the hats are not descriptions of the behavior and thinking of people, but roles of behavior.
-hats should “rotate” among the debate participants. One should not undertake only one role, under one hat color. Still all can wear the same hat at the same time, if collective thought is required.
-the rules of the game should be respected by everyone. Aggressiveness in thinking is allowed only under the hat that allows you to (e.g. yellow hat)

De Bono justifies his theory by writing about the feedback he received from several people who implemented the hat concept. He shows some of the benefits that resulted from adopting his ideology:

Power: this method allows the experience, knowledge and intelligence of all the members of the group to be used at full potential. Everybody’s ideas –pros and cons- can be heard once they go through all the hats; both strengths and weaknesses can be said.

Time saving: parallel thinking makes all the members look in the same direction at every moment in time. By stating the ideas in parallel, no one makes counterarguments at another one’s thoughts, but merely places his/her new solution along side the existing one. This way, all the alternatives scenarios are thought, and there will be only one debate at the end that will determine which idea from all the alternatives will be implemented.

Removal of Ego: removed by rotation – the subject is analyzed objectively this way

One thing at a time: narrowing the fields we have to cover when we make a decision. For example by wearing the green hat we only look at new ideas, white hat - only focus on information and so on.

Before he starts describing the hats in detail, De Bono gives us a brief introduction about what the hats symbolize. I will cite the author’s description:

White Hat: neutral and objective. Concerned with objective facts and figures
Red Hat: suggests an emotional view like anger or rage
Black Hat: somber and serious. Person should be cautious and careful. It points out weaknesses in the ideas.
Yellow Hat: sunny and positive. Optimistic aspects that cover hope and positive thinking
Green Hat: symbolizes creativity and new ideas
Blue Hat: concerned with control, the organization of the thinking process and the use of other hats.

The usage of the hats can differ. Overall, there are two main alternatives:
-single use, in order to cover the idea from the perspective of one hat (for example “we should see this issue from the perspective of the Black Hat”)
-sequence use: use the hats in sequential order for full coverage. Not all hats should be used and the sequence itself should be random, in order not to influence the outcome. Some orders may be recommended though, like for example using the yellow hat after the black one, since it would be better first to see the beneficial part before analyzing the back draws. If there are few beneficial aspects of an idea, there is no need to continue, since chances are that the thought will fail once it passes through analysis of the black hat. Also the red hat should be used among the first, in order to reveal all the resentment one has about a certain subject before proceeding into the matter.

In my next posting I will discuss in detail about the Six Thinking Hats.