Dr. Edward De Bono's work can be said to be revolutionary in its field. On one hand it probes into processes of cognition (and hence points out erratic cognition) and on the other hand provides ways to 'thing' creative.

The most important thing I learnt from this book is that thinking is a skill that can be learnt.

Well, to state things clearly I will first wish you to think about a meeting/ or a brainstorming session in your office. In most situations there is 90% drainage of ideas because we tend to concentrate on who is speaking rather than what is being spoken about.

Probably our mental cognition model is like that .. we tend to 'prove' our point and the exercise turns into a fight. (However this may not be true in all cases).

Dr. De Bono suggests to wear 6 'thinking hats'. Hats are nothing but a 'different angle', perspective, viewpoint, objective or probably a process of thinking.

I am concentrating on the implementation part, so that you can actually use it. Think of a situation in your company in which you need to sit with multi-disciplinary professionals. They may (will) have different perpectives to solve the issue in hand. Things may go random ..

Implement :

1. Red Hat : (RED = Colour of Emotion). You dont have to put a hat on somebody's head. Putting Red hat means to think how you all are emotionally involved with the project, you intutions, emotions, perceptions .. and chart them all. No other perspective must come when the Red hat is in use. (Nobody should be allowed to contradict others. Just tell 'Your' emotion.)

2. Yellow Hat : (Yellow : Here symbolizes positiveness). Direct your people what 'logical positive' may follow if you take certain steps. Or try to think in Cause-Effect framework. But the effects should always be 'positive', i.e. beneficial or motivating.

3. Black Hat : (Logical Negative that you must avoid) Logical Negative.

4. Green : (Colour of vegetation). Think creative. Try out of the box thinking. Try to give as much freedom as possible. Whether its rational or not the group members will themselves decide.

5. White Hat : (Information). What Information we need. What we have. Which piece we can collect. What source. What's tested information. Which part is 'believed to be true'. .. Neutral, objectivity.

6. Blue Hat (Authority) : Who will take what responsibility.

Its better if you give everybody 2-3 minutes each, on each hat. And again 1 minute to summerize their points under each hat's thinking.

Have someone to chart everything. Just keep an eye to see that no one is 'wearing' any other hat (it will be difficult to manage the group, if done) and people should respect other's sentiment.

In my experience .. this needs no extensive moderation.

However, you may go through this site (that I found just now) : www.edwdebono.com

However, please make sure there is someone to moderate. Be sure to practice it on smaller pretest groups before implementing ..

Let me know if you are planning to implementing it.
The sole purpose of these 'hats' are to avoid clase and drive the energy on thinking.

Regards

Tracy M