Six Thinking Hats
: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Thinking_Hats
Brief introduction
It’s a method described in a 1985 book by Edward de Bono, and the core idea is that each participant takes on a different role.
Usually, idea proposers are so sold on their own ideas that they can’t see how fragile the initial idea actually is, or idea evaluators demand objective data that would guarantee the idea’s success, which ends up hindering the idea’s growth. Especially those meetings that go over an hour… you can see, easily enough, meetings that make things difficult when they could just have been said simply. (by Meryl)
The strength of this method is that it’s a way to share and think through ideas from multiple perspectives together.
For instance, you’ve probably noticed that each person has a certain pattern in how they behave in meetings. In meetings, there’s the person who runs the meeting without anyone asking (blue), the person who opens with “from what I read in a book…,” “from what I saw on the Internet…” (white), the person who agrees with the idea (yellow), the person who opposes the idea (a genuine or adversarial devil’s advocate) (black), the person who always approaches things creatively (green), and so on.
By having participants each take on a role (type) for these different types of thinking, the method helps converge on diverse opinions more productively.
However, one thing to note is that all of these color-coded roles should contribute in every process. Ignoring some of the roles will yield a solution that falls short of what this technique was really designed to produce. In other words, the most important thing is that people with the matching disposition are assigned appropriately to each role. (by sbarasipark)
> White hat
Used for thinking based on facts, figures, and objective information.
(Rooted in data / analysis of past trends.)
> Red hat
Used for thinking in feelings, emotions, intuition, and hunches — the non-rational.
(Using intuition / generating ideas while responding to others’ emotions.)
> Black hat
Used to act as the “devil’s advocate” who thinks everything will go wrong.
(The bad-case view of decision-making / careful and defensive / focusing on why it shouldn’t be done.)
> Yellow hat
Used for someone who sees the positive side and opportunities of a proposed action or idea.
(Positive thinking / the optimistic view of decision-making.)
> Green hat
Used for applying creative new approaches to the problem or the proposed solution.
(Creative problem-solving / letting ideas unfold freely without criticism.)
> Blue hat
Used for the leader’s role — gathering what’s been discussed and proposing the next logical step.
(Process controller / plays green-hat role when ideas get too dry, black-hat role when ideas get too scattered.)
Key strengths
- Lets people voice opinions without risk. (A suitable counter to the spiral of silence theory.)
- Makes us recognize that multiple perspectives exist on the current issue.
- A convenient mechanism for change.
- Acts as a rule set for a thinking game.
- Allows more focused thinking.
- Leads to more creative thinking (including insights from various perspectives and stances).
- Improves communication and decision-making.
* Spiral of silence theory
: It describes the increasing pressure that makes people hide their views when they think they belong to a minority group. The model is based on three assumptions. 1) People have a kind of “quasi-statistical organ,” a sixth sense, that lets them perceive the prevailing public opinion. 2) People have a fear of isolation, and they know which kinds of behavior increase the chance of social isolation. 3) People refrain from expressing their minority opinion. This is chiefly due to fear of isolation.
Recently added model
DeBono’s Six Action Shoes (designing the appropriate pattern of action (process) for each situation).
: written by Edward de Bono and published by Fontana in 1992.
http://ihall2057.blogspot.kr/2012/01/debonos-six-action-shoes.html
