Hey friends 
,
I used to believe that great thinking was all about intelligence (the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills).
That belief held me back in my early years when I focused on hard work and a good attitude alone. While that approach got me a long way, it also took more time and energy than was necessary.
I’ve since learned invaluable critical thinking skills. But great thinking takes more than critical thinking. It takes practice and a range of thinking tools like:
- Critical thinking
- Logic
- Analysis
- Creativity
- Exploration
- Design
- Perception
Earlier, I focused on the ‘what to think’ rather than the ‘how to think’.
Today, we’ll introduce the parallel thinking concept coined by Edward de Bono and explore six modes (six thinking hats) that help to engage the different thinking needed to become a great thinker.
What is Parallel Thinking?
In the realm of creativity, lateral thinking and problem-solving, De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats provides a structured approach that enables individuals and teams to explore multiple perspectives and make more effective choices.
Parallel thinking is a crucial aspect of the Six Thinking Hats method, involving the coordinated use of different thinking styles to explore multiple perspectives simultaneously, leading to more effective decision-making and problem-solving.
What Are The Six Thinking Hats?
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The Six Thinking Hats method involves wearing metaphorical hats of different colours, each representing a unique thinking style.
These hats serve as cognitive filters, guiding individuals to approach problems from multiple angles. The six hats and their corresponding thinking styles are as follows:
1) The White Hat (Facts and Information): Focuses on objective data, information, stories and facts. It involves searching and analysing available data and seeking gaps in knowledge.
The key question here is: ‘What are the facts that we know?’
2) The Red Hat (Emotions and Intuition): Emphasising feelings, emotions, and intuition, this hat allows individuals to express their gut reactions without the need for logical justification. It encourages intuition-based insights and subjective viewpoints.
The key question here is: ‘What are your gut feelings?’
3) The Black Hat (Critical Judgement): represents cautious and critical thinking. It involves exploring potential risks, identifying weaknesses, and considering the negative aspects of a decision or idea.
The key question here is: ‘What are the potential risks?’
4) The Yellow Hat (Positive Thinking): Optimism and positivity characterise the yellow hat. This thinking style identifies benefits, advantages, and potential opportunities associated with a decision or idea.
The key question here is: ‘What do we like about this?’
5) The Green Hat (Creativity and Innovation): Encouraging creativity and innovative thinking, the green hat stimulates the generation of new ideas, alternatives, and possibilities. It involves exploring unconventional approaches and thinking outside the box.
The key question here is: ‘How might we create value?’
6) The Blue Hat (Process Control): Acting as the control mechanism, it manages the thinking process. It sets the agenda, directs discussions, and ensures effective communication and collaboration among individuals.
The key question here is: ‘What’s the birds-eye view and how do we manage it?’
The Benefits of The Six Thinking Hats Method
The Six Thinking Hats method offers several notable benefits that contribute to enhanced decision-making and problem-solving:
- Enhanced Decision Quality: By systematically considering various perspectives, the Six Thinking Hats method helps individuals generate comprehensive and well-rounded solutions. It reduces the likelihood of overlooking critical factors or making decisions based solely on limited viewpoints.
- Increased Collaboration and Engagement: The structured approach of the Six Thinking Hats fosters collaborative thinking. It encourages active participation from all individuals involved, ensuring that diverse insights and ideas are shared and considered and reducing potential conflict.
- Reduction of Emotional Biases: The distinct thinking modes facilitate a balanced approach to decision-making. By separating emotions from logical analysis, individuals can make more objective judgments and reduce the influence of personal biases and egos.
- Reduced Meeting Time: Following a structured process reduces circular and spontaneous conversation that often interrupts the thinking and delays progress.
How to Use The Six Thinking Hats Method
To illustrate the practical application of the Six Thinking Hats, let’s consider a marketing team developing a new advertising campaign for a consumer product.
Wearing the White Hat, the team would gather data on the target audience, market trends, and competitors.
The Red Hat would encourage team members to voice their initial emotional responses and intuitions regarding the campaign’s potential impact.
The team would brainstorm creative ideas, innovative approaches, and out-of-the-box strategies with the Green Hat.
The Yellow Hat would then come into play, allowing the team to highlight the benefits and positive outcomes associated with the ideas and campaign.
The Black Hat would help identify potential risks and pitfalls, such as budget constraints or misalignment with brand values.
Finally, Blue Hat would coordinate the discussion, ensuring everyone’s input is considered and facilitating decision-making and next steps.
Pro Tips:
- All team members must wear the same hats at the same time
- Don’t hesitate to ask someone to change hats if they are not using the same hat as the group
- The yellow hat is good to use after coming up with lots of ideas
- When in White Hat mode, do not share opinions, only facts
- Red Hat requires a safe space for people to share their emotions, feelings and intuition
- Blue Hat is usually worn by the facilitator of the meeting
️ The Short of It
De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats offers a robust framework for creativity, decision-making and problem-solving.
By adopting different thinking styles represented by the six hats, individuals and teams can safely explore various perspectives, enhance collaboration, and make more informed choices.
The structured approach of the Six Thinking Hats method empowers individuals to transcend their habitual thinking patterns and embrace a more comprehensive and holistic approach to decision-making while reducing the potential for conflict.
Here are 3 bonus tools and resources that are useful and fun:
My friend Nick Himo is a world-class innovator and has put together a helpful video on the Six Thinking Hats.
More greatness from Edward de Bono. I recommend to watch this video on ‘reimagining the future’.
Mark Zuckerberg has taken a direct swipe at Twitter by launching the new Threads app. New value or just a copy?
That’s all for today friends!
Feel free to reply to this email if you have any questions or newsletter requests.
Thanks for reading and I’ll catch you next week.
Keep future-state thinking,
Vaughan
This issue inspired by Nick Himo
