hinking Hats

Thinking Hats system has four specific uses:

s a critical meeting facilitation tool
s an outstanding team productivity/communication tool
s a creativity enhancer
s a control mechanism used to maximize and organize a persons thoughts (help make decisions and solve problems).

onos Six Thinking Hats will provides employees with skills and tools that they can apply immediately! It is a simple, effective sy
s them become more productive. You and your team members can learn how to separate thinking into six distinct categories. Eac
is identified with its own colored metaphorical thinking hat. By mentally wearing and switching hats, you can easily focus o
houghts, the conversation, or the meeting. The difference between brilliant and mediocre teams lies not so much in their collectiv
nt, but in how well they use it and how well they work together.
The Six Metaphorical Hats (or modes)
The White Hat
The White Hat calls for
information known or needed.

The Red Hat

The Red Hat signifies feelings, hunches, and in

The Black Hat

The Black hat is judgmentthe devils
advocate or why something may not work.

The Yellow Hat

The Yellow hat symbolizes brightness and opti

The Green Hat

The Green hat focuses on creativity: the possibilities, alternatives, and new ideas.

The Blue Hat

The Blue Hat is used to manage the thinking p

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Six Thinking Hats Publics

ix Thinking Hats Product!

e to learn about de Bono Online interactive courseware.

60 minute tutorial assures that Six Thinking Hats is introduced consistently throughout your entire organization.
re to Read a de Bono Online Success Story.

nials

en using the Six Hats with my group for the past two years after receiving the training from Joyce. It has totally changed the way

problems and the dynamics of the group have changed as a result. They are much better problem solvers and look for positive s
ently, on the OHI (which is an organizational health inventory the district uses to rate supervisors), I scored at the 99 percentile i
n and communication. This was really a score for the entire GT department and I think it really had its start in the Six Thinking H
Just wanted to let you know that this training does make a difference!
- Laura Mackay, Gifted and Talented Program Coo
Clear Creek ISD, Hou
2882 106th Street, Suite 200, Des Moines, Iowa 50322
877.334.2687 515.334.2687 Fax: 515.278.2245
Email: info@aptt.com
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Application of above

Surprise-Living Well Between the Rock and the Hard Spot

-Submitted by Chuck Dymer, U.S. Master Trainer
Fifteen years ago I made a wonderful discovery-Edward de Bonos Six
Thinking Hats (STH). The STH is a technique for structuring thinking. When
used in a group setting, the STH keeps participants focused and thinking in
the same direction. When, for example, the White Hat is on, everyone thinks
only about the facts, figures and other information that is relevant to the
topic. When the Yellow Hat is on, everyone looks for logical reasons as to why
what is being thought about will work or could be of value.
As a result of this process, what de Bono terms parallel thinking, argument
stops. Since were all thinking in the same direction at any one time, there is
no one to argue with. And what setting particularly needs to be devoid of
argument? Ideation. (Or, if you prefer, a brainstorming or creative thinking
session).

I have facilitated ideation sessions around the world for the past fifteen years.
Ive been privileged to work with organizations such Hallmark Cards, Sprint,
Kraft Foods, Horizon Blue Cross/ Blue Shield, Motorola, Pacificare, Steelcase,
Yellow Freight, Sainsburys (UK), Connex (Romania), Iscor (South Africa) and
Clear Communications (New Zealand). With these clients and many others,
the most successful sessions were those that used the STH technique.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to use the STH at every ideation session
that I have conducted. The primary reasons for this were (get ready for a big
surprise): time and money. In order for clients to get the most out of the STH
technique, they need to be trained. And standard training in the STH takes a
full day. Well, add the time and cost of a full day of training to the time and
cost of ideation and most clients perceive they cant afford it; it fits neither
their budget nor their schedule. This was the between of the rock and the
hard spot where I had to operate. Ideation facilitation doesnt work as well
without the STH (the rock) and the clients dont think they can afford the STH
(the hard spot).
APTT, the publishers of the STH, have provided the answer to this facilitators
prayers. They have released de Bono Online, designed to introduce the STH
concepts in preparation of classroom training or for those who will be
participating in a meeting led by a trained facilitator. A participant can
complete the on-line training in about two hours, in whatever time chunks are
convenient to him/her. And the cost of this alternative, per person, is about
25% of the cost of stand-up training. The client saves time and money and
gets the power of the STH; I get to do more facilitation and less training. And I
love to do facilitation.
My first chance to make use of de Bono Online was in February of this year
when I had the opportunity to work with a major provider of consumer home
care products. The person who wanted me to facilitate an ideation session
was the director of research. He was having a three day meeting with a newly
formed Creative Concept Team and he wanted one day of the three to be a
day where the team would develop new ideas and concepts for devices of the
future. And he wanted to use Dr. de Bonos STH and Lateral Thinking
techniques.
I suggested that one day was not enough time to explain and use those
techniques-could I have two days? The answer was, surprise again, he didnt
have that amount of time or money. When I called APTT for some help, they
suggested that the client and his team use the on-line version of STH to
become familiar with the technique and I could use the day to facilitate new
ideas using Lateral Thinking. Sounded good, so I talked to the client about the
on-line version and also suggested that we were going to get so many ideas
from the Lateral Thinking techniques (which we did) that we would need at

least a half day more to harvest and treat those ideas. The client
graciously said yes.
The team members were given the month prior to the ideation session to
learn the STH. Truthfully, not all of the participants took the time to learn the
process, but the majority did. As a result, we were able to make use of the
STH during the ideation session and the STH kept us on track and prevented
new ideas from being criticized or ridiculed before they had a chance to be
developed.
Besides the on-line training in the STH, two others steps that helped this
session to be successful were: one, having a futurist talk about trends in the
consumer market place; and two, having all of the participants complete a
Checklist of Current Thinking before the session. The Checklist is another de
Bono technique that allows one to examine the proverbial Box that we need
to think out of in order to get new ideas. I asked participants about what
dominated their thinking about our topic; what assumptions they were
making; what boundaries confined the topic; what things were essential to
the topic; what things needed to be avoided.
Once I had an aggregate checklist of the teams thinking on the topic, I could
probe certain assumptions and limits to find ways to go beyond them.
Heres what the Director of Research wrote (unsolicited) about the ideation
session: I just wanted to let you know that we all thought the creativity
session you facilitated for us was outstanding...I have just completed the
official report of the (companys) 1st session and it is truly impressive to see
what came out of the session. With techniques like the Six Thinking Hats and
Lateral Thinking, facilitation is made much easier. Most importantly, they
produce results that the client seeks. And with the on-line version of STH, it
can be done within budget and on schedule. Surprise, indeed.

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