Six Thinking Hats

Six Thinking Hats
by Edward de Bono

Six Thinking Hats
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Book Summary Information

Author: Edward de Bono
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1999-08-18
ISBN: 0316178314
Number of pages: 192
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Product features:
  • ISBN13: 9780316178310
  • Condition: New
  • Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!

Book Reviews of Six Thinking Hats

Book Review: A great book - with a good theory of thought that works!
Summary: 5 Stars

The Six Thinking Hat method may well be the most important change in human thinking for the past twenty-three hundred years - states Edward De Bono himself. I have lost count of the amount of times I have been involved in meetings for presentation groups at uni, and nothing gets decided. The meetings are often bogged down by personality clashes, and most of the time is strung out because we all just focus on irrelevant points that become the main topic of the conversation. The majority of human beings all have a one sided view on every possible topic, and find it very difficult to change, when we are asked to think about a view differing from their own. During meetings, some people argue their point of view, and never seem to stop. How do we go about solving these problems of wasting time in meetings? How do we go about focusing more on the points that really matter instead of concentrating on those unrelated, and inappropriate topics? How do we stop endless discussions, or at least reduce them? How can we improve communication and decision-making in groups? All these questions are extremely difficult to answer, but there seems to be an elucidation ・SIX THINKING HATS ・By Edward De Bono.

Greater thinkers think from multiple perspectives. He has proclaimed that this process reduces time spent in meetings by 20 to 90 percent, based on letters that he received after publishing the book. The core problem that De Bono addresses is the fact that our way of thinking is extremely muddled and cluttered. Groups are not well equipped to deal with a broad array of statistics and perspectives concurrently. De Bono endeavors to abolish these problems ・here is how he does it.
According to De Bono, people learn best when they are playing. Therefore his approach (the six hat approach) deals with thinking, learning, deciding, and communicating - in a playful and good-natured type of manner. By assigning each person a role to play, the method reduces the amount of personality-based conflict, encourages much more contribution, and gives rationale to many diverse ways to present the issue at hand. This way, everyone is getting involved, and thinking about sides of the dice that they wouldn't have thought about originally. Also, since the means is focused on getting lots out onto the table, it also postpones judgment longer so that more ideas can immerge. Thus, as De Bono points out himself, it is much closer to the Japanese approach of making evaluations than the American one.

The color scheme is quite straightforward -

The person, who is wearing the blue hat, is considered to be the coordinator and organizer. The book relates this person to a conductor of an orchestra. The function of the blue hat is to make sure that the dialogue keeps on route. Cool and control・thinking about thinking・

White plays an imperative and crucial role. It must be stressed that the white hat is exceptionally unbiased and contemplates on figures and information. The white hat should not offer any interpretations, analysis or opinions about the information given. While wearing the white thinking hat, the thinker should imitate the computer.

The black hat points out what is erroneous, and explains why something won't succeed. So, as you can probably gather, the black hat is accountable for a pessimistic evaluation. This includes asking negative questions. Devil's advocate, negative judgment, why something won't work・

The idea of the green hat is to be as creative as possible. Most ideas begin with the green hat - and which then get analyzed from the black and yellow hat. I would classify this one as the entrepreneurial hat - fertile, creative, plants springing from seeds, movement, provocation.

Yellow resembles sunshine. Sunshine creates brightness. And brightness allows opportunity to exist. This is the significance of the yellow hat. The view of this hat is to open up all the possibilities and potential. Extremely speculative and affirmative ・the yellow hat is unquestionably the optimistic and buoyant side of the coin. Yellow hat thinking covers ・dreams, visions and hopes・

The red hat's role is to embody feelings and emotions to present both optimistic and pessimistic emotional reactions. Intuition is a word that relates very much to the red hat. The red hat allows the thinker to say: this is how I think about the matter.

Enjoy the book - its a fabulous read - 5 stars to say the least! I recommend it to anyone. This thought process can be used either on an individual level, or on a group level. It's a lot of fun - and yes! it does work! Give it a try!

Regards,
Vaughan Allison

University Student
Degree - Asia Pacific Management
University - Ritsumeikan APU

Summary of Six Thinking Hats

YOUR SUCCESS IN BUSINESS DEPENDS ON HOW WELL YOU THINK Six Thinking Hats can help you think better-with its practical and uniquely positive approach to making decisions and exploring new ideas. It is an approach that thousands of business managers, educators, and government leaders around the world have already adopted with great success. "The main difficulty of thinking is confusion," writes Edward de Bono, long recognized as the foremost international authority on conceptual thinking and on the teaching of thinking as a skill. "We try to do too much at once. Emotions, information, logic, hope, and creativity all crowd in on us. It is like juggling with too many balls." The solution? De Bono unscrambles the thinking process with his "six thinking hats": * WHITE HAT: neutral and objective, concerned with facts and figures * RED HAT: the emotional view * BLACK HAT: careful and cautious, the "devil's advocate" hat * YELLOW HAT: sunny and positive * GREEN HAT: associated with fertile growth, creativity, and new ideas * BLUE HAT: cool, the color of the sky, above everything else-the organizing hat Through case studies and real-life examples, Dr. de Bono reveals the often surprising ways in which deliberate role playing can make you a better thinker. He offers a powerfully simple tool that you-and your business, whether it's a start-up or a major corporation-can use to create a climate of clearer thinking, improved communication, and greater creativity. His book is an instructive and inspiring text for anyone who makes decisions, in business or in life.

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