1. De Bono’s 6 Thinking Hats PARALLEL THINKING FOR EFFECTIVE PROBLEM SOLVING AND EXPLORING NEW IDEAS

2. The Father of Creativity  Edward de Bono has written many books in the creativity space, especially around and focused on applied creativity.  He makes a distinction between vertical thinking and lateral thinking.  Vertical thinking is when you follow one line of thought  Lateral thinking is when you move in a different direction with your thinking; you’re looking for a solution to the problem. Lateral thinking is the movement away from a pattern.

3. Blind Men and Elephant Story

4. Discussion breakdown  In meeting, discussions break down because often people are using different way of thinking.  Meetings have different kinds of thinking happening at the same time, and that can create frustration and argument.  One person is talking about facts; he or she has the white hat on.  Another is talking about feeling; he or she is coming from an emotional perspective, wearing the red hat.  A 3 rd is generating possibilities; he or she is using a green hat  How could you ever get to consensus when you have people thinking in very different ways?

5. Shift to Parallel Thinking  De Bono’s tool called the Six Hats helps us shift our thinking  It’s designed to help, especially in groups, to get parallel thinking to occur from different perspectives.  Each Hat, which has a different color, represents a different way of thinking.  The Blue Hat is a special hat. The blue hat is like the sky; it stands above the others. It’s the organizing hat. It’s the hat that helps you determine which hat should be worn.

6. Productive conversations  The hats can be used individually, or they can be used in teams  Using the six hats helps, especially, groups to have more productive conversations.  It creates parallel thinking.

7. Six hats= focused discussion  The six-hats tool creates a more focused and orderly discussion  It’s useful to appoint someone to war the blue hat, who determines and controls the sequence- helps to keep people focused. In other words, this person facilitates the meeting.  Excellent tool to integrate into your Business Analysis requirement work sessions.

10. Six Hat Questions to Ask

11. Elaborate Brainstorming

12. Six Hat Summary

16. PO (Provocative Operation)  Our brain creates patterns. We build neural networks.  This increase the speed of our thinking, which can make us very efficient thinkers, except when it comes to creativity.  Creativity requires, in a way, slowing down our thinking, looking at unexplored pathways  Source: “The Creative Thinker’s Toolkit” Professor Gerard Puccio, Buffalo State-The State University of New York

17. PO: Whimsical tool  PO is a made-up word, like ‘suppose,” but it’s deliberateyu silly and playful sounding.  It indicates movement-a shift, the backing off of judgement.  The way it works is you create a provocative statement…it can be even illogical.  POs care created by exaggeration, wishful thinking. It can even be outrageous.

18. PO Example  Consider the following statement: “PO schools had no teachers”  You create a PO, and then you capture new ideas- new lines of thought that come from that provocation.  What might this statement suggest?  Well, the kids could be responsible for their own learning. Teachers might be replaced by project managers. You could have computer-assisted learning only.