1. The Six Thinking Hats

2. Edward de Bono Edward de Bono has written 65 books with translations in 37 languages. He has been invited to work in 52 countries.He was born in Malta and graduated from the University of Malta. He proceeded as a Rhodes Scholar to Oxford and has held appointments at the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, London and Harvard. Dr de Bono is the originator of the term 'lateral thinking' which now has an official entry in the Oxford English Dictionary. He is regarded as the leading international authority in conceptual and creative thinking, and also the direct teaching of thinking as a skill.

4. Who uses this stuff? IRELAND 1. Eagle star Insurances 2. FAS 3. NRB 4. Sonopress Ireland 5. Glanbia.ltd 6. ESB 7. Alps Electric 8. Department of Enterprise and Employment 9. Irish Life investment Managers 10. 3M Ireland WORLD-WIDE 1. Du Pont 2. IBM 3. Siemens 4. Statoil 5. British Airways 6. Shell 7. Monsanto 8. Motorola 9. Prudential Insurance 10. Peter Ueberroth Source: http://www.edwarddebonofoundation.com/clients.htm

5. Thinking is a skill, that is all about using what you’ve got

6. An excellent driver will get great performance, even out of a banger.

7. Thinking is a skill, that is all about using what you’ve got An excellent driver will get great performance, even out of a banger. A poor driver won’t get a good perfomance out of a great car.

8. Thinking is a skill, that is all about using what you’ve got A person of average intelligence with good thinking skills can be very creative. A very intelligent person with bad thinking skills won’t be creative.

9. The Six Thinking Hats

10. Traditional Meeting

11. Parallel Thinking

16. The Six Thinking Hats Each ‘hat’ represents a perspective or way of thinking They are metaphorical hats that a thinker can put on or take off to indicate the type of thinking they are using

17. The Six Thinking Hats In a group we can ask members to ‘put on’ different hats in a sequence to aid the problem solving process This can help overcome the problem of each group member adopting random positions at random times

18. The Six Thinking Hats It also permits us to control people who insist of sticking to one perspective - we can ask them to assume a different hat Many major international organisations use this technique for problem solving

19. The Six Thinking Hats FOCUS Managing the Thinking Setting the focus Making summaries Overviews & conclusions Action Plans

20. The Six Thinking Hats FOCUS Information & Data Neutral and objective Checked and believed facts Missing information & Where to source it Managing the Thinking Setting the focus Making summaries Overviews & conclusions Action Plans

21. The Six Thinking Hats FOCUS Information & Data Neutral and objective Checked and believed facts Missing information & Where to source it Managing the Thinking Setting the focus Making summaries Overviews & conclusions Action Plans Why it may work Values * Benefits (both known and potential) Logical reasons must be given

22. The Six Thinking Hats FOCUS Information & Data Neutral and objective Checked and believed facts Missing information & Where to source it Managing the Thinking Setting the focus Making summaries Overviews & conclusions Action Plans Why it may not work Cautions * Dangers Problems * Faults Logical reasons must be given Why it may work Values * Benefits (both known and potential) Logical reasons must be given

23. The Six Thinking Hats FOCUS Information & Data Neutral and objective Checked and believed facts Missing information & Where to source it Managing the Thinking Setting the focus Making summaries Overviews & conclusions Action Plans Why it may not work Cautions * Dangers Problems * Faults Logical reasons must be given Why it may work Values * Benefits (both known and potential) Logical reasons must be given Creative Thinking Possibilities * Alternatives New Ideas * New Thinking Overcome black hat issues Reinforce yellow hat issues

24. The Six Thinking Hats FOCUS Information & Data Neutral and objective Checked and believed facts Missing information & Where to source it Managing the Thinking Setting the focus Making summaries Overviews & conclusions Action Plans Why it may not work Cautions * Dangers Problems * Faults Logical reasons must be given Why it may work Values * Benefits (both known and potential) Logical reasons must be given Creative Thinking Possibilities * Alternatives New Ideas * New Thinking Overcome black hat issues Reinforce yellow hat issues Feelings and Intuition Emotions and hunches No reasons or justifications “At this point” Keep it short

25. The Six Thinking Hats FOCUS Managing the Thinking How do we sequence the events Explain? Summarize. What is your conclusion? What next? Action plan? What is the main idea? Information & Data Who, what, when, where? What do you know about? What are the facts about? What do you need to know? Where do you locate this? Why it may work What are the benefits? What is good about? What is a positive outcomes? What is the value? Can this be made to work? Why it may not work What are the risks of? Why won’t/didn’t this work? What were the difficulties of? What are the consequences of? What should you be cautious about? Creative Thinking What if? What is good about? What else can we do? What is the value of? How can we make this work? What are the alternatives? Feelings and Intuition What does your intuition tell you? Did your feelings change? How? What prejudices are present? What are you feeling now? What is your hunch about?

26. The Six Thinking Hats We tend to use all of the Six Hats on a daily basis, but people tend to have default hats that they use more often.

27. The Six Thinking Hats Which two hats do you feel more comfortable using? Hat 1: __________________ Hat 2: __________________

28. The Six Thinking Hats Which two hats do you feel dominate in your team/organisation? Hat 1: __________________ Hat 2: __________________

29. The Six Thinking Hats What impact does that have on your team’s effectiveness? _____________________________