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SeCtion tWo Change approaches & management tools
DE BONO CREATIVE THINKING (‘SIX THINKING HATS’) Description
The ‘Creative Thinking’ approach is a tool for stimulating focused group discussion and individual thinking. It builds on the assumption that the human brain may respond to challenges in six distinctive ways:
• Information (White) – the facts at hand
• Emotions (Red) – intuitive reactions of emotional feeling
• Discernment (Black) – logic of caution
• Optimism (Yellow) – logic of possible benefits
• Creativity (Green) – investigation of possibilities
• Meta thinking (Blue) – a combination of the other types
Each of these responses may be harnessed to encourage reflection on a specific problem/ challenge/question. By organising participants to consider the problem specifically from each of the six perspectives, the group will be more creative in their response to the problem. The metaphor of ‘six thinking hats’ is adopted to describe the ordered use of the six approaches in an agreed sequence.
Use
The Creative Thinking process
• Successful use of the approach requires the adoption of the right ‘hat’ as required in sequence, to review the nature of the presenting problem; develop a set of solutions; and finally select the course of action
• The meeting opens form a ‘blue’ hat (meta-thinking) perspective, to agree the conduct of the meeting and the goals;
• The group then considers their response to the issue from a ‘red’ hat (emotion) perspective, to collect reactions to the problem, and any constraints on possible solutions;
• Discussion moves to yellow (optimism) and then green (creativity) thinking explore options and possible solutions
• Discussion then follows from white (information) and black (discernment) perspectives, to explore the development of ideas and problems in the solution set
(Adapted from De Bono, 1985)
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