Awareness

Programme

on

six thinking hats

six thinking hats

• Background

• Concept

• Case study

Contents

six thinking hats

Written more than sixty books on creativity in 35 languages.

IBM, Shell, Siemens, ABB , Motorola, Ericsson, Ciba – Geigy and Kuwait Oil Company, Boeing, Japan Mcdonald, etc. have applied and benefited by using this thinking tool.

Dr. Edward de Bono

Dr. Edward de Bono, originator of six thinking hats.

Results

• Japan McDonald – Meeting time cut by 25 %.

• ABB – Product planning time reduced from 30 days / year to 2 days / year

• Siemens – Product development time cut by 30 %

• Boeing - Averted strike by using Six Thinking Hats in negotiations

• Textile factory in Argentina – Increase in productivity by 20 %

• ALPS electric group (peripherals supplier to IBM, Apple, Microsoft)

- Design of new computer key board for home/ professional use.

Background

• Dr. Edward de Bono , in his book on The mechanism of Mind (1969) first described how the nerve networks in the brain can separate thinking into distinct categories..

• In 1991, Dr. Edward de Bono established Advance Practical Thinking Training (APTT).

- to propagate this thinking tool.- certify instructors to teach thinking methods.

-APTT supports over 900 instructors in 35 countries and trained over 1,50,000 seminar participants.

Background

• Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) had organised in association with APTT four –day Certified Instructor workshop at Tata Management Training Center (TMTC) Pune on Nov 5-8,2003

Faculty : Kathy Myers – President of APTT,USA. B. Shiva Subramaniam – TCS, Chennai

• Certified Instructors are authorised to conduct one – day , two-day Six Hats workshops using Certified Instructor material and issue the certificates to the participants. Two – day : Blue Hat Wearer (Leader in the Six Hat meeting) One –day : Six Hat user (Member in the Six hat meeting)

• Master Trainers are authorised under APTT supervision to conduct four-day Certified Instructor workshop

Background

• 19 master trainers in the world, only one, Mr. Shiva in India.

• Organisations in India, who have attended these four-day Certified Instructor’s workshops are

• TCS –all over India.• Zee Tele films, Mumbai• Videocon• Piramal Industries• Voltas• State Bank Of India• Indian Oil• Reliance Industries, Hazira• L & T EBG

Concept

There are nine meanings of the word Think in Webster Encyclopedia of dictionaries.

• to conceive• to surmise• to consider• to believe• to reason• to form a judgement• to deliberate• to imagine• to recollect

Areas of application

• Critical meeting facilitation tool

• Outstanding team productivity / communication tool

• Creativity enhancer

• Control mechanism to maximise and organise a person’s thoughts (help and make decisions and solve problems)

Advantages

• Provides skills to apply immediately.

• Simple and effective to use

• Focuses and redirects the thoughts

• Adversarial confrontation is replaced by co-operative exploration (Parallel thinking)

• Separates ego from performance

• Practical to use and easy to remember

• Link between “thinking” and “hats”

• Thinking processes can be switched easily just as the hats.

• Hats indicate certain roles / types of thinking

Why Hats ?

six thinking hats

White hat(Data/ Information)

Black hat(Difficulties/ Problems)

Yellow Hat(Brightness / Optimism)

Red Hat(Feelings/ hunches

/ intuition)

Green Hat(Creativity/

alternatives)

Blue hat(managing the

thinking process)

six thinking hats

white hat

• Available information

• Required information

• Bridge the gap

six thinking hats

“Annual quantity

of the product is 5000 nos.”

“This product uses EPS buffers in

packing.”

White hat statements

six thinking hats

red hat

• What are my feelings right now?

• What does my intuition tell me?

• What is my gut reaction?

six thinking hats

Key Points

• Quick round of 30 seconds or less.

• Permission to express feelings, hunches, and intuitions

• No need to explain reasons

• Can be used before and after the meeting

six thinking hats

• I’m enthusiastic!

• I like it!

• I wish I had more information.

• Sounds interesting.

• I feel uncertain.

• I dislike it.

• Hate it!

Red hat statements

six thinking hats

black hat

• Possible problems ?

• Difficulties ?

• Points for caution ?

• Risks ?

six thinking hats

Project could not be completed on time because of strike

“If we do not improve we may loose our

customers”

Black hat statements

six thinking hats

yellow hat

• Benefits?

• The positives?

• Is there a concept in this idea that looks attractive?

• Can this be made to work?

six thinking hats

“Lighter weight of the product will save

transportation cost.”

“If we buy from

nearby source we will save on octroi.”

Yellow hat statements

six thinking hats

green hat

• What creative ideas do we have?

• What are the alternatives?

• How can we overcome the black hat difficulties?

• Random word or random object can be used to trigger creativity ?

six thinking hats

“Here is my green hat. We could hire a new project manager, retrain a current

employee, or out source the work.”

“I’ve got a green hat idea: let’s build a tunnel instead

of a bridge.”

Green hat statements

six thinking hats

blue hat• Where should we start?

• What is the agenda?

• What are the objectives?

• Which hats should we use?

• How can we summarize?

• What should we do next?

six thinking hats

Key Points• The facilitator hat

• Can be worn by any member

• Focuses and refocuses thinking

• Handles requests for thinking

• Points out inappropriate comments

• Asks for summaries

• Makes or calls for decisions

• Manages the time of the meeting

six thinking hats

Types of Sequences

Fixed

Flexible

How to use hats ?

six thinking hats

Types of Sequences

Contingent

Evolving ? ?

six thinking hats

How to Discipline

Time

“The time is up for green hat thinking. If there are any more

ideas, I will extend the time by two more

minutes.”

“Let’s take a quick 30

seconds for red hat thinking.”

“The timer is set for four minutes;

we will now have white hat

thinking.”

Blue hat statements

six thinking hats

Ways to Use the Hats

• Individual use

• Conversation use

• Meeting use

• Reports, memos, e-mail, and presentation use

six thinking hats

Individual

• Focus on one hat at a time

• Stick to a time limit

six thinking hats

• Signaling

• Getting Unstuck

• Switching Thinking

• Caution Without Criticism

“Let’s do some red hat

thinking.”

Conversation

six thinking hats

Meeting• Use designated hat

• Encourage all to participate

• Only blue hat interrupts

• Blue hat prompting

•Directions, not descriptions

• Handling conflicts

“Let’s take four minutes

for the green hat.”

six thinking hats

Written Work

Use the hats framework to improve and simplify

• Reports

• Memos

• E-mail

“We need white hat information on the following

focus.”

six thinking hats

Tips for SuccessPractice! Practice! Practice!

Be prepared.

Explain the hats simply.

Insist on the terminology.

Start with easy issues.

six thinking hats

Blue hat Problem :

To suggest alternate packing for a moulded case circuit breaker.

Hat sequence : Blue 1.0 minute

White 2.5 minutes

Red 0.5 minute

Black 1.5 minutes

yellow 1.5 minutes

Green 2.0 minutes

Blue 1.0 minutes

Case study

Total time = 10 minutes

six thinking hats

White hat

Case study(2.5 minutes)

• Weight of the product = 3 kg

• Product sealed in polybag, put in thermocole buffers and

packed in corrugated boxes.

• One unit per box

• Cost of packing material Rs. 25 per product.

• Annual qty = 4000 nos

• Annual cost = Rs. One lakh

• No damage at present

six thinking hats

Red hat (0.5 minute)

• Needs to be solved

• It is important

• Interesting problem

• Good challenge

• I am enthusiastic

Case study

six thinking hats

Black hat (1.5 minute)

• Change will cause lot of problems

• Existing set up may need to be changed

• More suppliers will have to be identified

• New technology in packing will be required

• Logistics may be a issue

• Cost may increase

• Availability of alternate material ?

• More time to develop

• Should be customer friendly for unpacking

• Safety aspects

Case study

six thinking hats

Yellow hat (1.5 minutes)

• Scope for innovation

• Possibility of savings in cost

• Customer may get delighted by elimination of thermocole

• Opportunity to learn new things

• Market share may improve

Case study

six thinking hats

Green hat (2.0 minutes)

• Use air–bags

• Use dry grass

• Corrugated padding

• Use coir padding

• Use saw dust for cushioning

• Use paper scrap for cushioning

• Make it re-cyclable

• Use bubble sheets

Case study

six thinking hats

Blue hat (1.0 minute)

• Corrugated padding

• Air bags

• Coir padding

Case study

Summary :

six thinking hats