Edward de Bono's six thinking hats decision-making technique

¶ … decision making tools and techniques whereby 6 Thinking Hats has been chosen as one of its tools. This decision making tool is widely used in the business world of today.

THINKING HATS

DECISION MAKING

Decision making in science and indeed any other field of study is a difficult thing and for this, one needs to understand what are the basic ways in which a decision can be arrived at, without wasting much time and using the best tools and techniques in order to achieve the same. These decisions are very crucial to the outcome of a project but certain things should be kept in mind that information is the single most significant thing in this whole process. Decision-making is indeed a very complex and well-developed area, one that has to be looked at by the researchers and lecturers with particular care. This paper is about the decision-making tools and techniques whereby 6 Thinking Hats has been chosen as one of its tool.

THINKING HATS

This is one of the most important and powerful decision-making techniques in practice today. This technique basically employs at looking on decisions from different perspectives and paradigms. IT would not be wrong here to state that all these six different and varied perspectives are truly and individually important to the outcome of the result, i.e., the decision that has to be eventually arrived at. In order to deduce a decision, one has to stray outside the usual way of one's thinking style, which is more or less based on his or her habit at the best of times. Ultimately, this facilitates in giving a more rational and complete view of the situation as a whole. 6 thinking hats - the tool was created by Edward de Bono and was a part of his book, which was incidentally named as '6 thinking hats'.

People think in different ways. They can either be positive about something or be very pessimistic about an approach. Nevertheless, the positive approach is the one, which is more rational, and understandable, as the negative might lead to something that may not ever happen in the future, yet become a relic. This is without doubt the reason that positive approaches are more or less quite successful. At times, the positive thinking on one's part can lead to a problem from an emotional, insightful, creative or negative viewpoint. The reason for the same is that one might minimize the resistance to plans or misfire in making creative jumps every now and then. The need nonetheless, is to make contingency plans, the plans, which can come out of no where, when the need arises. This is in essence, the substitute plan for the first one. [URL]

WHEN TO USE 6 THINKING HATS APPROACH?

This approach in decision making can be used if one is positive from the very onset, when he decides to deduce a decision, regardless of all the hurdles or problems that might come in one's way. The decisions and plans would eventually combine with aspiration, desire, the effect of public to sensation and their sensitivity levels as well as their creative power and contingency learning capacity. A person can use the 6 thinking hats in meetings when the gain is in hampering the conflicts that might take place amongst people having varied thinking styles.

WHEN NOT TO USE 6 THINKING HATS APPROACH?

This approach should best be avoided when people are from different classes or stratums of the society and when it is seen or judged from the very beginning that they might conflict on a personal level rather than the issue at hand.

THE 6 THINKING HATS CLASSIFIED

The 6 thinking hats are the following:

White Thinking Hat

White hat relies more on the data that is available at hand. Past trends are taken note of in this hat and then efforts are made to extrapolate from the historical data.

Red Thinking Hat

Red hat looks at problems by using intuition, insight, gut reaction, and emotion. This hat tries to estimate and find out the responses of people who do not seem to understand one's reasoning.

Black Thinking Hat

This hat looks at the negative or the bad points of the decision before arriving at a final stopover.

Yellow Hat

This hat is a good one as it tries to think optimistically. Positive approach always, more or less, leads to success.

Green Hat

This hat is for the creative minds, hence it promotes more and more creativity that might be taken out of an individual.

Blue Hat

This final hat is for process control. This is the hat mostly worn by people who chair and hold meetings.