E-Book Overview
Used successfully by thousands of business managers, educators, and government leaders around the world, Six Thinking Hats offers a practical and uniquely positive approach to making decisions and exploring new ideas. Your success in business depends on how you think. "The main difficulty of thinking is confusion," writes Edward de Bono, long recognized as the foremost international authority on conceptual thinking and on the teaching of thinking as a skill. "We try to do too much at once. Emotions, information, logic, hope, and creativity all crowd in on us. It is like juggling with too many balls." The solution? De Bono unscrambles the thinking process with his "six thinking hats": WHITE HAT: neutral and objective, concerned with facts and figures RED HAT: the emotional view BLACK HAT: careful and cautious, the "devil's advocate" hat YELLOW HAT: sunny and positive GREEN HAT: associated with fertile growth, creativity, and new ideas BLUE HAT: cool, the color of the sky, above everything else-the organizing hat Through case studies and real-life examples, Dr. de Bono reveals the often surprising ways in which deliberate role playing can make you a better thinker. He offers a powerfully simple tool that you--and your business, whether it's a start-up or a major corporation--can use to create a climate of clearer thinking, improved communication, and greater creativity. His book is an instructive and inspiring text for anyone who makes decisions, in business or in life.
E-Book Content
Edward de Bono S I X T H I N K I N G H AT S ® Revised and Updated Contents Preface 1 Introduction 2 Six Hats, Six Colours 3 Using the Hats The White Hat 4 The White Hat: Facts and Figures 5 White Hat Thinking: Whose Fact Is It? 6 White Hat Thinking: Japanese-Style Input 7 White Hat Thinking: Facts, Truth and Philosophers 8 White Hat Thinking: Who Puts on the Hat? 9 Summary of White Hat Thinking The Red Hat 10 The Red Hat: Emotions and Feelings 11 Red Hat Thinking: The Place of Emotions in Thinking 12 Red Hat Thinking: Intuition and Hunches 13 Red Hat Thinking: Moment to Moment 14 Red Hat Thinking: The Use of Emotions 15 Red Hat Thinking: The Language of Emotions 16 Summary of Red Hat Thinking The Black Hat 17 The Black Hat: Cautious and Careful 18 Black Hat Thinking: Content and Process 19 Black Hat Thinking: The Past and the Future 20 Black Hat Thinking: The Problem of Overuse 21 Summary of Black Hat Thinking The Yellow Hat 22 The Yellow Hat: Speculative-Positive 23 Yellow Hat Thinking: The Positive Spectrum 24 Yellow Hat Thinking: Reasons and Logical Support 25 Yellow Hat Thinking: Constructive Thinking 26 Yellow Hat Thinking: Speculation 27 Yellow Hat Thinking: Relation to Creativity 28 Summary of Yellow Hat Thinking The Green Hat 29 The Green Hat: Creative Thinking 30 Green Hat Thinking: Lateral Thinking 31 Green Hat Thinking: Movement Instead of Judgement 32 Green Hat Thinking: The Need for Provocation 33 Green Hat Thinking: Alternatives 34 Green Hat Thinking: Personality and Skill 35 Green Hat Thinking: What Happens to the Ideas? 36 Summary of Green Hat Thinking The Blue Hat 37 The Blue Hat: Control of Thinking 38 Blue Hat Thinking: Focus 39 Blue Hat Thinking: Program Design 40 Blue Hat Thinking: Summaries and Conclusions 41 Blue Hat Thinking: Control and Monitoring 42 Summary of Blue Hat Thinking 43 Benefits of the Six Hats Method Conclusion Follow Penguin PENGUIN LIFE SIX THINKING HATS Edward de Bono invented the concept of lateral thinking. A world-renowned writer and philosopher, he is the leading authority in the field of creative thinking and the direct teaching of thinking as a skill. In the decades since Dr de Bono introduced lateral thinking, the concept has become so entrenched in our language that it is used equally in physics lectures, television com