Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats Essay

Thinking dons Edward de Bono was born in Malta in 1933. He attended St Edwards College, Malta, during World War II and and so the University of Malta where he qualified in medicine. He proceeded, as a Rhodes Scholar, to Christ Church, Oxford, where he gained an honours degree in psychology and physiology and then a D. Phil in medicine. He also holds a Ph. D from Cambridge and an MD from the University of Malta. He has held appointments at the universities of Oxford, London, Cambridge and Harvard. Dr Edward de Bono is one of the very few people in history who can be said to have had a major impact on the way we think.In many ways he could be said to be the crush known thinker internationally. Six Thinking Hats Six Thinking Hats is a powerful technique t wear helps you look at important decisions from a number of different perspectives. It helps you make better decisions by pushing you to move outside your habitual ways of mentation. As such, it helps you understand the full compl exity of a decision, and spot issues and opportunities which you index otherwise not notice. Each Thinking Hat is a different style of thinking. These are explained below * White HatWith this thinking hat, you focus on the data available. Look at the information you have, and see what you can learn from it. Look for gaps in your knowledge, and either try to fill them or take poster of them. This is where you analyze past trends, and try to extrapolate from historical data. * Red Hat Wearing the red hat, you look at the decision using intuition, gut reaction, and emotion. likewise try to think how other people will react emotionally, and try to understand the intuitive responses of people who do not fully know your reasoning. portentous Hat When using black hat thinking, look at things pessimistically, cautiously and defensively. Try to see why ideas and approaches might not work. This is important because it highlights the weak points in a plan or course of action. It allows you to eliminate them, alter your approach, or prepare contingency plans to counter problems that arise. Black Hat thinking helps to make your plans tougher and more(prenominal) resilient. It can also help you to spot fatal flaws and risks before you embark on a course of action.Black Hat thinking is one of the substantial benefits of this technique, as many successful people get so used to thinking positively that often they cannot see problems in advance, leaving them under-prepared for difficulties. * Yellow Hat The yellow hat helps you to think positively. It is the optimistic viewpoint that helps you to see all the benefits of the decision and the value in it, and spot the opportunities that arise from it. Yellow Hat thinking helps you to keep going when everything looks gloomy and difficult. * Green HatThe Green Hat stands for creativity. This is where you can develop creative solutions to a problem. It is a freewheeling way of thinking, in which there is little criticism of id eas. A whole range of creativity tools can help you here. * Blue Hat The Blue Hat stands for process control. This is the hat worn by people chairing meetings. When running into difficulties because ideas are running dry, they may direct activity into Green Hat thinking. When contingency plans are needed, they will submit for Black Hat thinking, and so on.