Sunday, April 20, 2008

Thinking About Thinking


A full day session with Edward de Bono was an interesting experience. The session was aimed at “Thinking about thinking”- that is how I would like to put it. The session was divided into two sub sessions: Six Thinking Hats and Lateral Thinking*.
The first session was directing our thinking on a well defined path by using ‘Six Thinking Hats’. It is a powerful technique that helps to look at important decisions from a number of different perspectives. It opens up the opportunity for creativity within Decision Making. It helps to make better decisions by pushing you to move outside habitual ways of thinking. It helps to understand the full complexity of the decision, and spot issues and opportunities to which one might otherwise be blind.It allows necessary emotion and skepticism to be brought into what would otherwise be a purely rational decision.The technique also helps persistently pessimistic people to be positive and creative.

While interacting with other attendees during the session brakes, I received a mixed reaction to the Six Thinking Hats tool. A large number of people agreed upon the use and success of the tool; at the same time few insisted that everyone uses the same technique while making a decision. The difference is that here the path is defined and well planned.

Here, I would like to pose two inter- related questions:
  1. How many of us were making decisions (personal/ organisational) by taking in account (consciously/ sub-consciously) the factors described in Six Thinking hats?
  2. How ‘the Six Thinking Hats’ technique is going to impact our decision making in future?

I did collect certain amount of data on the same day, I will share it once I get more opinions on the same.
So wear your Thinking Hats and express it...


Note *- I will discuss the second session- Lateral Thinking in my next blog.

1 comments:

Blogger In Middle-earth on May 24, 2008 at 4:14 AM said...

Tena koe Anamika B.

You ask two interesting questions about the de Bono Hats.

When I remember to use them at the time I'm about to make a decision, I've found them useful. Often, when lost for where to start I spend time with the blue, for it's usual that a deal of analysis is needed to even think about how that hat should be used.

Decision making is so often swayed mercilessly by the emotional hats and so i've found the blue and white used in turn often help with the decision over the tactical aspects of how to think next.

And for the future?

I've never managed to formulate a universal strategy. The more I use the hats in decision making, the more I feel the need to use most of them for their appropriate purpose.

Even the green hat, so often left on the pile when decisions are to be made, can assist in at least musing over the possibilities for new ways of using the other hats. It is often as useful as the blue hat in this respect.

Ka kite
from Middle-earth

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