5. The White Hat
• The information seeking hat.
• What are the facts?
• What information is available?
What is relevant?
• When wearing the white hat we
are neutral in our thinking.
6. • This is the creative mode of
thinking.
• Green represents growth and
movement.
• In green hat we look to new ideas
and solutions.
• Lateral thinking wears a green hat.
The Green Hat
7. The Yellow Hat
• The sunshine hat.
• It is positive and constructive.
• It is about effectiveness and getting a
job done.
• What are the benefits, the advantages?
8. The Black Hat
• The caution hat.
• In black hat the thinker points out errors
or pit-falls.
• What are the risks or dangers involved?
• Identifies difficulties and problems.
9. The Red Hat
• What do you feel about the suggestion?
• What are your gut reactions?
• What intuitions do you have?
• Don’t think too long or too hard.
10. • The control hat, organising thinking itself.
• Sets the focus, calls for the use of other hats.
• Monitors and reflects on the thinking
processes used.
• Blue is for planning.
The Blue Hat
11. You’re moving to California! There are just no jobs in Nebraska, and it
just makes sense that you move to California where jobs are plentiful.
You have an old car, 2 suitcases, and just enough money to pay for
gas for the 4 day trip. You have room for yourself, 5 additional
passengers and 5 more suitcases in the car. Choose your passengers
from the list given, but make sure you can justify your decisions
based on human wants, needs, interests and values.
12. _____Joe is a mechanic, and knows how to drive a car. You’ve never spent much time with him, but you’ve heard
people say he’s a very violent person. He has 1 piece of luggage and 6 blankets.
_____John knows how to drive a car, but knows nothing about how they work. He says he will go with you, but only if
he can bring all 4 of his big suitcases…two filled with canned food & water.
_____Susan grew up working on her brother’s race car. She’s a good driver. She thinks you’re great! You like having
her around; she makes you feel important. She has one suitcase, a box of band aids, her rollerblades, and 12
Snicker’s candy bars.
_____Jack has a large thermos of fresh water to bring along. He has two suitcases, 4 rolls of toilet paper, and is very
strong. He used to be a security guard.
_____CJ has been your boy/girlfriend for the past month. He/she has two suitcases, says they love you very much,
doesn’t know how to drive, and has never held a job.
_____ Lucy has 3 suitcases, a can of Pepsi, 3 oranges, and an Aunt living in California that has offered you free room
and board for a week while you hunt for work.
_____ Paul just finished serving his 10 year prison sentence for armed robbery and assault of a family member. He
has only a small plastic bag for luggage, knows how to drive and fix cars but doesn’t have a license. He will pay you
$200 cash for his seat in the car.
_____Larry is the Pastor/Priest of your church, is your good friend, and has 2 suitcases… one holding a small camp
stove and can opener. She has a cell phone with 50 minutes left on it.
_____Karen has a Swiss army knife and a tent as big as 2 suitcases, but no other luggage. She’s a safe driver and
grew up in California.
_____Jim used to run a wilderness survival camp, where he taught people how to survive for a month on just a ball of
string, a safety pin, a flashlight, and a pack of chewing gum. Those are the only things he’s bringing with him.
Start the session by giving a question(Trainer to ask a question, for example-), ask them to think in different ways and to solve.
Relate the student’s answers with the title of the day, then introduce the topic. Ask them the definition of thinking skills and meaning of “cognitive “ then move on with the next slide, followed by the definitions.
Problem solving process
Let me make it very easy by saying six thinking hats;
What is the Six Thinking Hats model?
The Six Thinking Hats is a role-playing model presented by Edward de Bono in 1986. It serves as a team-based problem solving and brainstorming technique that can be used to explore problems and solutions and uncover ideas and options that might otherwise be overlooked by a homogeneously thinking group. The basic premise hinges upon the idea that most people think and reason in a specific way based on their personality type. This means that a more emotional person may generate ideas differently than a more analytical person, and vice-versa. Similarly a pessimist will approach a situation very differently than an optimist. Edward de Bono identified 6 types of one-dimensional personalities or “Thinking Hats”. While the average person will often imbue qualities from several of these 6 types, the goal of the Six Thinking Hat model is to assign each member of the team a different, one-dimensional “Thinking Hat” for the duration of the problem solving or brainstorming session.
Problem solving process
Let me make it very easy by saying six thinking hats;
What do we know?
What do we need to know?
How can we get this information?
THE NEUTRAL WHITE HAT
The role of the Neutral White Hat is to act as a detective. Its main objective is to explore the facts of the problem in an unbiased and neutral way. This essentially means collecting relevant information, stats and data surrounding the problem. This hat isn’t interested in beliefs, assumptions or opinions. It’s only interested in solid concrete information that can be proven and measured. However, in order to perform this role it must stay objective. It cannot allow itself to get emotionally involved because that would simply corrupt the data. Like a detective, it stays neutral and very open to the possibilities that may exist.
Are there other ways to do this?
What else could we do here?
What are the possibilities?
What will overcome our black hat concerns?
What are the benefits?
What are the positives?
What is the value here?
Give reasons.
THE OPTIMISTIC YELLOW HAT
The role of the Optimistic Yellow Hat is to act as a sun, or a beacon of light that symbolizes faith and hope. It’s main objective is to take every idea on board and build a case as to why it will succeed, and how it can potentially be implemented. It therefore always looks for the opportunities that may arise from the implementation of an idea. The Yellow Hat of course takes into account the risks, while also assessing the feasibility of getting an idea off the ground. It always however favors possibilities. If there is a will, then the Yellow Hat will always find a way to make things work, irrelevant of the drawbacks that may come to light.
What are the challenges – both existing and potential?
Why won’t it work?
What do we have to be cautious about?
What are the risks?
Give reasons.
THE PESSIMISTIC BLACK HAT
The role of the Pessimistic Black Hat is to act as the reaper. Its main objective is to highlight possible flaws, weaknesses, dangers and risks that can come from implementing an idea. Its purpose is to critically examine and then question all the ideas brought forth by the other hats. The Black Hat therefore comes across as being extremely cautious, critical, and somewhat skeptical. It takes everything into consideration, then brings to light ill-thought-out plans that are potentially riddled with failure. Inadequate contingencies, a lack of resources, skills and support are typical issues that the Black Hat raises as concerns.
What are my feelings right now?
What does my intuition tell me?
What is my gut reaction?
THE INTUITIVE RED HAT
The role of the Intuitive Red Hat is to act as the heart. Its main objective is to seek intuitive answers to the problem at hand. It does this by tuning into its internal feelings that can often lead to insights and hunches. Its purpose is to unlock ideas that come from the intuitive heart, rather than from the intellectual head. It therefore preferences using its instincts to formulate ideas that can help move the problem forward. Feelings of course don’t always need to make intellectual sense. The Red Hat therefore never feels compelled to justify its feelings or to rationalize the contribution it makes toward solving the problem.
THE MANAGERIAL BLUE HAT
The role of the Managerial Blue Hat is to act as a director. It essentially manages all the other hats and ensures that an adequate solution to the problem is found. Its other primary responsibilities involve defining the problem, gathering insights and information, encouraging the flow of ideas, managing time sensitive issues, and moving from an idea to the implementation of that idea in the most effective and efficient way possible. The Blue Hat’s main objectives are therefore to organize ideas, plans and future actions, based on the input it gathers from the other thinking hats.
An activity to make the students to practice decision making
