The Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono

10:30am-1PM, 5^th May 2008, Bhavan’s Campus (The ‘Pranganga’ Lakeside):

Buntings in various colours fluttering in the hot summer wind, an open-air amphitheatre filled by an attentive (but occasionally raucous) young crowd. A table with a half-dozen occupants, at once part of and distinct from the crowd, is discussing animatedly while an indulgent (but sharp-eyed) lady looks on from the side-lines, and interjects sporadically. The casual observer might be forgiven for thinking that it is a political rally in progress, though he would be stumped when asked to identify the political party from the buntings- hats painted in six different colours. Hats, still reminiscent of the colonial sahib are an unlikely party symbol in India.

But heck, no! This was no political rally or camp, despite all superficial resemblances. Indeed, far from it- it was a PGPM Session on the Six Thinking Hats (ah, now you understand the buntings and the colours! J) by Dr. Edward de Bono, conducted by our respected Professor Rukaiya (the sharp-eyed lady mentioned above). (PGPM, by the way, is the Post Graduate Program in Management is a 1-year full time management program in SPJIMR, Mumbai for professionals with experience greater than 5 years in Manufacturing and Operations).

Leaving the lighter vein, the session was indeed a refreshing eye-opener. Workshop, training and group interaction in equal measure, the session was a tremendous success and extremely well-received by the participants. The Six Thinking Hats is a system of thinking strategies for individuals, each Hat representing a different strategy. The Red Hat represents Emotional thinking. The Yellow Hat represents Positive thinking. The Black Hat represents Critical thinking. The White Hat is purely the facts. The Green Hat is Creative thinking. The Blue Hat represents the Big Picture, sort of looking at it from all the viewpoints.

The Six Thinking Hats way opens up the power of parallel thinking and at the same time is an aid to lateral thinking. Dr. de Bono describes six different approaches and each is symbolised by the act of putting on a coloured hat, either actually or imaginatively; the hats are as described above. This can be done either by individuals working alone or in groups.

The session was a splendid example of SPJIMR’s unique ‘Innovative pedagogy’. The participants were divided at random into groups of 6-8 and given a random topic to discuss on, with a group moderator selected at random from the group. Each group was asked to discuss the topic given for 10 minutes. The moderator would anchor the discussion and guide the group through the relevant hats to be worn for each stage of the discussion and was also responsible for timekeeping.

Topics ranged from the highly charged (‘Is T20 a form of Cricket?’) to current affairs (‘Oil above $115 a barrel’- this doesn’t seem very current now with Oil at $135, though) to the political (‘Mee Mumbaikar’) to the mundane (‘Personnel problems post mergers and acquisitions’). But what was astounding was the way the groups, with no prior preparation apart from a reading of Dr. de Bono’s book took the topics up and in a mind-boggling display of parallel thinking. Changing their metaphorical hats every 90 seconds on average, every group came up with salient points on various aspects of the topic/problem. With sound application of the concepts learned from the book, all the groups demonstrated an enhanced ability to think in parallel (‘on the same wavelength’), avoid debate and in the most astonishing display of the power of the Six Thinking Hats, reach a consensus on most topics within the time allotted. Not to be left behind on lateral thinking either, the groups managed to come up with innovative (if somewhat idealistic) solutions to the issues presented in the topics while wearing their ‘Green Hats’.

Another revelation was the ability of some of the randomly selected moderators to control and guide the group through the discussion, keeping track of time( and the Hats!) while eliciting the responses of all members and summing up at the end!! Vaibhav’s style for the cricket based topic, reminiscent of Harsha Bhogle, was much appreciated. At least one guy has an alternative career ready should he ever need it (or even if he doesn’t)!

But all this fun, as with all good things in life came at a cost- self-evaluation, peer evaluation and the much-dreaded post facto ‘write-up’. Every participant graded each group and group member on a variety of parameters (moderators were graded separately) and also did a self-evaluation of his/her own performance with critical comments for the other groups. Of course, the Professor did her own appraisal of each group’s performance.

At then of the 2-odd hours, all of us came away richer and wiser. Specifically, through the group interactions and the thought-stimulation that had occurred, there were a few key learning points.

The importance and the power of parallel and systematic thinking in the Six Thinking Hats framework as opposed to conventional thinking is in bringing out the

· The power of collaboration

· The value of different perspectives brought in by divergent viewpoints

· The ease and the speed in reaching decisions

· Avoiding unnecessary debate

· The improvements in general communication and in lateral thinking

All of us enjoyed the session thoroughly and look forward to more of the same! (Though we would prefer an AC classroom and no write-up the next time J)

- by Prashanth Sadashivan