The Six thinking hats

The sun was searing but the minds were buzzing. The lake was still but the ideas were flowing. This was the setup for the six thinking hats session organized as part of the ADMAP program of 1 year PGPM @SPJIMR. For the uninitiated ADMAP is “Assessment and Development of Managerial and Administrative Potential”. It forms a critical component of the PGPM program at SPJIMR where the participants understand the nitty gritty of administration and develop their skills on the same.

The six thinking hats, as developed by Edward De Bono, represent six thinking strategies. Bono’s hypothesis was that individuals don’t take all possible approaches while discussing or thinking over the problem which in turn limits their thinking potential. And even if they do, they do too much at one time; juggling too many balls at once. He introduced a method, a very simple one at that, which allows thinker to do one thing at a time. The method makes it possible to attack a problem in bits and pieces and further provides a way to arrange them coherently at a later stage to get the complete picture. The method also makes it possible to understand the full complexity of the situation and decision, and spot issues & opportunities to which we may otherwise be blind. It allows necessary emotion and scepticism to be brought into what would otherwise be purely rational decisions. The six thinking hats are

- White hat: Neutral and Objective, concerned with facts and figures

- Red hat: Emotions

- Black hat: Sombre and serious, cautious and careful. It points out the weakness in an idea

- Yellow hat: Sunny and positive, covers hope and positive thinking

- Green hat: Fertility and growth, indicates creativity and new ideas

- Blue hat: Concerned with control, concerned with the organization of thinking process

The program was setup with the batch being divided into 8 groups of 7 people each, with 1 person out of the group being selected the moderator for a particular discussion. The topics for discussion ranged from ‘Organizations responsibility for environment’ to ‘Indian Premier League (IPL)’, from ‘Adult literacy’ to ‘Me Mumbaikar’. The star of the show was Vaibhav who moderated the discussion like a professional T.V anchor would have done. He and his team’s discussion on IPL was the high point of the whole program with cricket lovers highlighting how it might degenerate the game to people to thought that the ‘fast food’ cricket is full value of time and money. The ‘Me Mumbaikar’ topic got the emotions out of many mumbaikars who were part of the discussion. They debated how the city prides itself with it’s never say die attitude. During all these discussion, participants donned various hats at various times, most of the time guided by the moderator to do so. The program had its fair share of lighter moments too; with participants discussing how ‘Pot bellied policemen’ cannot run fast and hence fail to inspire confidence in the minds of people.

With the sun shining bright and participants sweating, bistro’s ‘nimbu paani’ gave a much needed respite to everyone in the middle of the program. The session completed with a feedback on all discussions with honours going to the discussion on IPL. All in all, the program did stimulate the thinking process among the participants who now have the six thinking hats as their thinking support staff.

- by Vivek Parmar