The following contains excerpts from the book, Six Thinking Hats (Edward De Bono).
At our music school in Midland, Texas we believe that music is more than sound, it is relationships. In Leadership, Management, and overall Creativity, relationships matter.
“In this book I am concerned with the mapmaking type of thinking in which the terrain is first explored and noted. Then the possible routes are observed and finally a choice or route is made. In practice, one of the most striking things about the use of the Six Hats method is that decisions seem to make themselves. When you come to the final blue hat, the decision is often obvious to everyone present…After all, when we make decisions on our own, we go through more or less the same process (pros, cons, feeling, facts). The Six Hats method does all that very thoroughly. So what was hitherto carried out in an individual’s mind is now done systematically and in the open.”
The author clarifies the processes we all go through to make decisions, revealing the different aspects. So, in that sense, I am aware of these dynamics. The way he presents the material, however, is unique and fresh.
In our Western culture, we have seen an attempt to sideline the arts in favor of STEM (or linear) thinking. It is our goal at our music school in Midland, Texas to reclaim the educational value of music that is so vital to a wholistic education.
“Western thinking is concerned with ‘what is,’ which is determined by analysis, judgement and argument. That is a fine and useful system. But there is another whole aspect of thinking that is concerned with ‘what can be,’ which involves constructive thinking, creative thinking, and ‘designing a way forward.’ In traditional thinking, if two people disagree, there is an argument in which each tries to prove the other party wrong. In parallel thinking, both views, no matter how contradictory, are put down in parallel…With parallel thinking, every thinker at every moment is looking in the same direction. The thoughts are laid out in parallel. You do not respond to what the last person has said. You simply add another idea in parallel. In the end, the subject is fully explored quickly…The Six Hats method provides neutral and objective exploration of a subject – argument does not.”
At our music school in Midland, Texas we are always optimistic and hopeful about what our students are capable of achieving and endeavor to inspire that same attitude in each student about their potential.
Yellow Hat. “Think of optimism. Under the yellow hat a thinker deliberately sets out to find whatever benefit there may be in a suggestion…We need to develop ‘value sensitivity.’ That means being as sensitive to value as we already are sensitive to danger. That is a habit that has to be developed…The yellow hat should be logically based…not based on fantasy…Being positive is a choice…Positive thinking has to be a mixture of curiosity, pleasure, greed and the desire to ‘make things happen.’ It is not just a matter of making a positive assessment of something that turns up. It is a deliberate search for the positive…There may be very powerful positive points that are not at all obvious at first sight. That is how entrepreneurs work. They see the value that those around them have not yet spotted. Value and benefit are by no means always obvious…History is full of impractical visions and dreams which inspired the effort that eventually made those dreams a reality.
One of the great values that comes with studying music at our music school in Midland, Texas is the ability to think ‘outside of the box’ in a non-linear way. This kind of thinking is optimized through the study of music and the arts.
If we restrict our yellow hat thinking to what is sound and well known, there is going to be little progress. The key point is to look at the action that follows the optimism…The yellow hat thinker should do his or her best to find as much support as possible for the proffered optimism. This effort should be conscientious and thorough. But yellow hat thinking need not be restricted to those points that can be fully justified….The emphasis of yellow hat thinking is on exploration and positive speculation…Constructive thinking fits under the yellow hat because all constructive thinking is positive in attitude…Creativity is concerned with change, innovation, invention, new ideas and new alternatives.
We hope to inspire this kind of creativity in the lives of the students in our music school in Midland, Texas. The study of music always entails some kind of creativity, as well as the discipline to bring that creativity to the fore.
A person can be an excellent yellow hat thinker and never have a new idea. The effective application of old ideas is a proper exercise of yellow hat thinking. The ideas do not have to be new and there does not even have to be an intention to find new ideas. Yellow hat thinking is concerned with the positive attitude of getting the job done. Effectiveness rather than novelty is what yellow hat thinking is all about…Yellow hat thinking may be concerned with taking an idea that is used elsewhere and putting it to work. Yellow hat thinking may be concerned with generating alternative approaches to a problem. Yellow hat thinking may even define opportunities. But yellow hat thinking is not concerned with changing concepts or perceptions. That is the business of green hat thinking.”
Learning how to solve problems by looking at them from many different angles is an integral part of studying at our music school in Midland, Texas. We want students to become proficient in their capacity to problem-solve and become autonomous in their learning.
It is the teacher’s greatest achievement to bring the student to full autonomy, where they can gather facts, parse the information and objectively apply what they have learned on their own journey of growth. Subsequently, being able to self-direct their own progress through self-assessment brings them to a point at which they, themselves, can begin to teach and train others.