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.
Green Hat. “The green hat is the energy hat. Think of growth…Under the green hat we put forward new ideas…Possibilities play a much bigger role in thinking than most people believe. Without possibilities you cannot make progress…Those who believe that progress arises from the analysis of information and steps of logical deduction are totally wrong. Without the framework of possibilities we cannot even see the information in new ways…you deliberately put on the green hat, and this means that you are setting aside time for deliberate creative thinking…Creativity involves provocation, exploration and risk taking. Creativity involves ‘thought experiments.’
We encourage students at our music school in Midland, Texas to explore new ideas and not to be afraid of new discovery in their own lives and in their creative path.
You cannot tell in advance how the experiment is going to turn out. But you want to be able to carry out the experiment…You cannot order yourself (or others) to have a new idea, but you can order yourself (or others) to spend time trying to have a new idea…Just as logical thinking is based on the behavior of symbolic language (a particular universe), so lateral thinking is based on the behavior of patterning systems (also a particular universe)…With green hat thinking…we replace judgement with movement…With movement we use an idea for its forward effect. We use an idea to see where it will get us. We use an idea to see what it will lead to. In effect we use an idea to move forward…Sometimes we take an idea and use it as a stepping stone and end up with an idea that is quite different…It may also be a matter of taking a vague idea and then shaping it into something concrete and practical. All these are aspects of movement. The key thing to remember is that we move forward with an idea or from an idea…We can sit around and wait for provocations, or we can set out to produce them deliberately…Many years ago I invented the word po as a symbolic indicator of an idea that was being put forward as a provocation and for its movement value. If you like, the letters stand for provocative operation…The search for alternatives implies a creative attitude: the acceptance that there are different approaches…By all means challenge the framework from time to time and change levels. But also be prepared to generate alternatives within the specified level.
At our music school in Midland, Texas we encourage students to be creative within the constraints of the project they are currently working on. For example, there are many different ways to interpret a composition of a great Classical composer. The notes are just a starting point for further creativity inside the performance of that particular work.
Creativity gets a very bad name when creative people always make a point of solving a different problem from the one they have been given. The dilemma remains a real one: when to work within the given framework and when to break out of it…One of the weakest aspects of creativity is the ‘harvesting’ of ideas…Note that constraints are brought in as shapers and not as a rejection screen…Part of the creative process is to shape the idea so that it better fits the need profile of those who are going to have to ‘buy’ the idea…So ideas need to be designed to fit the needs of the buyer (within the organization)…The search for alternatives is a fundamental aspect of green hat thinking. There is a need to go beyond the known and the obvious and the satisfactory. The green hat thinker uses the creative pause to consider, at any point, whether there might be alternative ideas…to generate new concepts and perceptions.
Blue Hat. “The blue hat is for thinking about thinking. The blue hat is like the conductor of the orchestra…The blue hat is like the ringmaster of a circus. The blue hat is for the management of thinking. The blue hat is for the organization of thinking. The blue hat is for process control…It is under the initial blue hat that the agenda or sequence of use of the other hats is laid out…The blue hat also announces a change of hats…Wearing the blue hat we are no longer thinking about the subject; instead, we are thinking about the thinking needed to explore that subject…Blue suggests detachment and being cool and in control…Thinking on one’s own has much more need of a blue hat structure. If we are going to adopt the mapmaking type of thinking, we need to have structure. A blue hat structure might provide a plan of what is to happen at every moment…Blue hat thinking can be used to organize other aspects of thinking such as the assessment of priorities or the listing of constraints…The difference between a good thinker and a poor thinker often lies in the ability to focus…Asking a question is the simplest way of focusing thinking. It is very often said that asking the right question may be the most important part of thinking…Questions are divided into two types. There is a fishing question, which is exploratory…There is a shooting question, which is used to check out a point and which has a direct yes or no answer…It is also the role of the blue hat thinker to set specific thinking tasks…He is the choreographer who designs the steps, but he is also the critic who watches what is happening. The blue hat thinker is not driving the car along the road, but he is watching the driver. He is also noting the route that is being taken. The blue hat thinker can make comments on what he or she observes…From time to time the blue hat thinker gives an overview of what has been happening and what has been achieved…It is the task of the blue hat thinker to pull into shape what may seem to have been a chaotic discussion…to make the final summary and prepare the report…One of the major tasks of blue hat control will be to break up arguments…A powerful way of treating opposing ideas is to suppose that each one is correct under certain circumstances…Both sides can then be seen to be right. The next step is to see which of the two sets of circumstances most closely resembles the actual state of affairs.”
At our music school in Midland, Texas we hope to make knowledge accessible and attainable for the students, which requires simplicity in how it is shared.
“The biggest enemy of thinking is complexity, for that leads to confusion. When thinking is clear and simple, it becomes more enjoyable and more effective…The first purpose is to simplify thinking by allowing a thinker to deal with one thing at a time…The second main purpose of the Six Thinking Hats concept is to allow a switch in thinking…By turning it into role-playing or even a game, the concept of the hats makes it possible to request certain types of thinking…The concept works best when it has become a sort of common language.”