5 minutes
The 6 Thinking Hats
Dr..
Alaa Jarad
Garad@alaagarad.com
01 December 2020
I was introduced to the concept of Six Thinking Hats in the year 2000, and I was very impressed by the idea, and it helped me understand the different ways of thinking of individuals and the patterns of each type, but in the midst of being busy and not focused, a person forgets what he learns and needs to re-learn it, and perhaps learn new patterns, and I have seen that In today's article, I shed light on the theory of the Six Hats, and its creator, Dr. Edward de Bono, the author of the theory of lateral thinking and creative thinking, a physician, psychologist and philosopher of Maltese nationality, and a consultant to many governments and major companies, such as «Ericsson» and «Coca-Cola».
Learning and using the Six Hats method is useful in schools, as students must learn different ways of thinking, and have a self-awareness of their ways of thinking and of others. |
De Bono benefited from his medical studies on the brain and thinking patterns, to formulate his timeless theory. He used the idea of colored hats to distinguish ways of thinking, which of course are not real hats, but symbolic hats to mold thinking or help in understanding the pattern of thinking.
The white hat is distinguished by its neutral thinking based on inquiry and the attempt to understand to reach the facts without bias, with a focus on numbers and data without prejudice to opinions or whims.
As for the red hat, it symbolizes emotional thinking, the opposite of the previous type, which is a thinking style that is not suitable for the work environment and it is recommended to stay away from it, but it is present in every work environment and in our daily life.
As for the third hat, it is the black hat, and it symbolizes the pessimistic and negative way of thinking. The owner of the hat may seem logical and resort to objectivity in the discussion, but he is predominantly negative, which may be based on previous experiences.
The fourth hat is the yellow hat and it symbolizes positive thinking. It is the opposite of the black hat. It reflects a mixture of optimism, positivity and the desire to see things happen and goals achieved.
The fifth hat is green, and it symbolizes creative thinking, a term coined by de Bono, where creative thinking is similar to the process of growing a plant from the seed, that is, getting out of old ideas into a new world and preparing to take risks and explore the new.
As for the sixth hat, it is the blue hat and symbolizes the thinking itself, and it is concerned with directing thinking and holistic thinking, such as helping individuals to wear the appropriate hats at appropriate times, and the owner of the blue hat sees what others do not see, so it is like the way out of the play, and its color is taken from the blue and inclusiveness of the sky.
Learning and using the Six Thinking Hats method is useful in schools, as students must learn different ways of thinking, and have a self-awareness of their own thinking and thinking of others. It is also very useful in the media field in order to maintain neutrality and objectivity in covering events.
I hope that this theory will be adopted in all our schools, and that everyone working in the media field must pass an exam with thinking hats.
@ Alaa_Garad
Garad@alaagarad.com
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Garad@alaagarad.com