Six Thinking Hats

De Bono takes the idea of thinking, and breaks it down into six different aspects, and proposes that all should be allowed at appropriate times in a meeting. The key is not that (say) raw emotion can be expressed unjustified, but that where necessary such feelings are not only encouraged, but that it is an everybody thing. Participants are allowed to express a simple yes / no to an idea with no further comments. This, by the way, is 'red hat thinking'.

Each aspect of thinking is given a colour, so participants will wear the SAME hat at the same time, to view topics from a similar perspective. There is no compelling reason to have physical hats, but presumably this may help initially. Examining each proposal in a critical way is allowed, but not all the way through any discussion - only at 'blackhat' time.

This is a short, easy-read book. It would be possible to give a summary here of the six hats, and their meanings – however, it is better to let de Bono do that. Chapters are small and bite-sized, with an introduction and summary to each coloured hat. You do not need to read the book in one sitting, but it is probably advisable to tackle the 170 pages within 2 or 3 days.

The author has written a number of other books on 'thinking', and these are referred to in the text of the volume. For me, the references were about right - neither too many (a sales pitch) or too few (not giving readers the opportunity to get further information). What did irritate me was the summary chapters for each hat, where the majority of sentences seemed to begin with e.g. "Blue hat thinking ..".

At the end de Bone gives a possible framework for using the principles within a meeting. This is helpful, and adds to the comments and examples throughout the text. The overall feel is that this is a book about thinking that is based in reality.

My final thoughts concern interminable meetings I have attended, and national flags. Use of the core idea of this thin volume would have saved man-months of my time, sometimes concluding that a meeting was not necessary. The national flag theme? Take a South African flag into meetings with you. This will remind you of the thinking hats, for the colours are the same.

Buy it, learn it, practice it, and do it.

Peter Morgan, Bath, UK (morganp@supanet.com)


Worthy of a read if you can bear the style.   March 12, 2006
Kris Devin
21 out of 25 found this review helpful

According to Edward de Bono's book-jacket biography, there are over 4,000,000 references to his work on the internet . The figure is to be found from general search results, which will throw up all references to anyone called Edward, as well as all references to Bono. Dr de Bono has clearly not thought this through, which is unfortunate for someone whose book claims to deliver a supreme method for thinking. This very fact that such a dishonest exaggeration of the author's importance is given within the first paragraph sets the tone that continues throughout this entire book (in the second paragraph, he reports that he was named one of the 250 most important people who have contributed to humanity throughout history: Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Homer, Pythagoras...Edward de Bono?!).

That's not to say there is no merit in this book at all, even if the method is not entirely idiot [i.e. de Bono] proof. The Six Hats method enables us to evaluate any given situation by applying a series of approaches to our thinking. According to de Bono, these six approaches (objective, emotional, cautious, optimistic, creative, control) encapsulate the full spectrum of human thought, although most untrained people limit their potential for thinking in habitually applying only one or two.

The beauty of the method is in the simplicity - it is easy to grasp and easy to apply (though the author's struggle to pad out this simple idea for 177 pages is at times nothing short of painful, and most readers will grasp the method effectively by reading only the key parts of each section). It might well change the way you think for the better; that is, if you can bear to put up with de Bono's self-aggrandising, word-filling style.