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Lateral ThinkingThe Concept of

Six Thinking Hats developed by Ed de Bono

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Lateral Thinking

Lateral thinking is a term coined by Edward de Bono, for thesolution of problems through an indirect and creativeapproach. Lateral thinking is about reasoning that is notimmediately obvious and about ideas that may not beobtainable by using only traditional step-by step logic. Theterm first appeared in the title of de Bonos book, New Think :

The Use of Lateral Thinking, published in 1967.Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in

order to look at things in a different way. E d d e B o n o

Lateral thinking can be learned. Dr de Bono has created

several techniques to help apply lateral thinking to problemsolving and idea generation. Some of these are the following:1. Think of as many different alternatives for solving a

problem as you possibly can

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2. Challenge any assumptions you may have about yourproblem; and insert random elements which willencourage you to look at the problem from a differentand unexpected perspective.

Six Thinking Hats

Looking at a decision from all points of view:Six thinking hats is a powerful technique that helps you lookat important decisions from a number of differentperspectives. It helps you make better decisions by pushing

you to move outside your habitual ways of thinking. As such,it helps you understand the full complexity of a decision, andspot issues and opportunities which you might otherwise notnotice. Many successful people think from a very rational,

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positive viewpoint, and this is part of the reason that they aresuccessful. Often, though, they may fail to look at problemsfrom emotional, intuitive, creative or negative viewpoints.This can mean that they underestimate resistance to change,dont make creative leaps, and fail to make essentialcontingency plans.Similarly, pessimists may be excessively defensive, andpeople used to a very logical approach to problem solvingmay fail to engage their creativity or listen to their intuition. Ifyou look at a problem using the six thinking hats technique,then you will use all of these approaches to develop yourbest solution. Your decisions and plans will mix ambition,skill in execution, sensitivity, creativity and good contingencyplanning.

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Methodology to use the technique.To use Six Thinking Hats to improve the quality of yourdecision making, look at the decision wearing each of the thinking hats in turn. Each Thinking Hat is a different style

of thinking. These are explained below:

1. White Hat : With this thinking hat, you focus on the dataavailable. Look at the information you have, and seewhat you can learn from it. Look for gaps in yourknowledge, and either try to fill them or take account of

them.This is where you analyse past trends, and try to extrapolatefrom historical data.

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2. Red HatWearing the red hat, you look at the decision usingintuition, gut reaction, and emotion. Also try to think howother people will react emotionally, and try to understandthe intuitive responses of people who do not fully knowyour reasoning.

3. Black HatWhen using black hat thinking, look at thingspessimistically, cautiously and defensively. Try to seewhy ideas and approaches might not work. This isimportant because it highlights the weak points in a planor course of action. It allows you to eliminate them, alteryour approach, or prepare contingency plans to counterproblems that arise. Black hat thinking helps to make

your plans tougher and more resilient.

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It can also help you to spot fatal flaws and risks beforeyou embark on a course of action. Black hat thinking isone of the real benefits of this technique, as manysuccessful people get used to thinking positively thatoften they can not see problems in advance, leavingthem under prepared for difficulties.

4. Yellow HatThe yellow hat helps you to think positively. It is theoptimistic viewpoint that helps you to see all the benefitsof the decision and the value in it, and spot the

opportunities that arise from it. Yellow hat thinking helpsyou to keep going when everything looks gloomy anddifficult.

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5. Green HatThe Green hat stands for creativity. This is where youcan develop creative solutions to a problem. It is afreewheeling way of thinking, in which there is littlecriticism of ideas. A whole range of creativity tools canhelp you here.

6. Blue HatThe Blue hat stands for process control. This is the hatworn by people chairing meetings. When running intodifficulties because ideas are running dry, they maydirect activity into green hat thinking. When contingencyplans are needed, they will ask for black hat thinking,and so on.

You can use Six Thinking Hats in meetings or on your own.

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In meeting it has the benefit of defusing the disagreementsthat can happen when people with different thinking stylesdiscuss the same problem.

A similar approach is to look at problems from the point ofview of different professionals (e.g. doctors, architects, sales

directors) or different customers.