Thinking systemsEdward De Bono

By Gabriela Cervino, Diego Maldonado and Sol Matossian

Introduction

Dr. Edward De Bono Born in Malta in 1933 M.D., Ph.D., (medicine & psychology) Faculty at the universities of Oxford, London, Cambridge and

Harvard World-renowned consultant to business, governments, schools and

industry Author of 62 books in 47 languages Originator of the following:

o Direct teaching of thinking as a skillo Lateral Thinking (1967)o Parallel Thinking (1985)o Six Thinking Hats (1985)

Traditional ThinkingO Originates from ‘western’ thinking. It is also known as rhetoric, or

basic arguing skills.

O 2400 years old, based on the philosophies of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle

- Socrates used to point out ‘what was wrong’ to clarify the concepts

- Plato believed that we can see only shadows of truth as we go through life

- Aristotle believed that people would put together different ‘boxes’ in their mind based on their experience & judge things into one of those boxes

- So, traditional thinking is concerned with “what is” which is determined by analysis, judgment & argument. It is not constructive or creative and doesn’t involve design.

All members look in the same direction at any moment

All views (even contradictory) are put down in parallel

Direction of thinking can be changed (six thinking hats)

What is parallel thinking?

Traditional thinking vs Parallel thinking

Traditional thinking

2400 years old Plato, Aristotle, Socrates

Partial exploration of subject/problem

Concerned with ‘what is’ Involves analysis, judgment

and argument Thinks about too many

aspects/things at a time

Parallel thinking

First published in 1985 Full exploration of

subject/problem Concerned with ‘what can be’ Involves constructive and

creative thinking, ‘designing a way forward’

Deals with only one aspect/thing at a time

ABAB

Lateral Thinking

What is lateral thinking?

Means thinking differently or thinking out of the box Creativity is a skill that can be learnt and trained

Lateral thinking activity!

Let’s see your skills…Puzzle 1:

Three switches outside a windowless room are connected to three light bulbs inside the room. How can you determine which switch is connected to which bulb if you may enter the room only once?Answer: Switch one light on for a minute; turn it off and turn another on. Go into the room and feel the off bulbs. The warm bulb is connected to the first switch, the on-bulb is connected to the second and the cold bulb is connected to the third switch.

Puzzle 2:

A man lives on the tenth floor of a building. Every day he takes the elevator to go down to the ground floor to go to work. When he returns he takes the elevator to the 7th floor and walks up the stairs to reach his apartment on the 10th floor. He hates walking so why does he do it? Clue: on rainy days he goes up in the elevator to the tenth floor.

Answer:

The man is a dwarf and can only reach the button for the 7th floor. On rainy days he uses his umbrella!

Basic nature of lateral thinking

O Lateral thinking is concerned with changing patterns.O Purpose: overcome the limitations by providing a means for

restructuring, for escaping from cliché patterns, for putting information together in new ways to give new ideas.

O In a self-maximizing system with a memory the arrangement of information must always be less than the best possible arrangement.O The rearrangement of information into another pattern is insight

restructuring.O The purpose of the rearrangement is to find a better and more effective

pattern. A particular way of looking at things may have developed gradually. An idea that was very useful at one time may no longer be so useful today and yet the current idea has developed from that old and outmoded idea.

O Lateral thinking is also a particular way of using information in order to bring about pattern restructuring.

Lateral thinking vs vertical thinking

O Vertical thinking: Selective, Rightness.O Lateral thinking: Generative, Richness.O Vertical thinking selects a pathway by excluding other

pathways, while, lateral thinking does not select, but seeks to open up OTHER pathways.

The Lateral Thinker says: “I’m looking but I won’t know what I am looking for until I have found it.”

The Vertical Thinker says: “I know what I am looking for”.

Introduction to six thinking hatso A method for effective team meetings, problem-solving,

decision making and proposal/design evaluationo Can be used by businessmen, professionals, students,

teachers, children or individuals. o Hats help a group use parallel thinking.o Color of hat identifies the type or direction of thinking

O The white hat covers facts, figures, data and information. Too often facts and figures are embedded in an argument or belief.

O Wearing your white hat allows you to present information in a neutral and objective way.O What information do we have here?

O What information is missing?

O What information would we like to have?

O How are we going to get the information?

O The blue hat is the overview or process control. It is for organizing and controlling the thinking process so that it becomes more productive. The blue hat is for thinking about thinking. In technical terms, the blue hat is concerned with meta-cognition. O Look not at the subject itself but at the 'thinking' about the

subject

O Set the agenda for thinkingO Suggest the next step in the thinking, " I suggest we try some

green hat thinking to get some new ideas"O Ask for a summary, conclusion, or decision, "Could we have a

summary of your views?"

O The red hat covers intuition, feelings, hunches and emotions. Usually, feelings and intuition can only be introduced into a discussion if they are supported by logic. Often, the feeling is genuine but the logic is spurious. Allows letting out feelings and intuitions without the need for justification, explanation or apology.

O You express what you feel about the project. Examples: O My gut-feeling is that this will not work. O I don't like the way this is being done. O This proposal is terrible. O My intuition tells me that prices will fall soon.

o The green hat is specifically concerned with creating new ideas and new ways of looking at things: o creative thinking o Additional alternatives o putting forward possibilities and hypotheses

o Makes time and space available for creative thinking. Often green hat thinking is difficult because it goes against our habits of recognition, judgment and criticism.

o Typical questions include: Are there any other ideas here? Are there any additional alternatives? Could we do this in a different way? Could there be another explanation?

o interesting proposals o new approaches o provocations and changes

O The yellow hat is sunny and positive. It’s logical and optimistic. It covers hope and positive thinking. It looks for benefits and values and how can we make something work.

O The black hat is serious. It’s, caution, risk, assessment and critical. It is mentioned that it’s the most useful hat. The problem is its’ very easy to overuse. It points out the weakness in an idea.

How to use it in a meeting?

Correct

• Everyone present wears the black hat at the appointed time.

• Everyone present wears the white hat the next appointed time.

Incorrect

• Someone has been chosen as the black hat person, another as the white hat person and so on.

• They keep those roles during the whole meeting.

Benefits of using six thinking hats

O Saves timeO Focused thinkingO Improved explorationO Improved creativity & innovationO Fosters collaborative thinkingO Removal of ego from decisions (reduces

confrontation)O Allows a switch in thinking without threatening ego