Six Thinking Hats Paperback – August 18, 1999

When it comes to critical thinking, if we follow the same steps, are we truly thinking critically? Edward De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats takes a new point of view on the way we think, and categorized his ideas into six easy to understand points of view.The first area that I want to address and compliment is the way that the book is written. The style is unique from many other similar texts in that it is able to provide very in depth technical concepts in a simple and casual styled language. De Bono does a solid job in providing explanations for his ideas in a simple and broken down manner that makes it easy for almost anyone to interpret. He avoids focusing on the methodological and specialized terminology that can easily confuse readers. Additionally he recognizes areas where readers may have trouble understanding, and goes into further explanation citing both applicable real world and relatable situations to better explain the idea.Six thinking hats is a very interesting concept in that it completely reinvents conventional thinking, particularly in a group or team setting. It really pointed out some flaws that occur in modern days concepts of thinking and aims to cover all aspects of forming new ideas in an efficient and effective manner. Under each hat, a particular mindset is taken, and every aspect of this single point of view is reviewed. White for example, would include only factual and informational points. The hats are to be used in sequential order, and the end result is an idea that encompasses several aspects of thinking from all ends of the spectrum. Such a concept cuts down on the chaos that can occur at a meeting as it intends on gearing people toward focusing on a single goal and not throwing out any idea that comes to mind. Seeing this method in practice would be interesting to me as I have experienced many meetings where there was a lack of focus and order. The book is organized in such a manner that each hat is built upon the next, and as you read you begin to see the whole picture of what the author is trying to convey through this method.One caveat or weakness to the model itself however is the necessity for all levels of members to be on board. In order for each of the hats to be successful, everyone must be on the same page, and there must be acceptance and equality among the ideas. Individuals participating in a discussion cannot or should not be afraid to voice their ideas, concerns (black hat), etc depending on the particular hat. De Bono does address the dangers of the six thinking hat methods in a workplace that is not committed or misinterprets the usage, however I find that it can easily occur. Another issue that I wanted to point out to potential readers is that this method of thinking cannot necessarily be used to boost individual thought. Switching between the hats and focusing on a single hat requires a moderator to carefully ensure that everyone is on task and not reverting to other hats or impeding on other’s ideas. As an individual you lack that balance and cannot self check whether the hats are being used correctly.Overall however I found this book to be insightful and allowed me to develop another dimension and approach of thinking. Sometimes we under estimate the power of trying something different especially such a simple action, which in this case is thinking. As a college student in particular, this book is a necessity, as team settings and group projects are a common occurrence. This book can also apply to almost any individual interested in developing a new thinking method. The book even contains an anecdote about a couple using the six hats to make a decision on buying a house. Highly recommend to those looking to try something new and develop a new method of thinking.

There is real reason to doubt this book but after reading it, it is undoubtedly worth a full and thorough read. Yes, as may be expected with any book about how to think it is full of information that is obvious and abstract. However, its biggest flaw if any is that much of its small and airy volume is full of reiterations of the same information and concepts. What seemed like 90% of the book was an elaboration of what had been summed up in a few sentences in the first chapter and therefore seemed fairly obvious. That being said, I’m glad for that because even after reading the entire book I had significant difficulty implementing the six thinking hats method in a discussion. Even though the entire book is based around a relatively simple concept, it’s an incredible concept and it’s a concept that’s incredibly difficult to fully understand after reading just the first chapter. Additionally, that 10% each chapter that wasn’t a reiteration of previous concepts like the purpose of a certain hat, was information that was very insightful and very useful.Like any skill worth learning, the six thinking hats method needs not only to be read about but also to be practiced to be most useful. Really meaningful things can come out of reading this book but only if you do more than just read it. The book includes short examples of how each hat should be used on almost every page. However, apart from a few pages near the beginning of the book and mention under the blue hat section, there are no simple and precise guidelines on how to tackle an entire conversation using this method. De Bono’s explanation for this is that there are no simple and precise guidelines for how to use this method because the best method is the one that is developed on an individual basis. When attempting to put this in practice however, I found this to be very difficult. In practice I wasn’t sure when to use what hat or whether I was really using the hat I thought I was. Despite this, I’m confident that with a little more practice I will have adopted a method of thinking that really is superior to the one I had before reading The Six Thinking Hats. The difficulty in implementing the six thinking hats method in itself goes lengths to show that it is a meaningful method that is worth reading a book about. There is no doubt that De Bono is one of the greatest minds of our time and that even if you consider yourself an organized and intelligent thinker, reading The Six Thinking Hats will give you a more powerful and effective mind.