Insights from different angles
When we talk about the Eiger, we don’t necessarily mean the North Face! Even the Eiger has different sides.
- Do you spend too much time in meetings?
- Would you like shorter meetings with better outcomes?
With the «Six Thinking Hats®» method according to Edward de Bono, you look at an issue from different perspectives. Each perspective is symbolised by a coloured hat.
«If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.»
Henry Ford
There are six symbolic hats in different colours. Each of these hats stands for a certain way of thinking. When you “put on” one of these six thinking hats, you focus entirely on this way of thinking. By changing hats, you change your perspective. Meeting participants together adopt different ways of thinking so that they all have the same perspective at the same time.
It is not about assigning people to certain categories. Everyone should be able to wear each of the hats, adopt the respective perspective and think about it. Of course, some people can identify more with one or the other hat, and they may prefer certain hats.
This method improves your understanding of the other people taking part in a discussion. You avoid controversies. You discuss a topic in parallel without going backwards and forwards between the advantages and disadvantages of a suggestion. You start by discussing the advantages, then you move on to the disadvantages. The benefit of this is that suggestions are not stifled simply by listing the disadvantages. Not infrequently, ideas initially only seem to have disadvantages. However, on closer examination, the advantages are seen to outweigh the disadvantages.
