Exploring Six Hats

I would like to set up a journey to explore knowledge in each area of the six thinking hats.
It could be methodologies, knowledge, way of thinking, etc.
The output of our information gathering could be a list of books, movies, links, etc. Possible we could make all that knowledge accessible in a small e-book.

To illustrate my idea, some examples

- Red Hat: In his book Blink Malcolm Gladwell has described some excellent observations about `knowing immediately`.
- White hat: The same Malcolm Gladwell demonstrates the use of statistics to unravel societal developments
- Black Hat: recently I came across WikiRational, a wikipedia with critics on some standard accepted theories. Also, the whole literature of critical thinking belongs to the Black hat domain

etc.

Who would join=

Tags: frame, hats, methodology, works

Views: 128

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Gijs van Beeck Calkoen on May 17, 2011 at 17:40
Next week I will try to write a synopsis in concept. In the meantime we could do some hands-on work, to get more focus on the project.
I suggest to begin with exploring White Hat supporting tools, theories, resources etc.

The question is that, if we have a complicated situation, AND we have decided to use the Six Hats framework AND we have decided that right now we will put on our White Hat

  • which tools could us help us further with identifying what information is needed?
  • how to dig in what we really know, also implicitely, about the situation?
  •  which pitfalls to avoid when gathering information?
  • are there information gathering strategies?
  • are there interesting books, specific focused on information?
  • what are common causes of misinterpretation of information?
  • some examples of multi interpretable facts
  • How to put sense making questions to librarians?
  • How to use search engine?
  • What are information biases?
  • Examples of Cassandra information (The information is known and/or available, but nobody believes it)
  • Illustrative case studies about excellent thinking on bad information
  • Examples of more information what doesn't help or confuse
  • Modern developments as data visualisation, open data,etc
  • useful theories which explains how red hat thinking can bias white hat thinking
  • the 10 best places to see data online
  • what is wiki and what has it to do with White Hat thinking
  • Opinion making by Main Stream Media
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I am sure you can come up with a lot of other questions on how to support White Hat thinking.

I expect that starting a quick experiment -by collecting some contributions from you to the questions above-  we will be able to get some more insight in what we are trying to accomplish.

I am sure you have some theories, practical hints, tools, resources or authors on the tip of your tongue or on your mind if I would ask you in the middle of the night: "I have here a problem, and I want to do extensive White Hat thinking, who or what are my guides?"
Permalink Reply by Asa Jomard on May 17, 2011 at 17:50
OK, this looks interesting.

I will continue with the draft to a synopsis. Brilliant idea to write another one and then we can explore our ideas!
Permalink Reply by Franis on May 20, 2011 at 10:43
As an alternate way to proceed, I also find useful the idea of writing what comes out and then organizing it into our structure. Given that both of you are writing in a second language, I think this is a constructive way to illustrate what you mean too.

I know much writing hasn't happened yet, but so far I see this as a resource guide for someone who could use a multiple choice selection when they can't come up with their own points for each of the perception of the Six Hats. That would be cool to have!!

OK, hW guides:
Well, lately my best guides are search engines on a computer.

How to research is a skill - one that can be taught.

How to interpret & relate information, (what do facts mean?)

How to deal with information overload - and determine: at what point do we have "enough" information?

How to distill information to its relevant points that could make a difference.

How the intentional selection of certain facts in a deliberate sequence will lead to certain conclusions.
Permalink Reply by Gijs van Beeck Calkoen on June 21, 2011 at 17:53
- Interesting would be as we could provide examples of how a same set of facts can be interpreted in several ways
- if we could provide examples of official facts which are not representing the facts
F.e many town councils collect sociological facts about neighbourhoods to have a measurement how rich or poor a neighbourhood is, to base social policies on that information. F.e. the average income of the inhabitants in a district. However, if rich inhabitants sublet their homes to migrant workers, policy makers will be misled.
A better measure how poor a neighbourhood is, could be the amount of windows that have no curtains, but use sheets. Or the amount of call-shops. Or the turnover of the local supermarket. I call this Creative Measuring)
Permalink Reply by Jakov Jakisic on May 20, 2011 at 13:58
Very interesting topic, indeed.

For me, a focus (of motivation) would be: How to embed Six Hats within existing structures, methods,...
How to explain to people the general value of Six Hats (assuming: it works with "all" existing methods, tools). A list like yours could be a starting point for a Six Hats seminar or consulting or training.
To the people it would be something familiar and maybe they would get the point (when learning how to use Six Hats) quicker.

in some way all those methods you want to put into a list - produce "statements" (facts, emotions, ideas, logical +/-, etc.)
This list contains tools for producing that statements. The hats tell you, when to produce a special type of statement.

Some extra idea:
From that extra tool list you could "extract" or deduct a collection of templates, which are to use in a Six Hats sequence (without knowing a tool from that list maybe?)

...just some thoughts in between but i definitely like this idea/project and if you want me in, i will contribute
Permalink Reply by Franis on May 22, 2011 at 8:46
From working with you previously, I experienced how your familiarity and training with Six Hat Thinking allowed you to abstract related questions and suggestions for focus - without mentioning the Hats. Being able to apply various sequences of parallel thinking for specific purposes was quite effective. I'm sure everyone would love to have your contributions.
Permalink Reply by Gijs van Beeck Calkoen on May 27, 2011 at 19:35

A dump on thinking about the Red Thinking Hat.

 

In addition on the post about White Hat Thinking (see 17 and 20 May) the following:

What tools, theories, resources, authors, readings could support Red Hat Thinking and at the same time deepen our understanding of the nature of Red Hat Thinking.


Some questions I was able to come up with:

Red Hat Thinking

  • Is Red Hat Thinking the same as non-deliberate thinking, or is it " not reasoning", and what is reasoning then?
  • Is it so called Right-Brain thinking
  • Is the Art Design, Story telling, Empathy, Play, Meaning  and Visualising included in Red Hat Thinking?
  • What are positive and negative influences of Red Hat Thinking on other thinking modes?


Feelings

  • - when do you feel a feeling?
  •  where do feel feelings, in what kind of the body?
  •  why do you have feelings?
  • is feeling the opposite of thinking?
  • are feelings the same in every culture, or organisation
  • are the same range of feelings accessible for every person?
  • can or should feelings be controlled?
  • can you trust feelings, when not?
  • what signals a feeling? A thought?
  • is there an evolutionary cause for having feelings?
  • what is gut feeling? How to recognize it?

Emotion

  • What's the difference between an emotion and a feeling?
  • What is fear for a kind of emotion?
  • How an emotion is expressed?
  • Are there different forms of emotions, likeunease, worry  

First impressions

  • what is responsible for first impressions?
  • what is the role of the senses in Red Hat Thinking?

Values and value systems

  • different interpretations of values
  • how are belief-systems created?

Intuition

  • What is it?
  • Is it also " immediate knowing"?
  • Can you develop it, train it?
  • When to trust, when do distrust?
  • How to make more or better use of it?

Opinions

  • what's opinion?
  • where to buy an opinion?
  • how to develop a critical opinion?
  • what's the problem with expert opinions?

 

Please, supplement with your ideas and questions, regarding Red Hat Thinking

 

Will anybody start with Yellow Hat Thinking questions?

 

 

Permalink Reply by Gijs van Beeck Calkoen on May 27, 2011 at 20:14

Also:


Psychological and social-psychological factors affecting rational Black Hat and Yellow Hat thinking

  • Cognitive dissonance
  • Group think
  • Psycho-analytic character traits
Permalink Reply by Franis on May 29, 2011 at 23:08
Hope you're saying the hY is as rational as hB.

Interesting to consider how feelings affect the ability to do both hB and hY thinking
A person's sense of time would be a factor in the ability to use both hB and hY
Whole systems thinking ability
If in a large group, familiarity with public speaking,

OK, here's a little thinking about how prevailing attitude invites practice in both hats, one at a time.

would affect hB ability:
Having had bad experiences that might have been avoided & later reflected on what they could have done differently
Desire to recognize potential problems so something can be done to avoid or fix them
Personal ongoing emotional levels of fear about unforeseen consequences
Their previous experience with failure or making mistakes
Familiarity with the topic

would affect the ability to use -hY:
Ability to describe fulfillment
Perhaps a pervasive emotional sense of security that fulfillment is possible
Lack of guilt & send of equanimity (that's it OK to get an advantage without someone else losing)
Previous experience with success and having desires come true
The ability to surrender or put off a sense of fear or worry
The ability to select memories of positive experiences in the past, asking what advantages received
To imagine what might be desired or considered valuable by others, empathy
Permalink Reply by Asa Jomard on May 28, 2011 at 7:56
Permalink Reply by Kim Jones on May 28, 2011 at 12:38
After perusing some of this, and as a rudimentary attempt to respond to both your questions, I gather the answer for the time being has to be a resounding "No".

A few further questions:

Do we actually want to separate feelings and emotions from reason and thinking? What advantage might this confer?

The Hats method makes no claim to achieve this, but optimising brain states is what Parallel Thinking is all about, so "doing one thing at a time" may in fact come close to what you are postulating.

Feelings and emotions channel our values. Using the Hats allows us to modelise to a certain extent a forced suspension of aspects of our mental performance, to allow a focus on some other aspects. But the divorce is not permanent. To some extent the 'channeling effect' the Hats allows is temporary and even quite artificial.

Certain neurotransmitters cannot be suppressed for long. An act of faith is almost required to make a Hats sequence work in this sense; you tell yourself you are wearing a hY but in reality your hR is still on but you disallow this act of your mental performance under the aegis of the hY almost by an act of force or self-control.
Permalink Reply by Asa Jomard on May 28, 2011 at 13:02
Sorry but I agree with you;-)

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