Sequence for Six Thinking Hats
In recent weeks, I tried sequence with my children and got some ideas. Here, I use "Reactive Situations" sequence to describe this:
Normal STH needs a thinking step for selecting a next hat. When sequence is used, the next hat is fixed. When the situation matches the need, using sequence can be more efficient. Using sequence is particular efficient for simple issues that only needs 1-3 hats because no need to consider those unnecessary hats.
There are too many sequences. Selection of a sequence can be a time consuming process. The learning curve for using sequence is more steep when compared with learning the six hats.
Initially, feels more time consuming in using sequence. Later, no motivation to continue use it.
Target the user group and develop a set of small number of sequences suitable for their everyday activities. That means grouping the existing sequences and creating new ones for particular user groups.
It can be more efficient to train them to select the next hat. Adding sequence just complicates the thinking process.
Selection of the next hat needs experience and self-control. Young learners may not do this effectively, which can reduce their interest to continue using STH. A set of simple sequences with targeting to their needs can reduce their efforts in the thinking process so that real results can be obtained while encouraging them to go into the positive enforcement loop in using STH.
Example: Secondary school students
(a) Plan for exam
White hats: what are the subjects and scopes, time required, other support required?
Red hats: How do you feel?
Blue: Develop an action plan.
(b) Developing a new hobby
Red hat: Like it? Friends also like it?
Yellow hat: How this hobby will help you in different aspects?
Black hat: Any disadvantages?
(c) Working on a new school project
White hat: What are the objectives and scope?
Yellow hat: What you can learn from working on this project?
Green hat: Suggest ideas to this project
Blue hat: Develop a plan for completing the project
(4) Got troubles with a friend
Red hat: What are your feelings?
Blue hat: What is the supposed relationship?
Green: Any new approaches?
Any comment?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Raymund Kwok on -
Graeme,
Thank you for comments.
For Chinese, there are huge variations with people from different regions and different education background. I believe for those who can discuss with you in English, they are probably all highly educated people. For most of the workers that I encountered for planting trees, I would say they mainly use red hats. One way to deal with them is actually trying to ask questions that help them to switch to yellow or blue hats.
The quotes of Prof. de Bono suggests that after proficient with each of the six hats, people can make decisions to select a better hat during thinking. Here my understanding is that for making a switch to a better hat, it needs two abilities: (1) understanding of the hats, and (2) self-discipline (or willingness to switch). So far, it seems to me that young people may not have the self-discipline to do the switching at appropriate time.
When sequence is used, it forces the person to move to the next hat. This may be an advantage for the person to obtain real results when sequence is used.
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Permalink Reply by Cal on -
Graeme> I believe Edward made the point to Kim in Sydney no so long ago was that the reason why he designated/designed six hats, not sixteen, was because we can only handle 6 concepts in the mind at any one time. I don't know if was referring to adults or children in that context.
Cal> This is sounding like the 7 plus or minus 2 working memory theory. Things like age are supposed to affect it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magical_Number_Seven,_Plus_or_Minu...
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Permalink Reply by Raymund Kwok on
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After further trials with my children, I further believe it is better to group the sequences. I used the "7 plus or minus 2 working memory theory" to do the grouping.
Sequences for Innovation
- First Ideas
- Improvement
- Explanation
- Design
- Possibilities
- Usable Alternatives
Sequences for Reflection
- Direct Action
- Emotions
- Choice
Sequences for Review
- Quick Assessment
- Evaluation
- Caution
- Opportunity
- Final Assessment
Full Sequences
- Neutral Situations
- Emotional Situations
- Reactive Situations
- Creative Situations
I further suggest two groups target to students, one for children and one for teenagers. I develop four sequences that I believe they may be suitable for teenagers, which all have blue hats. For the sequences for children, I re-used the existing 2-hat sequences. I believe these helps learning hat switching.
Sequences for Teenagers
- Planning
White: Put down the scopes, timing, information required
Red: Put down feelings in working towards this plan
Blue: Conclude and develop an action plan
- Self-development
Red: Put down your feelings on the new hobby or the subject
Yellow: Suggest the benefits when pursuing this new hobby or subject
Black: Suggest disadvantages when pursuing this new hobby or subject
Blue: Conclude and develop an action plan
- Project
White: Put down the objectives and scopes, and the required information
Yellow: Suggest the items you expect to learn from this project
Green: Suggest new ideas that you can add to this project
Blue: Conclude and develop an action plan
- People Relationship
Red: Put down your feelings for the relationship
Blue: Suggest the type of appropriate relationship
Green: Suggest new approaches to build the appropriate relationship
Blue: Conclude the ideas and develop an action plan
Sequences for Children
- Explanation (White, Green)
- Improvement (Black, Green)
- Quick Assessment (Yellow, Blue)
- Direct Action (Red, Black)
- Opportunity (White, Yellow)
- Evaluation (Yellow, Black)
Now, we have six sets of sequences. Within each set, we have 3-6 sequences.
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Permalink Reply by Franis on -
Hey, thanks Shamir for bumping up this thread with a "like"!
The idea of possible sequences for certain purposes is a very sophisticated one! From what I understand, this is what training in Six Hat Thinking educates people to do professionally. Is that correct, trainers?
I really liked the last one you did, Raymund:
- Explanation (White, Green)
- Improvement (Black, Green)
- Quick Assessment (Yellow, Blue)
- Direct Action (Red, Black)
- Opportunity (White, Yellow)
- Evaluation (Yellow, Black)
I liked it because you clarified what activity or process was attached to what hat.
(I'd like to assign hats to the other processes Raymund has outlined. Anyone, please verify my associations with which of the hats is in effect, which I'm adding to each part of your other sequence... Raymund's writing is in italics.)
On the first one, given the subject of Innovation...
- First Ideas - hG
- Improvement - hY
- Explanation - hH (the Blue Hat, because explanation is connected to explaining how it would work?)
- Design - hG (But isn't design a result of using all the hats or the whole sequence?)
- Possibilities - hG
- Usable Alternatives - hG
This is sort of a "test" in a way, isn't it?
Here's me trying out some alternatives similar to what Raymund has suggested so far on the same subject of innovation:
h-Y - describe advantages of current solution
h-G - desired features
h-G - stepping stone provocation
hH - decide on criteria for evaluation of the ideas
hB - harvest while determining "best" or "workable" ideas
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Permalink Reply by Phil Bachmann on -
I don't know much about hat sequences either.
I went to Graeme's site to read about short vs long and found Graeme seemed to prefer short sequences to long ones because short is simple.
He did note two clear purposes for sequences of hats:
- One to get a result from the group.
- Two to refine the result.
That may be a legitimate use for the Hats but I don't think it's the only one. I am a little concerned that Graeme wants to finish the thinking exercise quickly to stop students getting bored rather than produce a good end result.
Let me think through a sequence out loud about an issue that is currently pressing:
"Students at a high school should get recognition for activities they have initiated themselves".
I might try:
- Blue hat let's understand the question properly.
- Red hat what's our initial impressions.
- White hat what do we know about such schemes.
- Green hat examples of activities .
- Yellow hat scan suggested activities for value.
Seems like a straightforward short sequence and maybe it's time to tidy up and package the result, but my feeling is that the green hat is likely to have generated ideas which throw a new light on the situation.
eg. Some students start their own carpentry business.
Now this invites more Blue Hat thinking about whether the thinking should branch off along the path of whether money making is a legitmate activity for school kids, and if so how should the thinking be directed.
I'm guessing that proper use of the Blue Hat would encourage side-branches off the main thinking trunk to flesh out important areas, but the Blut Hat would also be used to ensure that the thinkers were periodically brought back to the main goal.
I can well imagine that longer sequences are important to get full value out of a topic, but Graeme has far more experience than I so hopefully he can share his thoughts with us.
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Permalink Reply by Franis on
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Definitely, the blue hat seems to have the most far-reaching potential to "change the game."
In the "Six Hats" group, three of us neophytes are collecting examples of the sorts of questions that correspond with each of the various thinking hats. One person had the idea to collect examples from all different sources on the web into an e-book. He suggested as the result of the project an e-book, but I think it should be a blog that has various authors from here who find cool stuff or write it themselves in an ongoing way. We could all have links to each other's blogs, of course! But then it would be a never-ending story.
Actually, as an overview that contains specifics...the whole project is sort of a Blue Hat thing - wouldn't you think?
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Permalink Reply by Franis on
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Graeme wrote: One of the strengths of dBT is the facility with which users can use the 'tools' interactively. There is no rule that says we cannot use PMI, then C&S, then Blue Hat, then some of the Shoes to design what we do next. And no, that is not a complex process once it is embedded. It becomes second nature.
So - how do you know which tool is good for what sort of purpose? This is what fascinates me in general about all the sequences...
For instance, I use PMI when there are many points swirling around in my brain and I'm tired of them canceling each other out as I think of them in sequence. Having them out of my head in a PMI helps me stop the repetitious muddling.
Blue hat is essential on the front end of a planning stage. But I also use the hB when someone "baits" me and they are expecting me to defend myself.
PO is good to use any old time, because it's so entertainingly funny. I find that my willingness to find out something new is directly attached to any lateral thinking tool. Sometimes I'm not willing to be so adventurous.
As you foist it off on others, always answer your own question. ;o)
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Permalink Reply by Franis on
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This example you have shown Graeme is fascinating. It reminds me of the way I'd "transcribe" books that were only going to be in my possession for a bit. It makes sense how you have grouped the objectives for a number of lessons together. Is that part of the how organization of the lessons were presented, or did you collect them that way yourself?
I'd love to see you finish this. In a way, the blog you are doing is sort of another form for this too. Perhaps you could use the blog as fodder to complete these descriptions?
It appears that remembering the tools is one of the challenges for de Bono thinkers. What other ways have you used to help you remember the various thinking tools?
You wrote:
My response with CoRT was to write a small 'booklet' that gave the essentials of each lesson: Title, full name when that applied, function. I still use it.
If I was planning, I referred to this small tome. I could never remember all 60 tools and found this approach worthwhile. Also, when you adopt this interactive approach, it become second nature as well as reducing the learning curve'.
In a group situation, after a PMI, the 'Interesting' bit is the discussion generator because it is filled with perceptions and lateral thinking - fun but attention-generating in its own way. -
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Permalink Reply by Raymund Kwok on
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Finally, I can access this site again from China. I hope this will continue.
About sequences, my children like them, especially the simple sequences, because the simple sequences are more direct for them to "think" on most of their topics. They do not need to go through all the six hats.
For a new learner to six hats, I still believe it is better to go through all the six hats when practicing. He/she can understand some of the hats are more important or less important in some situations. After learned, the sequences can guide them to "think" quickly. In a later stage, the sequence may not be important any more. The thinker can select the tool most suitable for the topic.
By the way, after about one year of using the six hats with my children, I am now asking them to write assays. First put down the points using six hat sequences, and then using the ideas to compose an essay in Chinese or English. I find this helps them to link the ideas better.
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Permalink Reply by Franis on
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Here's a link to download all the hats, from Graeme Allen. The hats of Graeme's don't look exactly the same...not so pixelated. I think these other hats you used came from Danny Stevens...
Graeme's Six Hats graphics. http://dbtdatabase.blogspot.com/2011/05/six-hats-graphics.html
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Permalink Reply by Franis on
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It's Graeme who you should be thanking! I really am enjoying Graeme's blog also - it's become a fantastic and educational resource for de Bono tools.
Khmer will be your...fourth or fifth language? I'm curious how you are learning it too...
Hey, maybe you can get people here to join you in your worthy cause. It's probably smaller countries that are easier to convince when it comes to changing or just adding to their educational systems. Your dream is something that you could get a grant to do also, but that would take an aside into grant writing skills.
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