Product Description

SIX THINKING HATS is a de Bono classic, used by businessmen worldwide to develop techniques of creative thinking in the boardroom. The Six Hats method aims to make the fullest use of everyone's intelligence, experience and information. De Bono has comprehensively updated his bestselling text for this new edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4894 in Books
• Published on: 2000-10-26
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

About the Author
Edward de Bono was once chosen by a group of professors as one of the 250 people who had contributed most to the whole history of humanity. He is famous for developing the concept of "lateral thinking" and has developed techniques for deliberate creative thinking. He has written 60 books translated into 34 languages, which sell in their thousands. His latest book for Penguin is THE DE BONO CODE, to be published in Aug 2000. He regularly lectures around the world but is based in Central London.

Customer Reviews

Thinking skills explained with extreme simplicity
Edward DeBono explains what is often viewed as a complex skill in such a simple way that anybody who reads the book should understand how to improve their thinking. The book is easy to read with short captivating illustrations which drive home the message being put across. There are no theories, principles or models in the book. It is not a book based on "so many steps to achieve a goal", neihter does it reveal a new formula to successful thinking. Each section is well arranged giving a summary of each thinking hat at the end of each hat's session in the book. Overall this is a compulsory read for anybody interested in improving their thinking and facilitators running brainstroming sessions. Although it can be used to tackle any type of project requiring idea generation or problem solving.

A Book Every Serious Thinker Must Read
Important work demonstrating how to take full advantage of the various ways you think in solving problems and making decisions. Explores the limits of logic and shows how to move in new, more creative directions reason alone cannot reach. More than thinking outside the box, this book let's us escape the box and leave it behind. Also consider reading the newer Why Didn't I Think of That? - Think the Unthinkable and Achieve Creative Greatness, which is filled with vivid illustrations and challenging thinking exercises which will expand your creativity, problem solving and decision making skills at work and home.

De Bono will make you THINK
Every so often you read a book that is so obvious that you are amazed you did not see it before. For me, this is such a book. Yes, I could argue about the slow nature of the book, about the style or choice of phrase. However, the very simple idea (singular) at the core hit me like a billiard ball between the eyes at three paces.

De Bono takes the idea of thinking, and breaks it down into six different aspects, and proposes that all should be allowed at appropriate times in a meeting. The key is not that (say) raw emotion can be expressed unjustified, but that where necessary such feelings are not only encouraged, but that it is an everybody thing. Participants are allowed to express a simple yes / no to an idea with no further comments. This, by the way, is 'red hat thinking'.

Each aspect of thinking is given a colour, so participants will wear the SAME hat at the same time, to view topics from a similar perspective. There is no compelling reason to have physical hats, but presumably this may help initially. Examining each proposal in a critical way is allowed, but not all the way through any discussion - only at 'blackhat' time.

This is a short, easy-read book. It would be possible to give a summary here of the six hats, and their meanings – however, it is better to let de Bono do that. Chapters are small and bite-sized, with an introduction and summary to each coloured hat. You do not need to read the book in one sitting, but it is probably advisable to tackle the 170 pages within 2 or 3 days.

The author has written a number of other books on 'thinking', and these are referred to in the text of the volume. For me, the references were about right - neither too many (a sales pitch) or too few (not giving readers the opportunity to get further information). What did irritate me was the summary chapters for each hat, where the majority of sentences seemed to begin with e.g. "Blue hat thinking ..".

At the end de Bone gives a possible framework for using the principles within a meeting. This is helpful, and adds to the comments and examples throughout the text. The overall feel is that this is a book about thinking that is based in reality.

My final thoughts concern interminable meetings I have attended, and national flags. Use of the core idea of this thin volume would have saved man-months of my time, sometimes concluding that a meeting was not necessary. The national flag theme? Take a South African flag into meetings with you. This will remind you of the thinking hats, for the colours are the same.

Buy it, learn it, practice it, and do it.

Peter Morgan, Bath, UK (morganp@supanet.com)