A hat does you the world of good. I like hats. It’s like you become a different person by wearing one.
Of course how a hat makes you feel depends on the colour and shape. I’m not the only one inspired by hats and colours. Someone thought of the thinking hats..
I discovered the hat man during my search to why meetings are always such a struggle. People all talk at the same time, start ego battles to get their vision across. All very time consuming and not very practical. There had to be a way to solve this problem. There was! Hats!
The hat man is Edward de Bono. He states that people tend to look at problems from the same point of view all the time. By using thinking hats, people are being forced to try and see things from a different angle.
Which hat suits you? What would you gain if you were to try on a different hat? If you look at the situation with a different colour hat on, this often brings on refreshing new ways of looking at it and alternatives.
Put on the red hat and you will start thinking from your feelings and intuition. You will react with emotion (without having to explain).
If you are the white hat type, you love facts and figures.
The black hat thinker is the critical and sometimes negative one. He likes to play devil’s advocate.
The yellow hat lover is all positive and optimistic. You look at things from the sunny side.
Put on the green hat and you are a creative thinker. You let your mind go free and all sorts of ideas will come out.
The blue hat thinker is the observer and likes to manage the discussion.
I love to do some self reflecting and I have looked at which hats I tend to put on in a meeting. The outcome was a bit of a shock. I’m a hat changer. I wear all colours from time to time. It made me aware of the fact that we all have all colours inside our thinking system.
The thinking hat system might be useful outside meetings. For solving a personal problem, you could try on a different hat to look at things.
Whatever colour hat your wear, you always contribute to the thinking process.
