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Why riot? Community, choices, aspirations
Why riot? Community, choices, aspirations

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2.1 De Bono’s 6 thinking hats

One powerful thinking tool for making decisions is Edward De Bono’s 6 Thinking Hats technique. You may have come across this already but if not, De Bono (1933–2021) came up with this tool to help people step outside their usual way of thinking or to become more aware of how other people may think about an issue, by playing different roles.

An illustration of 6 hats in a pile, from top to bottom, white, red, green, yellow, black and blue.
Figure 6: Edward De Bono’s 6 Thinking Hats technique

As you can see each hat represents a distinct type of thinking. The following short film will introduce you to De Bono’s technique and how to use it.

Activity 3: Introducing De Bono’s 6 thinking hats

Timing: 15 minutes

Watch this short film Introduction to De Bonos 6 thinking hats [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] (duration: 2 minutes) before answering the following questions.

a. 

Look at a problem from one perspective.


b. 

Look at a problem from a number of different perspectives.


c. 

Ignore a problem.


The correct answer is b.

a. 

The human brain thinks in a number of distinct ways.


b. 

The human brain only looks at things in one way.


c. 

These perspectives can be challenged.


The correct answers are a and c.

a. 

Positive thinking.


b. 

Intuition and emotion.


c. 

Creativity.


The correct answer is a.