What do You think about Six Thinking Hats Revised Edition (2000)?
This book helped me to sort or filter if you may my thinking. If you are a person who does critical thinking all the time and getting tired of it not being incorporated towards your decision, read the book. The book is about putting your thoughts in some sort of categories. The author organized the chapters very well. From introduction of a specific hat to its use and how does it difference from other thinking hats. There is also the summary for each of them which makes it easier to recap if you lost in words while reading. There are examples presented in practical situations so readers may understand how to use it and when not to use it.For example, a red colored thinking hat. It is a hat for emotions. You may have feelings about a situation and you do not have to justify it. It is necessary to have emotions over a certain issue but you cannot make a decision solely on feelings. There are other areas you have to include when making conclusion such as the danger of it, facts that are unbiased and/or alternatives to it. Therefore comes along the other five colors. The author stated it is better to clarify the feelings beforehand so they do not lurk beneath other type of thinking and affects your judgment.Overall, this book shapes your thinking and have a clear path on making decisions. Easy reading and definitely add it to your reading list.
—Nun Mohd
الكتاب يتحدث عن طرق للتفكير اوجدها المؤلف ونسبها إلى ألوان لسهولة تذكرها وربط مدلول اللون مع طريقة التفكيرأسهب المؤلف في ذكر شروحات وأمثلة لكل قبعة بحيث يتأكد من فهمنا لكل واحدة منهن وعدم خلطنا في الأفكار الواقعة تحت أحدها ونسبها للأخرىالقبعات:اللون الأبيض = يدل على الحيادية (حقائق خالصة)اللون الأحمر = لون المشاعر ويعبر عن الأفكار العاطفية بدون ذكر التبريراتاللون الأسود = الأفكار السلبية والانتقاداتاللون الأصفر = لون الإشراق ويعني الأفكار الإيجابيةاللون الأخضر = لون النمو والتجديد ويرمز للتفكير الإبداعياللون الأزرق = تنظيم التفكير (السيطرة على بقية الألوان)اتخيل تواجدي في اجتماع مع بيئة تتبنى طريقة التفكير بالقبعات الست! كم سيكون الاجتماع ناجحا :)أجد الكتاب مفيد جدا على الرغم من عدم تقبلي المحتوى كاملا لصعوبة تعاملي وفهمي لما يتعلق بعلم النفس ولكنه فتح بصيرتي على أشياء مهمة أحب أن اتمرس عليها أكثر
—Arwa Helmi
FOOD FOR THOUGHTSSix Thinking Hats by Edward De Bonowww.edwdebono.comThinking is a skill and can be improved, this is what our book under review teaches us and says, these are not idle words, but they are said by a consultant to many international corporations like IBM, EXXON, DUPONT, PROCTOR AND GAMBLE, SHELL, BP, FORD. ETC.,Enough of bombarding you with Billion Dollar earning company names, let me climb down to common man, that is me, I wont sell my title of common man for a Billion Dollar, I am part of a Billion strong group. I wont give up its membership even if I am offered FREEMASONS secret membership.My common man’s impressions of this wonderful book are, this is a eye opener, it is so good once you get the hang of the concept of 6 hats, you will want to try it everywhere, I enjoyed reading this book to the last letter. It is not very big, it has 171 pages and cost you only Rs.100.Professor Edward De Bono is a extraordinary genius, his concept of six thinking hats is a proof of his genius, in his hurry to explain the finer points of his thinking method, he has made thisbook a little curvy to understand, so I advise 3 or 4 readings of this book to fully understand the actual exercise of FREE THINKING, UNCHAINING THE THINKING PROCESS, DELINKING THINKING from your UNDERSTANDING PATTERNS. PARALLEL THINKING is the word.Professor DeBono’s concept is applicable in all walks of life, he does not say this in his book, he has taken pains to make his process plain for MULTINATIONALS but you read fully you will know it is not less than a work of GENIUS. The 6 hats are 6 colour, namely WHITE, RED, BLACK, YELLOW GREEN, BLUE. These 6 hats and colours not DESCRIPTIONS but DIRECTIONS of thinking.In a board of directors meeting, we usually act according to our personality and prejudice, but if we apply 6 hats method by wearing the hats or assuming its symbolic meanings we start to see within ourselves qualities of thinking we thought we did not possess. He has taken pains to highlight the drawbacks in bullet proofing the argument method, which is the normal western culture prevalent method everywhere since Socrates, Pluto etc.,WHITE = FACTS AND FIGURESRED = RAGE AND EMOTIONSBLACK = CAUTION AND CAREFULYELLOW = OPTIMISTIC AND POSITIVEGREEN = CREATIVE AND NEW IDEASBLUE = DIRECTOR OF THINKING PROCESS.I can just see 15 people sitting instead of playing a game of one-upmanship and exploring their ego trips, they are all looking in the same direction and looking to solve the issue, it is always better to have 15 brains destroying a problem than one brain flip flopping to deal with it. This is a fantastic liberating scientific concept. Don’t be fooled by the dwelling of book on board meetings, it gives you many do’s and don’ts for thinking directions.But according to common man (me) this concept has wide applications, Dr.Debono could not write about all of its applications in a small book of 171 pages. Let me tell you this concept can beapplied by College principals, school teachers, they put their minds together to make their school top of the nation, 6 hats can make a father apply this method to become best father of this world, 6 hats can make a wife apply this liberating science of thinking and she never has to stoop to conquer. A municipal commissioner can apply it, with his staff, he can make his city the best in the world. It does not stop there a parliament can apply this concept and nobody will ever have to throw chairs or tables at the opposition, the parliament can make their country top of the world, this is a tool for better governance.A vision is seen in seconds and it takes a lifetime to find applications for it. 6 hats thinkingwill utilize the best of abilities of each individual present in solving the problems of unemployment, hunger, Iraq crisis, Palestine issue, racism, prejudice, environment, rainforest,energy shortage, everything under the sun. Remember the world around us and the things we see were initially a IDEA in our thinking BRAIN.Please understand the all genesis is an IDEA and will to apply it. The LORD thought of creating the world and it came into being, we humans thought of TAJ MAHAL and made it. We thought of PETRA, SPINEX, LUXOR, AMERICA all these things in the beginning were mere thoughts and they became a reality.This book teaches us a brand new way of thinking, it liberates our thinking from old responses and teaches us parallel thinking, I am not bothered about what name academically can be given to it. The concept of 6 hats to me is a path breaker and path maker for individuals, groups. bodies boards, governments, commissions, faculties, universities and above and over them all is the billion strong group of common men.I strongly recommend reading of 6 thinking hats to every citizen of our planet earth, practice its art of thinking, you will come out a better person, better son, better employee, better businessman, better president, better colonel, better general, better administrator and a better common man.In our global world individual benefits do not count, they must be shunned like cancer looking at the full globe makes our problems many and much bigger to tackle, my home is where my globe is, as humans we have a duty to solve everything, after discovery of DNA we are made all equal and belonging to ONE SPECIES, move aside Dr.Darwin you have mislead your generation, we can put out the fire burning in different corners of our GLOBE by thinking WHITE, RED, GREEN, YELLOW, BLACK AND BLUE. We have mastered many arts, now we have reached the frontier to master the art of BEING A HUMAN AGAIN.Yo! Initially everything around us was a mere thought in its genesis. So think well.
—Syed Misbahuddin
