Lateral Thinking

In the name of Allah The Beneficent The Merciful

According to De Bono, lateral thinking is creative thinking process.  It is aimed at producing new ideas through thinking out of the box .... instead of digging the same whole deeper, it attempts to dig different holes. Lateral thinking

• aims at producing alternatives which are original, novel, beyond the common
• is non-sequential...does not follow the regular sequence but jump out of the ordinary 
• is thinking outside of the logical progressive sequence into divergent pathways that might seem wrong
• is directing attention to different focus of concern

Parallel Thinking

Thinking process which is focused on solving the same problem or thinking about the same thing at any moment of time.  Meaning, all members in thinking session are trying to find alternatives to solve the same problem.  The focus of thinking changes one after another.  In parallel thinking, all views presented by the members of thinking session are put down in parallel...no judgment and ranking on ideas...

Introduced by De Bono in 1985.  It explores problem or object of thought in multiple perspectives and concerns primarily with 'what can be' instead of 'what is'.  Parallel thinking deals with one issue or one object at a time.

Six Thinking Hats

Based on parallel thinking, a lateral thinking tool.

A tool for effective meetings, problem solving, decision making, producing new ideas, design evaluation

can be used for personal purposes, in school, in business and in families for solving problems and making decisions

Different colored hats help ensuring members thinking on the same issues ... helps in parallel thinking  

Directions of thinking can be identified by the color of the hat

The members in thinking session wear only 1 hat at a time

Benefits of 6 Thinking Hats

• Decisions seem to make themselves
• Focused thinking
• Improved exploration
• Improved creativity & innovation
• Foster collaborative thinking
• Provides a common language
• Helps people work against type, preference
• Removal of ego from decisions (reduce confrontation)
• Allows a switch in thinking without threatening ego

Blue Hat

• Blue hat is unique as it thinks about thinking
• Control or organization of thinking process
• Thinking sessions usually begin & end with blue hat
• Normally, session leader uses blue hat
• Instructions for thinking
• Controls the sequence or use of other hats
• Brings in discipline and focus
• Saves time

Open with The Blue Hat

• Why are we here?
• What are we thinking about?
• Definition of the situation or problem
• The background to the thinking
• What we want to achieve?
• Where we want to end up?
• A plan for the sequence of hats
• Time for each hat session and time allowed for each individual

Close with The Blue Hat

• What have we achieved?
• What decision have we reached?
• What do we do next?
• Summarizes the following: 
    Outcome
    Conclusion
    Design
    Solution
    Next steps

White Hat

• Neutral, objective information
• Facts & figures
• Two tiers of facts -Believed Facts & Checked Facts
• Excludes one’s own opinions, hunches, judgments
• Removes feelings & impressions
• Report of opinion of someone else

Questions to be asked & answered under White hat:

• What information / facts do we know?
• What information is missing?
• What information / facts would we like to have?
• How are we going to get the information?
• What is relevant?
• What is most important?
• How valid is this?

Red Hat

• Emotions & feelings influence thinking & red hat acknowledges this fact
• Emotions come in three ways: Background emotions such as fear, anger, hatred, love etc. ,Initial perceptions (eg. having insulted by someone etc.), Emotions after a map of situations has been put together Hunches, intuitions, impressions
• Doesn’t have to be logical or consistent
• No justifications, reasons or basis

Questions to be asked & answered under Red hat:

• How do I feel about this right now?
• How cold or warm do I feel about this?
• How am I reacting to this?

Black Hat

• Cautious and careful
• Logical negative –why it won’t work?
• Critical judgment, pessimistic view
• Separates logical negative from emotional
• Focus on errors, evidence, conclusions
• Worst-case scenarios

Questions to be asked & answered under Black hat:

• Is this true?
• Will it work?
• Why it won’t work?
• What are the weaknesses?
• What is wrong with it? 

Yellow Hat

• Positive & speculative
• Positive thinking, optimism, opportunity
• Benefits
• Best-case scenarios

Questions to be asked & answered under Yellow hat:

• What are the good points?
• What are the benefits?
• Why will this idea work?
• Why is this worth doing?
• How will it help us?
• Why can it be done?

Green Hat

• New ideas, concepts, perceptions
• Deliberate creation of new ideas
• Alternatives and more alternatives
• New approaches to problems

Creative & lateral thinking Questions to be asked & answered under Green hat:

• What are some possible ways to work this out?
• What are some other ways to solve the problem?