WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.840 Today, we're going to explore together the six thinking styles you need for innovation. 2 00:00:07.840 --> 00:00:13.900 This is one of the most powerful brainstorming techniques and it's the most thorough way 3 00:00:13.900 --> 00:00:16.960 that I know of to think about any problem. 4 00:00:16.960 --> 00:00:22.840 You're literally going to think about the problem with six different thinking styles. 5 00:00:22.840 --> 00:00:25.040 This is a very, very powerful concept. 6 00:00:25.040 --> 00:00:28.720 I've used it in non-profits and I've used it also in business. 7 00:00:28.720 --> 00:00:30.680 So let's get right into it. 8 00:00:30.680 --> 00:00:36.420 This works in every single industry and the concept of the six hats was originally created 9 00:00:36.420 --> 00:00:37.800 by Edward de Bono. 10 00:00:37.800 --> 00:00:43.400 Now this was an English philosopher and has been used all over the world. 11 00:00:43.400 --> 00:00:48.880 And what he proposed is if each of us imagine that we're putting on six different color 12 00:00:48.880 --> 00:00:54.000 hats and each hat color represents a different thinking style. 13 00:00:54.000 --> 00:00:55.640 Let me get right into it and explain. 14 00:00:55.640 --> 00:00:58.520 So we're going to frame up a topic. 15 00:00:58.520 --> 00:01:03.200 Let's say we're brainstorming a solution to a particular problem in the business. 16 00:01:03.200 --> 00:01:08.320 So what's so powerful about this tool is you can explain it in five minutes to somebody. 17 00:01:08.320 --> 00:01:11.160 Everybody can jump in and do it immediately. 18 00:01:11.160 --> 00:01:13.940 This is a very straightforward way to understand. 19 00:01:13.940 --> 00:01:17.500 So the first colored hat we're going to do is the white hat. 20 00:01:17.500 --> 00:01:21.280 So think of a scientist's lab coat. 21 00:01:21.280 --> 00:01:26.880 Think about what are the facts, the figures, the actual objective information that we need. 22 00:01:26.880 --> 00:01:30.520 So this white hat is called the information hat. 23 00:01:30.520 --> 00:01:34.840 So let's say we have a chart on the board or maybe you're taking notes online together 24 00:01:34.840 --> 00:01:38.520 and we all together brainstorm all the information. 25 00:01:38.520 --> 00:01:40.120 What are the key questions here? 26 00:01:40.120 --> 00:01:43.040 They're like what facts do we know? 27 00:01:43.040 --> 00:01:44.400 What do we not know? 28 00:01:44.400 --> 00:01:46.560 What trends do we observe? 29 00:01:46.560 --> 00:01:51.780 So this is a very factual hat in which we're trying to get everything we know about the 30 00:01:51.780 --> 00:01:54.520 topic up on the board. 31 00:01:54.520 --> 00:01:56.400 The next is the black hat. 32 00:01:56.920 --> 00:01:59.300 Think of a judge's robe. 33 00:01:59.300 --> 00:02:01.480 This is the caution hat. 34 00:02:01.480 --> 00:02:04.240 This is the logical negative hat. 35 00:02:04.240 --> 00:02:09.080 Now many of us, the minute we put up an idea, all the black hat thinkers normally want to 36 00:02:09.080 --> 00:02:10.080 jump right in. 37 00:02:10.080 --> 00:02:13.160 So here now we're all going to be black hat. 38 00:02:13.160 --> 00:02:18.800 We're all going to say now this is the hat in which we're looking at the logical negative 39 00:02:18.800 --> 00:02:19.800 things. 40 00:02:19.800 --> 00:02:24.120 What may be illegal, immoral, unrealistic, may not work. 41 00:02:24.120 --> 00:02:25.640 What are the key questions? 42 00:02:25.640 --> 00:02:29.440 The key questions are like what are the downside risks of doing this? 43 00:02:29.440 --> 00:02:32.040 You know, what's the worst case scenario? 44 00:02:32.040 --> 00:02:34.960 What are the implications of getting this wrong? 45 00:02:34.960 --> 00:02:39.000 You know, we could really just screw up all our customers with this. 46 00:02:39.000 --> 00:02:45.680 We could destroy the or lose the momentum of what we've already got going on if we implement 47 00:02:45.680 --> 00:02:46.680 this new hat. 48 00:02:46.680 --> 00:02:51.280 So this is the hat in which we get all the negative stuff out on the board. 49 00:02:51.280 --> 00:02:54.960 So we all wear the black hat and we get the negative stuff done. 50 00:02:54.960 --> 00:02:56.200 The next one is the red hat. 51 00:02:56.200 --> 00:02:58.560 Now this is not a logical hat. 52 00:02:58.560 --> 00:02:59.800 Think of a heart. 53 00:02:59.800 --> 00:03:02.080 This represents intuition. 54 00:03:02.080 --> 00:03:05.400 It covers the feelings and emotions we have. 55 00:03:05.400 --> 00:03:10.780 Often this is informed by our experience, our gut feel, just what we think. 56 00:03:10.780 --> 00:03:16.760 Now the cool thing about this, when you make these proposals, nobody can cause you to justify. 57 00:03:16.760 --> 00:03:19.440 You do not need to justify why. 58 00:03:19.440 --> 00:03:24.520 You could say something like, I think we should charge, you know, no more than $20 a month 59 00:03:24.600 --> 00:03:31.240 for that without any reason or logic, just your intuition, your gut feel. 60 00:03:31.240 --> 00:03:34.760 Nobody's going to pay more than $20, whether you're right or wrong about it. 61 00:03:34.760 --> 00:03:36.680 It's not about logic. 62 00:03:36.680 --> 00:03:38.240 It's just about your experience. 63 00:03:38.240 --> 00:03:43.800 So key questions here are things like, what does experience teach about this? 64 00:03:43.800 --> 00:03:45.560 You know, how do we really feel? 65 00:03:45.560 --> 00:03:47.280 What's our intuition about this from? 66 00:03:47.280 --> 00:03:53.120 So this is just the heart, you speaking about what you think will and won't work. 67 00:03:53.120 --> 00:03:54.440 Then we move to the yellow hat. 68 00:03:55.360 --> 00:03:58.120 Now this is, think of sunshine and happiness. 69 00:03:58.120 --> 00:04:00.040 This is the possibility hat. 70 00:04:00.040 --> 00:04:02.240 You know, what if we pull this off? 71 00:04:02.240 --> 00:04:05.760 This is the logical, positive hat. 72 00:04:05.760 --> 00:04:11.800 What if this new possibility could not only work, what would be the amazing benefits? 73 00:04:11.800 --> 00:04:16.560 So some of the key questions we're asking ourselves are things like, you know, what 74 00:04:16.560 --> 00:04:19.240 if this possibility actually worked? 75 00:04:19.240 --> 00:04:20.440 What if we pulled this off? 76 00:04:20.440 --> 00:04:23.160 What would that do for our business? 77 00:04:23.160 --> 00:04:24.480 What are the advantages? 78 00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:26.880 What could be the best possible outcome? 79 00:04:26.880 --> 00:04:29.720 So everybody puts on yellow hat. 80 00:04:29.720 --> 00:04:31.560 Everybody shares the information. 81 00:04:31.560 --> 00:04:33.000 Then we move to green hat. 82 00:04:33.000 --> 00:04:35.840 Now the green hat is not a logical hat. 83 00:04:35.840 --> 00:04:39.080 It's a creative hat and we call it the creativity hat. 84 00:04:39.080 --> 00:04:42.800 Think of green grass and it's all growing sort of sideways. 85 00:04:42.800 --> 00:04:45.400 This is the lateral thinking hat. 86 00:04:45.400 --> 00:04:48.960 You know, the out of the box or maybe there is no box hat. 87 00:04:48.960 --> 00:04:54.080 This is the hat in which we, you know, we think what crazy, off the wall, provocative 88 00:04:54.080 --> 00:04:55.960 idea have we not tried yet? 89 00:04:55.960 --> 00:04:57.720 So here's what we're really trying to do. 90 00:04:57.720 --> 00:05:00.000 You know, what, what would be a complete. 91 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:02.600 a new, fresh, innovative way. 92 00:05:02.600 --> 00:05:05.760 What crazy idea have we not even put on the board yet? 93 00:05:05.760 --> 00:05:08.080 And so this hat could literally be, 94 00:05:08.080 --> 00:05:09.360 you're sitting there thinking, 95 00:05:09.360 --> 00:05:11.340 you look, you see it's 10 o'clock, 96 00:05:11.340 --> 00:05:13.480 you're thinking of, oh, 10 Downing Street, 97 00:05:13.480 --> 00:05:16.080 oh, we should invite the English prime minister 98 00:05:16.080 --> 00:05:17.560 to our conference, you know. 99 00:05:17.560 --> 00:05:21.640 It's that kind of loosely connected, very creative hat. 100 00:05:21.640 --> 00:05:24.000 Now what's amazing is somebody's throwing on these hats, 101 00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:28.200 we do not need to justify any how crazy the idea is. 102 00:05:28.200 --> 00:05:30.520 Like, well, the English prime minister 103 00:05:30.520 --> 00:05:32.440 would never come and speak at our event. 104 00:05:32.440 --> 00:05:34.640 That's got nothing to do with the reality 105 00:05:34.640 --> 00:05:39.640 or the realisticness of the particular idea. 106 00:05:39.720 --> 00:05:42.080 Here's where we just get all the creative ideas out. 107 00:05:42.080 --> 00:05:43.800 And finally, the blue hat. 108 00:05:43.800 --> 00:05:45.040 This is the management hat. 109 00:05:45.040 --> 00:05:47.640 Think of a blue sky, an overview, 110 00:05:47.640 --> 00:05:50.280 this is where we land the plane. 111 00:05:50.280 --> 00:05:53.280 This is the process hat, the control hat. 112 00:05:53.280 --> 00:05:57.280 Now typically, this is us thinking about our thinking. 113 00:05:57.280 --> 00:05:59.680 So now we have to prioritize ideas, 114 00:05:59.680 --> 00:06:00.920 we have to summarize this, 115 00:06:00.920 --> 00:06:04.160 we have to put this down to a plan. 116 00:06:04.160 --> 00:06:06.720 What we do in our company is we now have 117 00:06:06.720 --> 00:06:09.280 all the different ideas from all the different hats 118 00:06:09.280 --> 00:06:13.280 up on the board, we're seeing it all at the same time, 119 00:06:13.280 --> 00:06:16.260 and everybody gets to pick two. 120 00:06:16.260 --> 00:06:19.400 If it's a very complex issue, we may say pick three. 121 00:06:19.400 --> 00:06:22.240 And we literally add up everybody's scores, 122 00:06:22.240 --> 00:06:25.840 everybody gets a vote, and then with the top two items, 123 00:06:25.840 --> 00:06:28.320 or the top three items, if it's a big topic, 124 00:06:28.320 --> 00:06:30.960 are the ones we prioritize to go and execute on. 125 00:06:30.960 --> 00:06:34.520 So think of this as the management or the execution hat. 126 00:06:34.520 --> 00:06:36.440 How many of you have been 127 00:06:36.440 --> 00:06:39.000 in a particular brainstorming session, 128 00:06:39.000 --> 00:06:41.680 you came up with all these great ideas, 129 00:06:41.680 --> 00:06:44.000 somebody sent out some notes of the meeting, 130 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:46.120 and nothing ever happened? 131 00:06:46.120 --> 00:06:49.480 Well, the blue hat stops that from happening. 132 00:06:49.480 --> 00:06:51.200 So going back to the blue hat, 133 00:06:51.200 --> 00:06:54.960 here's what we're looking for in a summary of them all. 134 00:06:54.960 --> 00:06:58.480 So you really could categorize these hats 135 00:06:58.480 --> 00:07:00.640 into three main compartments, 136 00:07:00.640 --> 00:07:05.440 critical thinking, creative thinking, and metacognition. 137 00:07:05.440 --> 00:07:08.440 That just means thinking about your thinking, right? 138 00:07:08.440 --> 00:07:12.640 So critical, creative, metacognition. 139 00:07:12.640 --> 00:07:15.840 And so the white hat and the black hat 140 00:07:15.840 --> 00:07:18.780 are our critical thinking hats. 141 00:07:18.780 --> 00:07:21.040 They're what are the information, what are the facts, 142 00:07:21.040 --> 00:07:22.320 what could go wrong? 143 00:07:22.320 --> 00:07:26.120 The creative ones are that intuition red hat 144 00:07:26.120 --> 00:07:28.120 that's not necessarily logical, 145 00:07:28.120 --> 00:07:32.040 it's a hat which lays out very specifically and says, 146 00:07:32.040 --> 00:07:34.960 this is what my experience tells me. 147 00:07:34.960 --> 00:07:37.320 The yellow hat is the logical positive, 148 00:07:37.320 --> 00:07:39.560 the sunshine hat, what if we pull it off? 149 00:07:39.560 --> 00:07:42.000 And of course, the metacognition hats 150 00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:45.280 are the completely off the wall green hat, 151 00:07:45.280 --> 00:07:48.280 lateral thinking, and then we land the plane. 152 00:07:48.280 --> 00:07:49.480 We think about our thinking, 153 00:07:49.480 --> 00:07:52.000 we think about which ones we're gonna execute on, 154 00:07:52.680 --> 00:07:55.640 we pick two and we go and execute. 155 00:07:55.640 --> 00:07:58.260 Now that's just a really fun way to think. 156 00:07:58.260 --> 00:08:00.440 Now, if you're leading a Six Hats, 157 00:08:00.440 --> 00:08:01.560 you say, well, I'm not a leader. 158 00:08:01.560 --> 00:08:04.360 Well, remember, we're a team of leaders. 159 00:08:04.360 --> 00:08:06.700 So you can literally do this with your family 160 00:08:06.700 --> 00:08:10.520 for a vacation, you can pull one or two team members 161 00:08:10.520 --> 00:08:11.640 together and do this. 162 00:08:11.640 --> 00:08:13.640 If you lead a Six Hats session, 163 00:08:13.640 --> 00:08:18.640 here are some practical tips for a Six Hats session. 164 00:08:18.680 --> 00:08:22.280 You know, these Six Hats works best 165 00:08:22.280 --> 00:08:24.720 for people who are natural blue hat thinkers, 166 00:08:24.720 --> 00:08:26.800 people who are naturally good at the overview, 167 00:08:26.800 --> 00:08:29.800 but anybody could lead one, but just be aware. 168 00:08:29.800 --> 00:08:32.000 Number two, frame up your session. 169 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:35.120 Say, hey, today we're gonna do a Six Hats session 170 00:08:35.120 --> 00:08:38.340 on, and give it a topic, just frame up the problem. 171 00:08:39.280 --> 00:08:42.080 Next, capture each hat on a separate page, 172 00:08:42.080 --> 00:08:44.120 whether you're doing this electronically, 173 00:08:44.120 --> 00:08:46.780 on a whiteboard, or some sort of flip chart, 174 00:08:46.780 --> 00:08:48.360 or something you stick up on the wall, 175 00:08:49.080 --> 00:08:51.040 whatever it is, make sure that each hat 176 00:08:51.040 --> 00:08:54.560 gets its own space so that people can look 177 00:08:54.560 --> 00:08:57.000 at those things and participate. 178 00:08:57.000 --> 00:09:01.000 Then participation for each hat has to come from everyone. 179 00:09:01.000 --> 00:09:04.140 In other words, everybody puts on white hat, 180 00:09:04.140 --> 00:09:07.600 everybody contributes, everybody puts on black hat, 181 00:09:07.600 --> 00:09:09.440 everybody contributes. 182 00:09:09.440 --> 00:09:11.960 So that's really, really important. 183 00:09:11.960 --> 00:09:15.120 Now, if you're leading it, there may be a temptation 184 00:09:15.120 --> 00:09:17.640 to go too quickly through the hats. 185 00:09:17.960 --> 00:09:20.560 Here's what I have found, is that typically 186 00:09:20.560 --> 00:09:22.800 the ideas come in waves, right? 187 00:09:22.800 --> 00:09:27.040 So the first wave would be all the sort of obvious, 188 00:09:27.040 --> 00:09:29.360 natural things one might think of, 189 00:09:29.360 --> 00:09:32.300 and often there's this moment of silence, 190 00:09:32.300 --> 00:09:35.800 and if you will let that awkward silence 191 00:09:35.800 --> 00:09:39.040 linger for a bit, then usually in the second, 192 00:09:39.040 --> 00:09:43.360 or even the third wave, is where the really good ideas come. 193 00:09:43.360 --> 00:09:46.900 So we wanna allow for free thinking. 194 00:09:47.420 --> 00:09:50.540 If you're leading a session, be careful 195 00:09:50.540 --> 00:09:54.260 that we don't make comments, or don't allow comments 196 00:09:54.260 --> 00:09:56.060 on each other's thoughts. 197 00:09:56.060 --> 00:09:57.780 In other words, if somebody says something, 198 00:09:57.780 --> 00:10:00.380 somebody else can't say, well, that's impractical. 199 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:05.840 we'll never do that. We don't start to interact and start to feel like we have 200 00:10:05.840 --> 00:10:11.240 to justify. Nobody needs to justify their ideas and nobody else gets to comment on 201 00:10:11.240 --> 00:10:16.760 anyone's ideas. But we can use each other's ideas to spark new ideas. So you 202 00:10:16.760 --> 00:10:21.600 want to allow this free thinking. Now what you're going to find, that when you 203 00:10:21.600 --> 00:10:25.040 do a six hat session the first time around, you're going to have to walk 204 00:10:25.040 --> 00:10:29.280 through, maybe play this video to all the participants. But once you get into it 205 00:10:29.280 --> 00:10:33.640 you're going to become addicted to this way of thinking. Because most of us 206 00:10:33.640 --> 00:10:38.760 typically spend most of our thinking time in one or two hats. We might call 207 00:10:38.760 --> 00:10:44.160 these sort of our primary and our secondary hats. So as a fun extra 208 00:10:44.160 --> 00:10:50.440 exercise, so this is completely extra, you might want to do a simple little view. So 209 00:10:50.440 --> 00:10:54.720 think about the hats, right, and ask yourself what do you think is your 210 00:10:54.720 --> 00:11:00.960 primary and your secondary hat. That's really fun. Go around the room, share with 211 00:11:00.960 --> 00:11:06.720 each other and say well you know I am a blue green hat thinker. I'm blue 212 00:11:06.720 --> 00:11:10.800 hat first, my primary, I'm always looking at the overview, what are the practical 213 00:11:10.800 --> 00:11:15.480 plans, how do we execute this. And then green hat, I'm very creative, I like to 214 00:11:15.480 --> 00:11:20.120 think outside the box. Or maybe you're a black white thinker, right. Your first 215 00:11:20.120 --> 00:11:23.800 thought is to say, think of the negative things that can go wrong. These are not 216 00:11:23.880 --> 00:11:30.080 bad, these are just different thinking styles. So why don't you take a 217 00:11:30.080 --> 00:11:34.400 minute, go around the room and share with each other about what you feel is your 218 00:11:34.400 --> 00:11:40.000 primary and secondary hat. A quick word of caution about that is, you know, other 219 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:44.760 people may see you one way, you may see yourself differently. Because people only 220 00:11:44.760 --> 00:11:50.160 know you in a work context. So while you in your personal life may be a 221 00:11:51.000 --> 00:11:56.440 a white black thinker, someone else might see you as a yellow black hat or 222 00:11:56.440 --> 00:12:00.960 whatever it is. So I just bring that up because a lot of times people say well 223 00:12:00.960 --> 00:12:04.840 that's not how I see myself. Because you see yourself in your whole life, 224 00:12:04.840 --> 00:12:09.960 your team only sees you in the context of your own team. So as you're going 225 00:12:09.960 --> 00:12:15.400 through that together, it is fun exercise. Now if you want to take that fun 226 00:12:15.400 --> 00:12:19.480 exercise to the next level, what you could do is create this simple sheet 227 00:12:19.600 --> 00:12:24.760 which we'll provide. And what you do is, on the left column, you check 228 00:12:24.760 --> 00:12:29.400 your own primary and secondary hat. And then everybody in your team fills out 229 00:12:29.400 --> 00:12:34.680 that same sheet for you. So that means everybody goes around and says, well I 230 00:12:34.680 --> 00:12:39.280 thought you were, you know, a yellow blue or a blue yellow or blue whatever. And 231 00:12:39.280 --> 00:12:44.640 everybody goes around and it's amazing feedback to see how your team sees you. 232 00:12:44.680 --> 00:12:50.560 Again, this is not a scientific test. This is just a fun conversation on how 233 00:12:50.560 --> 00:12:55.920 we see ourselves. Obviously a very subjective process. But it is very useful 234 00:12:55.920 --> 00:13:02.240 to see how you're perceived by your team versus how you perceive yourself. So I 235 00:13:02.240 --> 00:13:08.480 hope that you found the six hats not only useful but a lot of fun to do. By 236 00:13:08.480 --> 00:13:13.640 the way, this is the quickest way, not just the most thorough way, of thinking 237 00:13:13.640 --> 00:13:19.400 through any problem. You should be able to, in 20 or 40 minutes, get through all 238 00:13:19.400 --> 00:13:26.160 six hats and land the plane, pick two things and execute. Enjoy!