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 Over-juggling
The only reason the book doesn't get five stars is for the rather straight forward - get to the point writing style. Nevertheless the concepts in the book are phenomenal! This book should be required reading for everyone ages twelve and up.
The book has a strong business management focus. However, it can be easily applied to about any aspect of life. As a missionary with no business background thinking skills are essential. The book was a true blessing.
As de Bono states, "We try to do too much at once. Emotions, information, logic, hope and creativity all crowd in on us. It is like juggling with too many balls."
If you desire to be a better thinker this book is a must!
"Usually, the only people who are very satisfied with their thinking skill are those poor thinkers who believe that the purpose of thinking is to prove yourself right - to your own satisfaction."
Still looking for a yellow hat.. lol
This book shows the proper approach to any meeting... Keeping a meeting flowing with less distraction saves money and time.. it also allows for more control, better communication and thought process. When brain storming staying focused and keeping that focus with a large group can get difficult... this book will help by use of the hat process...
 Thinking, no...parliamentary procedure, yes
If you're looking for a book which will give you new ideas into the thinking process, Six Thinking Hats really misses the mark. The concept it introduces is more of a procedure that's used in larger groups to guide the discussion. It shows an interesting way of leading a group discussion. As a moderator's guide, it would work well. If you're moderating a large group discussion, it's easier to say "take off your black hat and replace it with a yellow hat" than to say "your negativity is distracting the group and keeping us off point". Interestingly, the blue hat is the control hat, and represents what a moderator would do. However, there is very little material on the blue hat. That seems sort of at odds with the message of the book.
Also, the author really engages in hyperbole saying how great the six hats are. The most interesting hat is the green hat, as under the green hat all ideas are valid and creativity can flourish. Regrettably, in the chapters on the green hat the author strays off topic and goes into detail about the various phrases he coined, and how they got introduced into the dictionary, etc. The self-admiration gets distracting at times. To sum up, this is not a how-to guide on thinking, innovation or creativity. Where it is valuable is in offering a procedure on guiding workshops or large groups, where the ultimate result is (hopefully) great ideas. A worthwhile read, yes - but not quite as groundbreaking as the author indicates.
Makes you Want to Take a Test Drvie
I'm finding Dr. De Bono's book very easy to read. Sometimes simple concepts can be profound, and I think this is an example. I am inspired to take his recommnedations on a test drive.
Watch out for Dr. De Bono's explanation of creativity. That's the only part so far that leaves me feeling like I missed something.
Jean Franzblau
Jean Franzblau Consulting
Seminars for Top Notch Assistants
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Best book to avoid argument on meeting
The Six Thinking Hats concept from this book is very simple to understand. It is also very simple to use in real life application because "No matter how good we become, we should always want to be better." - Edward de Bono. In Six Thinking Hats the author presents a simple but effective way to become a better thinker. He separates thinking into six distinct modes, represented by six colored "thinking hats". White hat talks about facts, figures, and objective information Red deals with emotions and feelings Black hat deals with logical negative thoughts, Yellow hat deals with positive constructive thoughts, green with creativity and new ideas and lastly Blue deals with control of the other hats and thinking steps. With the different parts of the thinking process thus clearly defined, discussions can be better focuses and more productive. Using real-life situations as examples, Dr de Bono creates scenarios that show how the effective use of "thinking hats" save a lot of time on argument during meeting and lead to more creative thinking, improve communication and thus decision making. Using this method many big companies reduced the time taken for multinational project discussions from thirty days to just two days. Thinking hats other purpose is to eliminate argument which is inefficient, ineffective and extremely slow. Argument was never designed to be constructive. The parallel thinking of the Six Hats method is rapidly replacing argument around the world. Six Thinking Hats clearly illustrates why they have found his ideas essential for their management techniques. This book is simple and easy to read with not so many pages. I really recommend this book.
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