TACTICS FOR GREATER CURIOSITYOpenness to People's Ideas

OPENNESS TO People's IdeasPossessing an attitude about experiences with a preference for variety, aesthetic appreciation, and attentiveness to distinctions in the world and internally; embracing one’s own new ideas and the ideas of others.

TACTIC | What works: Curious Perspectives

What the experts say

The Six Thinking Hats® technique is a simple, effective thinking strategy for decision-making and innovative thought processes. The model serves as a teaching method for developing creative thinking by presenting and systematizing thoughts within a specific structure. Each thinking role is identified with a colored symbolic “thinking hat” (i.e. the yellow hat symbol-izes brightness and optimism; under this hat you explore the positives and probe for value and benefit). By mentally wearing and switching “hats”, participants are prompted to mindfully change their perspectives on evaluating an idea, leading to openness and innovation. Furthermore, having diverse mindsets and out of the box ideas stimulates curious thinking and innovative solutions. The system was developed by Dr. Edward de Bono, a world-renowned physician, psychologist, inventor, and consultant. It has been used successfully in a variety of fields and countries, and has been praised by psychologistsand researchers.

What you’ll do

The Six Thinking Hats® technique can be used to work through any problem or idea, and leads to increased organizational curiosity. There are six different hats that an individual can put on or take off (these can be imaginary or actual hats). Each has a different color, which represents a unique way of thinking.

White hat thinking is information based thinking and concerns facts and figures.

Yellow hat thinking is positive and constructive thinking.

Green hat thinking is creative thinking that generates new ideas and solutions.

Black hat thinking uses experience to question the feasibility of ideas.

Red hat thinking allows individuals to express their feelings and emotions about a topic.

Blue hat thinking is used to plan and control the thinking activity itself.

A large U.K. civil service organization conducted a study of how Six Thinking Hats® affected employee performance. Researchers found that participants significantly improved their creativity, knowledge, attitudes and workplace idea generation and implementation. The environmental factors of management support and divisional climate strengthened the effect. Further, researchers conclude that the training could be enhanced by using real-world organi-zational problems to increase the fidelity of training tasks, action plans to help employees engage more systematically with later innovation processes and public discussion of strate-gies to overcome barriers to skill application.

The Six Thinking Hats® technique is a simple, effective thinking strategy for decision-making Amongst other outcomes, the Six Thinking Hats® technique is shown to: • Maximize productive collaboration• Generate more and better ideas and solutions• Stimulate innovation by generating more and better ideas quickly• View problems from new and unusual angles• Go beyond the obvious to discover effective alternate solutions

The Six Thinking Hats® technique is a simple, effective thinking strategy for decision-making and innovative thought processes. The model serves as a teaching method for developing creative thinking by presenting and systematizing thoughts within a specific structure. Each thinking role is identified with a colored symbolic “thinking hat” (i.e. the yellow hat symboliz es brightness and optimism; under this hat you explore the positives and probe for value and benefit). By mentally wearing and switching “hats”, participants are prompted to mindfully change their perspectives on evaluating an idea, leading to openness and innovation. Furthermore, having diverse mindsets and out of the box ideas stimulates curious thinking and innovative solutions. The system was developed by Dr. Edward de Bono, a world-re-nowned physician, psychologist, inventor, and consultant. It has been used successfully in a variety of fields and countries, and has been praised by psychologists and researchers.

BLUE HAT - Process • Thinking about thinking.• What thinking is needed?• Organizing the thinking.• Planning for action.

WHITE HAT - Facts• Information and data.• Neutral and objective.• What do I know?• What do I need to find out?• How will I get the information I need?

RED HAT - Feelings

• Intuition, hunches, gut instinct.• My feelings right now.• Feelings can change. No reasons are given.

GREEN HAT - Creativity

• Ideas, alternatives, possibilities.• Solutions to black hat problems.

YELLOW HAT - Benefits• Positives, plus points.• Why an idea is useful.• Logical reasons are given.

BLACK HAT - Cautions

• Difficulties, weaknesses, dangers.• Spotting the risks.• Logical reasons are given.

Decide on the method. Decide if you want to use this technique individually if you want to use it within a group. Individually, you can apply a perspective or hat to your subject focus and then rotate to the next hat. In groups, the method can be applied in two ways. (1) Everyone wears the same hat at the same time. Then, the group as a whole rotates to a new hat and thinks about the topic from a new perspective. (2) Or participants wear different hats and think independently, then discuss as a team and rotate role.

Agree on the subject focus. Decide on a topic by elaborating on a specific definition for it, and thinking about how to maintain focus on the subject matter.

Prepare. Organize and outline key facts and figures, data, and information sources to then comprehensively evaluate the topic.

Gather information. Gather information that is useful for each way of thinking.

• Blue hat – controls the thinking process; all are expected to use the bluehat throughout the session.

• White hat – establish the facts.• Red hat – feelings, emotions, hunches, instincts.• Green hat – creative ways of attaining the intended objective; new ideas

and approaches.• Yellow hat – what are the positives of the end objective the team seeks

to attain? What does success look like? What are the pros of a course ofaction?

• Black hat – what needs to be fixed? What does the team have to becareful of? What must be avoided, controlled, and managed?

Understand the information gathered. Think about the information gathered through the different perspectives. The information may be structured by categories and filters and synthesized in an action plan.

Decide the solution. Collect, organize, and evaluate the information from the various thinking perspectives to gather insight and decide on the best way forward.

Additional tips: The method is more impactful when using real-world, relevant topics, problems, and ideas. The technique relates to thought processes, and can thus be applied informally in all contexts and even in meetings.

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What you'll need Poster or visual representation of 6 hats (readily available online), paper.

References

Birdi, K.S. (2005). No idea? Evaluating the effectiveness of creativity training. Journalof European Industrial Training; 2005, 29, 2/3; pp. 102.

De Bono Group (2016). Six Thinking Hats. The de Bono Group, LLC. 2016. Retrieved from http://www.debonogroup.com/six_thinking_hats.php

Karadag, Mevlude; Saritas, Serdar and Erginer, Ergin (2009). Using the 'Six Thinking Hats' Model of Learning in a Surgical Nursing Class: Sharing the Experience and Student Opinions [online]. Australian Journal of Advanced Nursing, 26(3), 59-69.

Sheth (2012). Six Thinking Hats. Asian Journal of Management Research, 2(2), 814-820. Springub, C. (2012).

6 Ideas to promote innovation in your workplace this year. Forbes, Retrieved fromhttp://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2012/12/31/6-ideas-to-pro-mote-innovation-in- your-workplace-this-year/

University of Pittsburgh (2016). Marketing, Planning, and Strategy – Oakland Campus: Thinking Hats.

University of Pittsburgh Course & Subject Guides. 30 September 2016. Retrievedfrom http://pitt.libguides.com/scenarioplanning/thinkinghats