Edward de Bono – A master thinker who can help us
In the 90s, I experienced and got to know Edward de Bono at a future day in Düsseldorf in Germany.
Now Edward de Bono is a worldwide well known master thinker who has made his mark with many creative ideas.
His 6 – colours – thinking ( 6 thinking hats ) – made visible with the help of 6 different coloured hats – impressed me the most and this technique helps out of many complexity traps: How many meetings are lengthy or end in arguments and you don’t find a satisfactory end or have to adjourn because you don’t get to the point and don’t have a tangible result. People continue to argue about the most diverse points of view and groups will be formed.
Walt Disney already had a special technique to achieve better results. He had 3 fixed points in his workroom. These 3 points represented the 3 processes of his project development:
1. Idea
2. Possibilities of realization
3. Financial viability.
Often many things go through your mind at the same time, for example, you often immediately think of the costs, and before you could let your creativity and flow of thoughts run free, you have already tripped yourself up.
So it’s about structuring thinking and use your brain in a much better way.
In 6 – colour thinking, each participant is assigned one of the 6 colours in turn. Each colour represents a certain way of thinking: RED stands for subjectivity and emotionality, BLACK for pessimism and risk awareness, YELLOW for optimism and opportunities, GREEN for creativity and freedom from values, BLUE for structure and order and WHITE for objectivity, neutrality and analytics.
With this trick, everyone has the opportunity to alternate between different points of view without having to reveal or have their own fixed point of view. One-sided points of view are thus prevented. One can thus also have controversial ideas and express thoughts without having to justify oneself.
Of course, such an approach requires a moderator.
The facilitator first introduces the task or the problem to the group.
The most important aspect is then the explanation of the individual roles, which are symbolised by the different hats.
Please contact me for more information.
My book recommendations from Edward de Bono:
1. Six thinking hats
2. Teach yourself to think
3. Lateral thinking.
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