Effective Meetings with the Six Hats Technique

Do your meetings take too long and often end in indecision or hard feelings? The Six Hats technique was introduced by Edward de Bono (coiner of Lateral Thinking) as a communication tool that provides groups a cohesive template of thought processes (the 6 'hats'). The underlying principle is that parallel thinking is more productive than debate thinking. Not only in business, but in any decision-making meeting.

The human brain thinks in six distinct directions when making a decision. In a meeting, instead of each person arguing their own direction – the way most meetings go – the whole group takes one direction (colored hat) at a time, in turn. It feels unnatural at first, but it quickly becomes clear that it works, and it’s fun! The result is parallel group-thinking, and decisions being made faster and smoother. As de Bono pointed out – “the biggest enemy of thinking is complexity”.

The Six Hats method has been used extensively in companies such as DuPont, IBM, Prudential Life Insurance, British Airways and Siemens to facilitate efficient, productive meetings.

I will present the method and how it can be used to streamline your meetings to come to the best decision.