Try using hats to get more out of getting together!

What is it about meetings? We all rely on them as a way to thrash out an issue or generate new ideas. But however skilled and experienced the people round your boardroom table are, somehow meetings just don’t always bring out their best.

There is a better way. Introducing the ‘thinking hats’ method.

Developed by Edward de Bono, the thinking hats methodology is a very effective way to get more from your meetings. Whether you need to develop an idea or tackle a problem, thinking hats helps everyone to think about the issue from the same angle at the same time. Which means you can work through things much more quickly and without all the emotion or egos that a typical meeting can generate.

What’s it all about?

Imagine six hats of different colours (red, white, green, yellow, black and blue).

Everyone wears the same colour hat at the same point and as the meeting progresses you move through each colour together. Each colour represents a different perspective on the topic under discussion. You don’t have to have actual coloured hats but it can help when you’re new to this approach.

You do need someone to chair the meeting, to establish the ground rules, facilitate which hat everyone’s wearing and make sure the process is working properly.

The blue hat – why are we here?

The hats can be used in any order but you will typically start (and finish) with the blue hat. When wearing this hat, everyone is considering the purpose of the meeting. What are we looking to achieve today? What are we trying to resolve? What have we achieved today?

The white hat – give me the facts

The white hat is often the next one for everyone to don. The white hat is about focusing on the facts and figures around the issue. What information do we have? What information do we need? What questions do we need to ask? What’s fact and what’s assumption? This hat gets everyone to share the information they have on the problem or issue.

The red hat – getting emotional

After the facts come the emotions. The red hat is about acknowledging that there are emotions in the room

concerning this issue – as there will be about any issue. People might feel anxious, frustrated, angry even. The red hat means this can be aired, heard and dealt with.

But it also enables you to drill down into why people feel this way. Because often what lies beneath the feelings is some really valuable insight into the problem or the situation. What some people call their intuition may well be the result of years of experience that it would be foolish to ignore.

The black hat – being critical

Have you got someone in your team whose first reaction is always negative? Every team has one. They become known for kiboshing an idea before it’s even got going. ‘That’s never going to work.’

Problem is, people stop listening to them – why share an idea with them if they’re just going to shoot it down? But you could be missing out on important and valuable insight.

The black hat gives them the space to be heard. In fact it encourages everyone in the room to think critically about an idea. What are the flaws in this plan? What are the risks of going down this path?

The yellow hat – glass half full

Being negative’s all very well but what about the positives? Wearing the yellow hat means everyone (even the doubting Thomases) must think about and discuss the benefits of the idea. If this goes well what would it look like?

It’s about trying the idea out for size, allowing the possibility of it going right and considering what the positive outcome of that might be.

The green hat – being creative

Often there’s someone in the team who’s known as the ideas person. They can be relied upon to come up with really creative, sometimes wacky ideas. Everyone else can sit back, ready to shoot him down. They know they’re not creative so they wait for him to take the floor.

The green hat is about getting everyone in the room to think creatively. Despite what people think, everyone’s creative in one way or other. Some are good with a blank sheet of paper, others are better at building on ideas, others at thinking laterally. The green hat helps people express their ideas, however off the wall they might be. After all, one person’s unworkable idea might be the kernel for another’s solid solution.

The thinking hats approach might sound bonkers but it’s incredibly effective. It:

• Acknowledges that people think in different ways
• Harnesses the power of everyone in the room
• Speeds up the processing of issues and ideas
• Feels acceptable to people, it’s fun and helps to focus minds
• Makes sure you’ve explored all the issues in a situation
• Gives everyone a voice.

If you want to know more Edward de Bono’s book is called Six Thinking Hats and is published by Penguin.

What do you think? Is this something you could apply to your next meeting?