Brainstorming using the Six Thinking Hats

This video takes the idea of Brainstorming, covered in "An Introduction to Brainstorming techniques" ( • An introduction to Bra... ) and looks at it through the lens of The Six Thinking Hats technique for creative thinking. We run through an example sequence of thinking hats that could easily be used in a two-hours problem solving session.
By combining Brainstorming and the Six Thinking Hats, you will be able to both come up with ideas and quickly evaluate them, during a single session. This offers an advantage over the traditional approach to Brainstorming developed by Alex Osborn, as combining the creative session with the evaluation session, you can greatly reduce the time needed to generate potential solutions and assess those to be taken forward.
As well as talking through a potential sequence of Six Thinking Hats, we also give a few tips on how to run such a session.
To help navigate the video, we have included a timeline below:
0:00 Introduction
0:30 Issues with the traditional approach to Brainstorming
0:47 Combining Brainstorming and the Six Thinking Hats
1:24 The role of the facilitator
1:49 Blue Hat
2:06 White Hat
2:20 Green Hat
2:43 A summary of the Structured Brainstorming approach
3:55 Red Hat
4:18 Using Dot Voting
4:58 Black Hat
5:35 Yellow Hat
5:50 Notes on the yellow and black hats
6:20 Red Hat
6:40 Blue Hat
6:55 The benefits of combining Brainstorming with the Six Thinking Hats
If you need a reminder of Edwards De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats, you should check out our overview of the technique ( • Six Thinking Hats ) that introduces the purpose of each of the Six Thinking Hats.
The rights in the Intellectual Property of Edward de Bono are retained by Edward de Bono Ltd. You can learn more about the Six Thinking Hats at www.deBono.com

[@MrSerghei1981]

I'm a graphic design student.This video explained everything I needed to know about creative thinking and brainstorming.
Thank you!

[@OptimatrainingUK]

Glad it was helpful! Good luck with the course.

[@72secret98]

Great video. It's clearly to understand. Thanks a lot

[@OptimatrainingUK]

Glad it was helpful!

[@SK-le1gm]

Pretty freakin clever.

[@drpriydwivedi1]

Great idea and explained nicely

[@raven51480]

If you’d like 20-25 people to brainstorm the same problem using the 6 hats method for you suggest breaking them up into groups or doing one large brainstorm over a longer time period (that of course included more breaks). Or would it be best to get the smaller groups to come up with 1-2 final ideas and then in a new session get the whole group to just look at those few that came from the smaller groups? And I know either way might be viable but wanted any insight anyone has on having done something similar.

[@OptimatrainingUK]

Both ways can work but it is difficult to ensure that everyone participates when using large groups - ideas can easily be lost. My preference when using large groups is to use a snowball technique to ensure that everyone gets a voice. That basically involves setting the scene (Blue Hat) and then starting with silent reflection and Sticky Note Brainstorming to get the ideas going - using the Green Hat. Having music on can help the creative mood. Open the discussions in smaller teams - sharing their ideas, grouping them together to identify commonality and then exploring each using the Yellow Hat.
Merge smaller teams into larger teams (for example - the last time I used this technique was with 30 people, just before lock-down. We started in teams of 5 and then merged to three teams of 10) and repeat. This is followed by each team sharing its thinking with the wider group as a collective.
The whole group then used the Black Hat to identify potential risks and downsides of the various ideas. To change the energy, we used a Reverse Brainstorm to come up with the worst possible, and then adopted Green Hat to see what ideas that provoked and Yellow Hat to build positives.
You can then go back into smaller groups to build on the ideas generated or stay as a collective - depending on how it is going. Using the Yellow and Green Hats as appropriate and posing questions to stimulate thinking and provoke ideas. Use short timings to keep focus and energy - keep coming back to the wider collective to share ideas and build.
When you run out of time / energy. I like to close the session with quick Dot Voting activity under the Red Hat to get initial reactions to which ideas they want to explore further and develop. Blue Hat then allows you to review what you have done and agree some actions for next steps.
Hope that helps.