Personal Development Worksheet Six Thinking Hats These six thinking hats are used worldwide as a powerful personal development technique. They are used as a tool for lateral thinking to look at decisions from different perspectives which then encourages you to step outside your usual way of thinking and gain a new refreshing way of viewing a situation. Edward De Bono introduced the world to Six Thinking Hats as a valuable lateral thinking tool to create clever and decisive results in a myriad of situations. The different perspectives from each hat can be used in group settings, individually, for personal use or in business. The main idea is to wear one hat at a time when considering a problem or how to move forward. The wearing of the hat is metaphorical and represents a different way of thinking. Answer the questions that are relevant to your situation. What s your usual way of thinking about situations/problems? Which hat will help you explore the situation further?
White Hat Thinking: With the white hat on you focus on the information at hand. Look for gaps in your knowledge. What information/facts do you know? What information is missing? What information/facts do you need? How are you going to get the information? What is relevant? What is most important? How valid is this?
Red Hat Thinking: Put the red hat on and flow with your intuitive powers. Go with your gut instinct and really engage your feelings. How are you feeling about this right now? When you think about this situation or project does it make you feel happy or anxious? What is your overall gut feeling telling you? Does it feel right or wrong to follow through? Is this goal in alignment with your values?
Black Hat Thinking: With this black hat on you consider the difficulties, threats and weaknesses. Choose to look negatively. Yes, pick out all the bad points. Turn all your thoughts to getting nit-picky and judgemental. Be cautious and defensive. The black hat is great for nutting out all the bad points which empowers you to improve on them before you act. The black hat helps to make any plan solid and efficient. Point out the weaknesses before you act, change them to strengths. Is what I m thinking true/possible? How realistic is the situation? Will it work? What is an impossible option?
What decision have you been avoiding? What is wrong with the overall situation/decision? What is the evidence that this will work? How can it fail? What are the consequences if it fails?
Yellow Hat Thinking: Put on the sunny yellow hat and think positively. Switch all your thinking to the glass is full. Be optimistic about the situation. See all the good points. Consider why the idea is useful. Notice its potential. Yellow Hat thinking is happy, upbeat and uplifting. It helps you to keep moving forward when things start to look gloomy and difficult. What are the good points? What are the benefits? Why will this idea work? Why is this worth doing? How will it help me(us)? Why can it be done?
How does it help others? Green Hat Thinking: Green hat thinking is the where you come up with all the solutions to the black hat problems. Get really creative with this earthy-coloured hat. Come up with as many ideas, alternative and possibilities to your situation. What are some possible ways to work this out? What other things can you do to solve the problem? How else can you think about that? Who can you ask to gain new perspectives or different ideas? What would someone famous/successful think or say about this?
Who could help you to solve the problem? Or complete the project? Blue Hat Thinking: Think about thinking with the blue hat. What thinking is needed? If you re made for organising this hat is your hat. With this hat on you are the ultimate organiser. You organise your thoughts, the process, the people and direct activity into the Green hat thinking. What have you done so far? What will you do next? What decisions have you come up with? How do you normally do to sabotage yourself? What will you do differently this time?
Who will you tell about your actions and progress? How will you reward yourself when you ve reached your goal or solved the problem? What would be your target level of goal to achieve? Women love their hats, and these Six Thinking Hats are ideal for any successful woman. Life is like a new hat. You don t know if it suits you if you keep trying it on in front of your own mirror. Shirley McLaine. I myself have 12 hats, and each one represents a different personality. Why just be yourself? ~ Margaret Atwood
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