Lateral Thinking with de Bono’s Six Hats

Lateral Thinking with de Bono’s Six Hats

The aim is create a non-judgemental mindset.

1. The teacher writes the aim on the whiteboard and outlines the task to the students.
2. The teacher places six coloured hats in a prominent place in the classroom.   The hats could be white, black, red, green, blue, yellow or black hats with ribbons.
3. The teacher asks the students to sit in a circle (or circles of six for large groups) and asks them to introduce themselves.
4. The teacher introduces a challenge e. g. how to keep students connected during Covid-19.
5. The teacher asks the students to write down as many solutions as possible to the challenge in the middle of a sheet of paper.  This can be done individually or per group.
6. The students pass the page to their neighbour on the left who then writes either new solutions or gives feedback on what is already written.
7. The process should be repeated twice.
8. The teacher asks the students to collect the solutions and group similar ones together.
9. The teacher introduces the hats and explains the meaning of each one.
10. The students then place the appropriate hat over a group of similar solutions.
11. The teacher asks the students to reflect as a group on the following: Which is the most popular hat?  Which is the least popular one? Can more solutions be added to the hats?
12. The teacher asks the students to work in pairs and take turns to tell each other which hat suits them best.
13. The teacher and the students discuss the results of the activity and consider the following: How can you use the thinking hats in your practice as an entrepreneur? (1' per person).

On completion of this exercise, the students may, now, progress to the next activity.

Additional help on using the Six Hats can be found at: http://www.ideasforideas.com/

It is essential that the students are aware of the meaning of each of the coloured hats.
The activity could be done using online tools such as Padlet, virtual whiteboard and breakout rooms in Teams/Zoom.

Inspired by: