Diversity Of Dr Edward De Bono’s Parallel Thinking Technique

By Author: Barbara Stennes
Total Articles: 4
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The concept of parallel thinking has gained immense popularity in the corporate world lately. By learning how to separate emotions from facts and keeping ego aside, individuals can focus on finding solutions to problems. This approach can easily be applied to other fields including situations in day to day life.

Let us try and apply Dr Edward de Bono’s concept in a non-corporate environment.

Education

Dr Edward de Bono’smethod of ‘separating ego from performance’ enables students to think critically, analyze issues, and create new ideas. In order to understand better let us see a few instances of the application of deBono’s Six Thinking Hats in the classroom:

Leadership

The Six Thinking Hats approach helps students separate emotion from fact, compare advantages to pitfalls, and perform critical and creative thinking. They will be able to tackle any situation in an objective and comprehensive manner by approaching it in six different ways.

Decision Making

The hats provide a structural ...
... foundation to solve a problem and make a decision. They can be applied and practiced in any sort of classroom as they will help students gain a deeper understanding of problem.

Reading Comprehension

The 6 thinking six hats help promote conversation amongst participants tackling an issue. By utilizing the different ways of approaching a situation, different perspectives and strengths of the people involved are allowed to flourish.

Day to Day Life

As the famous saying goes, “the only constant is change”! Instead of being overwhelmed or frustrated about the dynamically changing situations of life or work, try donning the 6 thinking hatsto tackle the situation!

Become a manager by donning the blue hat and direct your thinking process. Next, put on the white hat and gather all information about the situation. Meet the red hat to realize what your gut instinct has to say. The black hat will expose the pitfalls of your solution. The optimistic yellow hat will present positive outlooks, followed by the green hat which will force you to think outside the box.

To think of 6 different approaches, does sound intimidating. However with the passage of time you will realize how de Bono’s six thinking hats will help you take control of your life and find an ideal solution to any problem you are faced with.

These are just a couple of examples which show you the diversity of the parallel thinking concept!