Group discussion is an important factor in any school, college, or organization. It helps in group projects, assignments, and other tasks. 6 thinking hats are a concept founded by Edward de Bono, which is useful while discussing in groups. With the help of these 6 colored hats, you can think in a better way for any project. This tool is used in many sectors in the United Kingdom. It is also one of the best tools to be used in classrooms and colleges for effective thinking.
Parallel thinking is another important concept connected with Six Thinking Hats. It is used by the groups to arrive at a specific decision. It further helps the students to think more creatively.
The concept of 6 thinking hats is used in various areas. It was also used during the tsunami of the year 2004, which occurred in Sri Lanka. This tool really helped in reconstruction after the devastation caused by the tsunami. The tool of 6 thinking hats is time-saving and also easy to implement. Each member of the group will know its task well after assigning the hat.
With this concept, all the team members can develop more intellectual thinking, and they can face any dangerous situation with ease. It can also be adopted by individuals for self-development. They can get multiple solutions to a problem.
Meaning of the six hats
The elaboration of 6 thinking hats is as under:
White hat
The first one on the list is a white hat. It is an informative hat by which the person has to find out as much information as possible for a particular project. Then you should analyze the information collected by you. You should also look at past trends and overcome the mistakes. The white hat provides the knowledge which you lack. It is objective in nature.
Now we will go further with the importance of doing research work for school exams and assignments in detail:
i) A better understanding of the subject
By doing research work, you can know the subject in deep. You can know about each concept and theory properly with research work. You can develop mathematical ability and skills in problem-solving. Even linguistic skills become better by doing proper research work.
ii) Helps in finding the flaws
Research has its own benefits. When you get a school assignment, finding more information will help you to find out whether there are any flaws in the project. You can remove those flaws and search for relevant points to add to the project. You can make your project or assignment better by doing more research work.
iii) Boosts self-learning
Research work helps in knowing how to prepare for an exam or assignment. It will further help you to learn concepts on your own and develop self-learning skills. You can answer even the most difficult question out of your syllabus. This will further increase the self-confidence in the exams and assignments.
iv) Helps you to write better in exams
Research work will teach you how to improve English and develop writing skills. By research, you will find new words for writing better in exams and assignments. You will also get vast knowledge of research. It also helps in developing speaking skills and how to talk in seminars and events. It also makes your life better by developing the overall personality.
v) Nourishes the mind
More research work will boost your logical reasoning skills. You can easily handle every tough situation, not only in projects or exams but also in real life. Doing research will help in stress management and reducing anxiety and depression. It also cures trauma and other mental disorders. You can focus on your work more perfectly by searching for more information.
vi) More observation
If you want some tips on studying the subjects, you should do more research on the internet. You should look at various websites and take as much information as possible. This will further help in observing the world around you and know the latest happenings in the world.
Red Hat
The next is the red hat, which helps the wearer to pay stress on their emotions and inner thoughts and guts. Feelings are important while making a decision. This hat will help to think from another person’s point of view. You should pay attention to others' responses in the group who cannot understand your point properly. Red hat is directly related to intuition. It allows the wearer to justify every thought without any help or support. The red hat will help in making the students and employees more logical. It increases the self-confidence of each member of the group.
Black hat
The black hat shows the negative points in a decision taken. It is actually one of the most powerful is all 6 thinking hats to make the project a successful one. The black hat shows the negative and weak points in any project. This hat will further help you in knowing the outcomes of the project beforehand. Knowing the mistakes in advance, you can correct or rectify them for a perfect plan. It allows thinking critically while doing any tasks. It shows you the real side of any task.
Yellow hat
Opposite to the black hat, the yellow makes the wearer look at the project's positive points. It shows you the advantages of the idea and how to be more optimistic about doing a project. The yellow hat gives you more strength to remain calm and positive, even in the most difficult situations. You can get more positivity while doing a group project or any other task. It also teaches you to learn from past mistakes. Let us study in detail the importance of a positive attitude in life.
A. Brings more creativity in thinking.
A positive attitude brings out creativity in thinking, and you will get new ideas for improving the subjects. Positivity will also help in finding better solutions to the problems. Even in the school or college project or assignment, a positive attitude will bring out better results. It will also help in keeping your mind relaxed and calm in negative situations.
B. People will follow you.
Having a positive attitude will attract more people to you. You can be the leader of your group and lead people to follow a positive attitude in life. You can remove the negativities in yourself and others too. It will improve your life to a large extent. With a more positive attitude, you will get more able to solve any problem in life.
C. Success
Optimism always leads to success. Positivity will give more enthusiasm to work, which will result in promotions and increments. This is the reason why people with a positive attitude become successful in later life.
D. More companions
A positive attitude will gain more friends. It is because negativity will reduce self-confidence, and you will get discouraged. People will like staying with positive people. Positivity will spread happiness and joy all around the place.
E. More respect
People with a positive attitude will get more respect from society. They will also influence other people around them. You will start to get positive ideas each day. A positive attitude will improve others too in your surroundings.
F. Reduces stress
With a positive attitude, you will not get stress anymore. It will result in stress management and will keep you away from negative ideas. This will further help in the elimination of stress completely from the body. It will also improve physical and mental health too.
G. More energy
With a positive attitude, you will get more energetic at home and office each day. A positive attitude will make you happier and satisfied in life. You can see positivity even in the most difficult situations.
H. Increases self-confidence
Belief in oneself is the first success tip. Developing a positive attitude will increase your self-confidence, and you can do all the work effectively. You will start believing in yourself, and life will be much better each day.
I. Keeps you motivated.
A positive attitude will keep you motivated all the time. More motivation will help you in fulfilling every task properly. Motivation will fulfill your goals in life. You can also motivate the other members of your group to work in a better way.
J. Removes fear
Fear is present in each one of us. It is an unavoidable feeling that we get in the exam, job interview, or presentation. We have fear in every field of life, and with that, it is not possible to achieve success. A positive attitude will help you remove fears for the exam, job interview, presentation, or meeting new friends. Thinking positive will give you strength even if you get a rejection from all walks of life.
K. Welcomes criticism
Criticisms are the hurdles that you need to face everywhere. You might be criticized at job, home, school, or college. The world is full of negative people and their criticisms. Developing a positive attitude will help you in handling negative people and criticisms.
L. Brings happiness
Many students find easy ways to improve at math, but they often lose hope when exams approach. But in an exam or any other situation, you should have more positivity in yourself. This will further bring more happiness and joy in the work or studies, and you can also get good grades.
Green hat
The next on the list is a green hat. This hat helps you to come up with creative ideas. The people who can’t find our creative ideas may find this hat a bit tricky. But overall, the green hat may help you to bring more creativity in ideas and thoughts. The green hat will give you more creative ideas, and you can know how to handle a project.
Blue hat
The last one on the list of 6 thinking hats is a blue hat. It controls the other thinking hats. With the blue hat, you will know perfectly how to implement the project. It also suggests various actions that should be taken in the implementation of a project.
Blue hat thinkers frequently see things from a wider perspective. These thinkers usually can see the bigger picture while standing back.
7 Ways to use Six Thinking Hats with parallel thinking in the classroom
1.) The first step is to gather the ideas and thoughts of all the students in the classroom. Then focus on the main ideas.
2.) Then you should divide the whole class into groups. You should bring together the groups which have similar ideas and focus. The students will introduce new ideas with the help of thinking hats.
3.) The teacher symbolizes the blue hat in any project that supervises the entire project and suggests steps to be taken.
4.) You should give a hat to every member of a group based on various factors.
5.) The next stage is the group discussion. You should allow the students to discuss the project in detail by gathering all ideas and methods.
6.) The next step is to bring back all the groups together.
7.) Finally, these steps will help the students to pick their hats and go ahead with the project. As a teacher, you should then rectify the mistakes which the students make in the project.
Situations in which you can use six thinking hats
There may arise some situations in school, college, or a company wherein you have to use the tool of 6 thinking hats. The purposes for which these thinking hats can be used are as under:
- A group project in a school, university, or organization
- Important decisions in a company requiring teamwork
- Whenever there is a problem in the organization
- Debates
- Controversial matters in a company
Conclusion
These are 6 thinking hats that will assist you in school projects, college or office work, and any other field of life. From searching for new ideas to developing a positive attitude, these hats help make you a successful person and a nice person. When you apply these 6 thinking hats in your life, you can handle any difficult situation life with ease.