Six Thinking Hats

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Summary: Perspectives
Review: This book illustrates the advantages of multiple perspectives in creativity and problem solving. It emphasizes multiple perspectives much the same as "Cracking Creativity (The Secrets of Creative Genius)."

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Summary: pretty cover, useless book
Review: This book is useless, don't waste your time and money. Instead read DeBono's Lateral Thinking book.

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Summary: Great book to facilitating problem solving
Review: This book was given to me during an interview, and I have used it's simple principals over and over again. The six thinking hats represent each of the thinking styles we employ when problem solving or generating new ideas and concepts. Each "hat" represents a step used in the decision-making process (i.e, red hat = emotions, white hat = information, blue = organizing, etc.) Each "hat" focuses on one thought process at a time. This is an exceptional and powerful set of tools when needing to quickly bring a group to concensus. I highly recommend the book for individual or group decision making.

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Summary: Makes complex challenges easier to handle.
Review: This is a tremendous tool for anyone working in a corporate setting and looking for new ways to generate ideas and choose the right one. As a consultant, I am planning to incorporate this unique, easy-to-follow approach to provide a strategic advantage for my services while helping clients discover strategic advantages for their products and services. A few years old but still light years ahead of many other tools and alternatives.

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Summary: Great Model!
Review: This is a very useful model for facilitating groups/brainstorms/conflicts. I have used the different hats often in facilitating groups with great success. The book is easy to read (chapters can be a little choppy) but otherwise a great read.

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Summary: Tired of Meetings Meander thru the Meadows?
Review: This is an interesting analysis along with practical solutions for dealing with meetings that meander like grazing cattle. His six thinking hats is a simple way to explain his approach - but - also easy to remember and apply.

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Summary: Simplistic but has worth.
Review: This, in my opinion, is a very simplistic treatment of creative thinking. However, I can see its value for people who are looking for a formalistic treatment. Something that gives them a little bit of stucture to a structureless art.

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Summary: Simple, interesting, easy to remember and helpful
Review: Though I despise the author's self boasting and over exaggeration of the impact and influence which he wrote in the preface that "The Six Hats method may well be the most important change in human thinking for the past twenty-three hundred years" and "the introduction of it increased thinking productivity by 493 percent in a simple experiment with three hundred senior public servants", I am obliged to describe it simple, interesting, easy to remember and helpful.

In short, the six hats refer to six different perspectives (white-facts, red-emotions, yellow-positive views, black-negative views, green-creative/alternatives, blue-organizing/goals). The author suggests that by putting one hat/perspective at a time, thinking and thus problem solving will be much enhanced, both on an individual and on a group discussion setting when all participants are required to put on the same color of hats together sequentially.

Of course the reality is more complicated and difficult than what the author paints as office politics always come into play. Nevertheless, this book reminds me of "Who Moved My Cheese? An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life by Spencer Johnson and Kenneth H. Blanchard" in that readers can easily recall the concept well. Anyway, it's an outstanding book not to be missed.