Professional Development
Six Thinking Hats
Six Thinking Hats® Training
In today’s fast-paced world, effective problem-solving skills are highly valued. However, navigating complex challenges and making sound decisions can be daunting. To tackle this, Dr. Edward de Bono, a renowned psychologist, introduced the Six Thinking Hats framework.
Shippensburg University’s Office of Workforce Development, welcomes individuals, teams, and organizations to join us and learn this powerful method and framework to help problem analysis, encouraging diverse perspectives and fostering comprehensive solutions. Our purpose is to help you improve collaboration, problem-solving, innovation, and decision making.
What Are the Benefits of Using Six Thinking Hats?
The process can help you and/or teams:
- reduce meeting times
- become more productive
- improve the overall quality of decision-making
- create innovative solutions that leverages different perspectives for optimal solutions
The process supports building effective and efficient businesses by:
- establish clear meeting guidelines that promotes communication and active engagement from teams
- foster a culture of collaboration and open conversation
- encourage team members to focus on the collective goal and the best interests of the team, business, and solutions
- cultivates a positive and energized atmosphere where people feel empowered to develop ideas and solutions
- enables a framework for innovation and challenges the status quo while thinking critically about the root causes of problems
What
A one day, six hour training to help individuals and teams improve their innovation and productivity.
Dates
In Person
September 19
November 14
February 13
April 10
Virtual
October 29
January 17
March 14
May 6
Time
9:00 am – 4:00 pm EST (lunch break included)
Location
Virtual and in-person sessions available. In-person sessions are held on campus at Shippensburg University.
If you wish to have an onsite session at your business, please connect with our team at owd@ship.edu.
Cost
$350/person
$300/person for non-profit organizations
$90/person for Shippensburg University staff and faculty
$40/person for Shippensburg University students
What are the Six Thinking Hats?
The Six Thinking Hats framework involves using different metaphorical “hats” to represent different modes of thinking. Each hat represents a specific perspective that helps in approaching a problem from multiple angles. By switching between these hats during problem-solving discussions, individuals can promote holistic thinking and avoid biases or limited viewpoints.
Here are the six metaphorical hats and their corresponding modes of thinking:
- White Hat: The white hat prompts objective and factual thinking. It focuses on data, information, and what is known or unknown about the problem at hand.
- Red Hat: The red hat represents emotions, intuition, and gut feelings. It allows individuals to express their feelings, hunches, and intuitions without needing to justify them logically.
- Black Hat: The black hat signifies critical and cautious thinking. It explores potential risks, weaknesses, and potential pitfalls associated with a proposed solution.
- Yellow Hat: The yellow hat symbolizes optimistic thinking and benefits. It encourages individuals to identify the positive aspects, benefits, and opportunities associated with a solution.
- Green Hat: The green hat represents creativity and innovation. It stimulates the generation of new ideas, alternative solutions, and possibilities.
- Blue Hat: The blue hat acts as the control hat and represents the process of thinking itself. It helps in organizing and managing the thinking process, setting objectives, and summarizing outcomes.
By implementing this framework, individuals can create an efficient meeting environment that fosters positive interactions, empowers innovation, and promotes effective problem-solving.
Additional Resources
Intrigued and want to learn more? Check out these resources about Dr. Edward de Bono and de Bono Thinking Methods:
- Summary of de Bono Six Thinking Hats – www.debono.com/six-thinking-hats-summary
- Explore de Bono Methodologies – www.debonogroup.com
- Case Studies – www.debonogroup.com/blog-articles
- Dr. Edward de Bono – www.debono.com
Meet Your Course Instructor
Tracy Montoro is the Director of Workforce Development at Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania. Tracy works closely with regional employers and university faculty to provide quality professional development opportunities to the South Central PA workforce. She has 25 years of experience in both the classroom and administrative sides of education.
Prior to her role in workforce development, she served as Associate Director of the Career Center at both Shippensburg and Dickinson Universities where she directly supported students and alumni in their career readiness goals. Tracy has earned both her bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education and her master’s degree in counseling at Shippensburg University. Tracy is a certified Six Thinking Hats training provider.
