UX CALENDAR – DECEMBER 8 – Facilitate a workshop with Bono's hats

 

Bono hats, kezako?

Against all expectations, nothing to do with the singer of U2 and his colorful headgear! The hat method was theorized by Edward de Bono, a Maltese psychologist, in his book “Six Thinking Hats”. 

His goal ? Make us think better. How ? By separating thought into six defined functions. Each function is materialized by a hat that the participants will put on in turn. By successively adopting each way of thinking (or hat), the participants will be pushed to:

  • think differently
  • tackle a problem from all angles
  • limit automatic censorship

Presentation of the six hats

The six hats are:

White hat – Neutrality: Focus on the solution according to the facts, the data, the figures… 

Yellow hat – Optimist: Identification of the positive aspects and the added value of the solution.

Black hat – Pessimist: Identification of risks and disadvantages (but also ways to overcome them!) 

Red hat – Emotions: Focus on visceral, subjective emotions, presentiments.

Green hat – Creativity: Innovation and proposal of new concepts.

Blue Hat – Organization: Channeling ideas, organizing the thought process.

 

Course of the workshop

I suggest you use Bono's hats to twist your brainstorming. In this workshop model, all participants will wear the same hat together. The facilitator makes sure participants stay in the right mode of thinking, and handles hat changes. 

Duration: 2 hours minimum

Phase: Ideation

Participants: 3 to 10 (+ a facilitator)

Material: Board, post-its, markers, stickers for the vote 

 

Step 1: Intro (blue hat)

  • The facilitator puts on the blue hat and presents the issue to be addressed.
  • It presents the objectives of the workshop and its sequence.

Step 2: Brief (white hat)

  • Each participant puts on the white hat of neutrality and presents the facts and figures available to them on the issue.

Step 3: Ideation (green hat)

  • Each participant puts on the green hat of creativity and generates a maximum of innovative ideas in a silent way (1 idea / 1 post-it).
  • The facilitator groups similar ideas on the board and reads them aloud. He makes sure that ideas are understood by everyone. 

Step 4: Dot-voting (red hat)

  • Participants put on the red hat of emotions and vote silently for their favorite ideas, according to their instincts. 
  • The facilitator isolates the top ideas (3 to 5), and asks the participants to express their feelings during a debriefing. 

Stage 5: Pessimism (black hat)

  • Everyone wears the black hat of pessimism, and identifies the risks associated with top ideas. 

Step 6: Optimism (yellow hat)

  • Participants wear the yellow hat of optimism and identify the benefits that will outweigh the risks identified in the previous step.

Step 7: Second dot-voting

  • A second silent vote isolates the best idea. 

Step 8: Action plan (blue hat)

  • The participants wear the blue hat of the organization and draw up an action plan to move forward on the chosen idea.

 

Conclusion

Bono's Hats method takes ideation further by sequencing thought. By approaching a problem from each angle successively, we avoid eliminating ideas too quickly and we ensure that the solutions adopted are viable. 

I hope you enjoyed this article, hats off! 

 

 

Orane LEFEVRE, UX Designer @UX-Republic


Image sources: Bono Group Official Site https://www.debonogroup.com/services/core-programs/six-thinking-hats/


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