Six Thinking Hats

A leading authority on lateral thinking streamlines the decision-making process by identifying the central aspects of problem-solving and, by using real-life scenarios, describes how to focus thinking on each aspect individually, then link them into a productive progression.

Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats is the groundbreaking psychology manual that has inspired organisations and individuals all over the world. De Bono's innovative guide divides the process of thinking into six parts, symbolized by the six hats, and shows how the hats can dramatically transform the effectiveness of meetings and discussions. This is a book to open your mind, unleash your creativity and change the way you think about thinking.

The classic work about meetings and decision-making. Meetings are a crucial part of all our lives, but too often they go nowhere and waste valuable time. In Six Thinking Hats, Edward de Bono shows how meetings can be transformed to produce quick, decisive results every time. The Six Hats method is a devastatingly simple technique based on the brain's different modes of thinking. The intelligence, experience and information of everyone is harnessed to reach the right conclusions quickly. These principles have been adopted by businesses and governments around the world, ending conflict and confusion in favour of harmony and productivity. The Six Hats strategy will fundamentally change the way you work and interact. 'An inspiring man with brilliant ideas. De Bono never ceases to amaze with his clarity of thought.' Sir Richard Branson

This book is open access under a CC BY-NC 3.0 IGO license. This book comprehensively covers topics in knowledge management and competence in strategy development, management techniques, collaboration mechanisms, knowledge sharing and learning, as well as knowledge capture and storage. Presented in accessible “chunks,” it includes more than 120 topics that are essential to high-performance organizations. The extensive use of quotes by respected experts juxtaposed with relevant research to counterpoint or lend weight to key concepts; “cheat sheets” that simplify access and reference to individual articles; as well as the grouping of many of these topics under recurrent themes make this book unique. In addition, it provides scalable tried-and-tested tools, method and approaches for improved organizational effectiveness. The research included is particularly useful to knowledge workers engaged in executive leadership; research, analysis and advice; and corporate management and administration. It is a valuable resource for those working in the public, private and third sectors, both in industrialized and developing countries.

Traditional thinking habits of businesses need to be greatly improved. Analysis and judgement are no longer enough to make important corporate decisions; you can analyse the past but you have to design the future. Corporate decisions depend on values. Disputes and conflicts often arise because of a clash of those values; each party in the dispute wants to pursue its own values, often at the expense of the other party. It is therefore essential that companies, managers and employees have a full understanding of the values of everyone involved to design a way forward that benefits all parties. From the bestselling author of How to Have a Beautiful Mind and Six Thinking Hats, this groundbreaking business book provides a basis for value assessment, an essential tool in decision-making for 21st century corporations. De Bono demonstrates that values come into all areas of thinking, behaviour and decision-making and outlines a framework to focus employees' attention on a variety of values including human values, organisational values, cultural values and perceptual values. By introducing a scoring system to rate different values as strong, sound, weak or remote de Bono helps readers to prioritise and make executive decisions that count.

Edward de Bono invented the concept of lateral thinking. A world-renowned writer and philosopher, he is the leading authority in the field of creative thinking and the direct teaching of thinking as a skill. Dr de Bono has written more than 60 books, in 40 languages, with people now teaching his methods worldwide. He has chaired a special summit of Nobel Prize laureates, and been hailed as one of the 250 people who have contributed most to mankind.

Georges Philips' newest offering in the personal development and self-help field is, above all else, a very practical book on the process of changing direction. Its straightforward language and methodical, step-by-step approach makes the process easy to comprehend. From analyzing different situations involving change to going through the specific thinking and action steps needed in order to change direction, every detail and each step is clear and powerful. His message is clear: it is your thinking fuelled by your determination that brings about a change of direction. Profound and actionable, this is the most compelling treatise on affecting personal growth and fulfillment to be published in recent memory. Full of practical, easy to understand steps capable of transforming both your personal and professional lives, Change Directions: Perceive it, Believe it, Achieve it is as engaging as it is encouraging and enlightening.