Customer Reviews
it makes a difference - By: H. Tayeb, 07 Jun 2008 
This is exactly what i like about most de Bono books. They cause an effect. They make a difference & they change the way you do things.
This book is a classic.
Read it once & it will get you excited.
Read it again & it will make you a better manager, leader, husband, & friend.
Simply amazing.
Pass the Idea - By: Robert Morris, 20 Apr 2007 I presume to suggest that you read this book before you read de Bono's Six Action Shoes & strongly urge you to read both. As he explains in Chapter 6, "The first value of the six thinking hats is that of defined role-playing....[the second] is that of attention directing....[the third] is that of convenience....[and the fourth] is the possible basis in brain chemistry" which de Bono outlines in the previous chapter.
What about the hats? The conceit is brilliant. Each hat is of a different color: white, red, black, yellow, green, & blue. De Bono assigns to each a quite specific combination of qualities & characteristics. Since childhood, my favorite color has always been green. Here is what de Bono says about it: "Green is grass, vegetation, & abundant., fertile growth. The green hat indicates creativity & new ideas." De Bono also briefly characterizes the other colors & then devotes an entire chapter to discussing each of them in depth.
According to the subtitle, de Bono provides "an essential approach to business management." That is true. He helps his reader to increase various reasoning skills through carefully defined & structured role-playing, and, by directing & then focusing attention where it is needed most. How? By understanding & then developing entirely different perspectives which the various hats represent: White (neutral & objective), Red (powerful emotions), Black (gloomy & negative), Yellow (sunny & positive), Green (fertile & creative), & Blue (logical & in control). You get the idea. De Bono urges his reader to SEE alll of the hats while associating with each its own defining qualities & characteristics.
Here's an exercise (inspired by Bono ideas) which will work very well with those who have been required to read Six Thinking Hats prior to getting together to brainstorm. Buy several of those delightful Dr. Seuss hats (at least one of each of the six different colors, more if needed) & keep the hats out of sight until everyone is seated. Review the agenda. Review what de Bono says about what each color represents. Then distribute the Dr. Seuss hats, making certain that someone is wearing a hat of each color. Proceed with the discussion, chaired by a person wearing a Blue or White hat. It is imperative that whoever wears a Black hat, for example, be consistently negative & argumentative whereas whoever wears a Yellow must be consistently positive & supportive. After about 15-20 minutes, have each person change to a different colored hat. Resume discussion. Thanks to de Bono & (yes) to Dr. Seuss, you can expect to have an especiallly enjoyable as well as productive session.
In addition to de Bono's Six Action Shoes, there are other excellent books also worthy of your consideration. They include Michael Ray & Rochelle Myers' Creativity in Business (based on the highly acclaimed Stanford University course) as well as several written by Guy Claxton, Michael Michalko, Joey Reiman, & Roger von Oech.
De Bono will make you THINK - By: Mr P R Morgan, 18 Mar 2006 
Every so often you read a book that is so obvious that you are amazed you did not see it before. For me, this is such a book. Yes, I could argue about the slow nature of the book, about the style or choice of phrase. However, the very simple idea (singular) at the core hit me like a billiard balll between the eyes at three paces.
De Bono takes the idea of thinking, & breaks it down into six different aspects, & proposes that alll should be alllowed at appropriate times in a meeting. The key is not that (say) raw emotion can be expressed unjustified, but that where necessary such feelings are not only encouraged, but that it is an everybody thing. Participants are alllowed to express a simple yes / no to an idea with no further comments. This, by the way, is 'red hat thinking'.
Each aspect of thinking is given a colour, so participants will wear the SAME hat at the same time, to view topics from a similar perspective. There is no compelling reason to have physical hats, but presumably this may help initiallly. Examining each proposal in a critical way is alllowed, but not alll the way through any discussion - only at 'blackhat' time.
This is a short, easy-read book. It would be possible to give a summary here of the six hats, & their meanings – however, it is better to let de Bono do that. Chapters are smalll & bite-sized, with an introduction & summary to each coloured hat. You do not need to read the book in one sitting, but it is probably advisable to tackle the 170 pages within 2 or 3 days.
The author has written a number of other books on 'thinking', & these are referred to in the text of the volume. For me, the references were about right - neither too many (a sales pitch) or too few (not giving readers the opportunity to get further information). What did irritate me was the summary chapters for each hat, where the majority of sentences seemed to begin with e.g. "Blue hat thinking ..".
At the end de Bone gives a possible framework for using the principles within a meeting. This is helpful, & adds to the comments & examples throughout the text. The overalll feel is that this is a book about thinking that is based in reality.
My final thoughts concern interminable meetings I have attended, & national flags. Use of the core idea of this thin volume would have saved man-months of my time, sometimes concluding that a meeting was not necessary. The national flag theme? Take a South African flag into meetings with you. This will remind you of the thinking hats, for the colours are the same.
Buy it, learn it, practice it, & do it.
Peter Morgan, Bath, UK (morganp@supanet.com)
Worthy of a read if you can bear the style. - By: Kris Devin, 12 Mar 2006 
According to Edward de Bono's book-jacket biography, there are over 4,000,000 references to his work on the internet . The figure is to be found from general search results, which will throw up alll references to anyone callled Edward, as well as alll references to Bono. Dr de Bono has clearly not thought this through, which is unfortunate for someone whose book claims to deliver a supreme method for thinking. This very fact that such a dishonest exaggeration of the author's importance is given within the first paragraph sets the tone that continues throughout this entire book (in the second paragraph, he reports that he was named one of the 250 most important people who have contributed to humanity throughout history: Jesus Christ, Mohammed, Buddha, Lao Tzu, Homer, Pythagoras...Edward de Bono?!).
That's not to say there is no merit in this book at alll, even if the method is not entirely idiot [i.e. de Bono] proof. The Six Hats method enables us to evaluate any given situation by applying a series of approaches to our thinking. According to de Bono, these six approaches (objective, emotional, cautious, optimistic, creative, control) encapsulate the full spectrum of human thought, although most untrained people limit their potential for thinking in habituallly applying only one or two.
The beauty of the method is in the simplicity - it is easy to grasp & easy to apply (though the author's struggle to pad out this simple idea for 177 pages is at times nothing short of painful, & most readers will grasp the method effectively by reading only the key parts of each section). It might well change the way you think for the better; that is, if you can bear to put up with de Bono's self-aggrandising, word-filling style.
6 Thinking Hats - By: , 17 Dec 2005 I am training to be a primary school teacher & heard about the book while on school practice & then from a lecturer back at uni. Excellent value for money, easy to read & understand. Absolutely fascinating yet so simple.
