Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #10800 in Books
• Published on: 1999-08-18
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Customer Reviews

The Psychological Answer to Harrison and Bramson's "Styles of Thinking


Unlike Harrison and Bramson's "Styles of Thinking," which approaches the issue from the point of view of practical non-psychological advice to those who lack awareness about the mechanics of their own thinking styles, in this book de Bono focuses on the psychological motivations driving one towards one style of thinking or another.

But like Harrison and Bramson, de Bono also seeks the same result: He hopes to make the act of using one's thinking a conscious process rather than a "background" drift and waffle into a mindless reaction.

In order to accomplish this, the author identifies six (as opposed to five identified by Harrison and Bramson) styles, which he refers to as thinking hats.

According to his taxonomy, there is the WHITE HAT of those who gather facts, figures and other objective information; the RED HAT for those who rely primarily on their emotions and feelings to formulate their thoughts; the BLACK HAT for those who drift all too easily into negative thoughts without having to think about how they got there. Then there is their opposite: the YELLOW HAT, for those who find no difficult with positive and constructive thought. Then there is the GREEN HAT for those who find creativity easy and always accessible; and finally the BLUE Hat for those who try to control the thinking of the other hats.

Putting on a particular hat focuses thinking; "switching" hats, redirects thinking. Once the different parts of the thinking process can be clearly defined, thinking can become more focused and productive. If one "playacts" at being a particular kind of thinker, he can become that kind of thinker. That is to say: He must actually put on a particular thinking hat to do that kind of thinking.

As in his other books, De Bono uses many real life situations, both within the corporation and in everyday common situations taken from real life to drive his points home.

Both this book and the Harrison and Bramson's book have different things to offer and should be read as a set. Together, they cover the waterfront.

Very interesting
This book is very interesting in a sense that it teaches you how to take a simple concept, turn it into a 200 page book and sell for 15 bucks. Keep your dollars because all you need to know is these lines...

1. Thinking is a skill that can be developed - good perspective
2. instead of thinking everything at once, you plan to go step by step
concentrate on tasks - white hat
think of everything can go wrong - black hat
think of feelings - red hat
think positive - yellow hat
think solutions - green hat
and control this process - blue hat.

Thanks

Another Brochure turned into a book
Simple stuff. Not that it isn't powerful stuff. It's just that it's a 12-15 page brochure at most, and DE BONO turned it into a 175 page book. Why?

I can think of no audience who'd benefit from this book who wouldn't get all they need from a summary of it.

If you like reading hundreds of quotes like, "yeah yeah yeah, let get some of your best red-hat thinking on that" and "I heard you, but I would really like you to put some yellow-hat on that" then this book may be for you.

It's so condescending, it calls into question every one of his well-rated books.