Fallacy of Teamwork and Six Thinking Hats

A while back, I had coffee with Jim Gilmore, co-author (with Joseph Pine) of "The Experience Economy" and "Authenticity." I asked Jim for some reading suggestions to help me expand my thinking about the Fallacy of Teamwork, team dynamics, leadership, etc. He suggested several books including "Six Thinking Hats" by Edward DeBono. DeBono is a Rhodes scholar and seminal figure in the discipline of creative thinking, particularly of what he introduced as "lateral thinking."

"Six Thinking Hats" identifies and illustrates of six elements of decision-making, breaking each down as its own way to think about problems, challenges, and opportunities. Each of the "hats" signifies a specific approach to thinking about a problem. As DeBono points out, many or all of the approaches are present in any discussion, but are all mixed together. "Six Thinking Hats" helps the reader construct an effective decision-making process by identifying each element and giving it equal weight.

The hats are forward-looking, providing a direction in which to think. They are not backward-looking, providing an explanation for what happened. The biggest challenge for many people who will attempt to adopt "six hats" thinking is that it is not based on argument. "Hat" thinking does not support a particular conclusion or recommendation; it defines the tools needed to move forward. Users of the system claim that "hat" thinking drastically reduces decision-making time and delivers simplicity and clarity to the process.

Okay. Enough preamble. First, I'll outline the function of each "hat" and then I'll discuss how one in particular represents the root of the Fallacy of Teamwork.

Each of Edward DeBono's "Six Thinking Hats" is named by color. Each is emblematic of a specific function in discussion, decision-making and, as we shall see, teamwork.

Here they are:

The White Hat -- Represents objectivity and neutrality. "The white hat is concerned with objective facts and figures."

The Red Hat -- Represents emotion. "Red suggests anger (seeing red), rage and emotions."

The Black Hat -- Represents somber and serious thinking. "The black hat is cautious and careful. It points out weaknesses in an idea."

The Yellow Hat -- Represents positive thinking. "The yellow hat is optimistic and covers hope and positive thinking." Like the color suggests, this is the hat of sunny thinking.

The Green Hat -- Represents creative thinking. "Green is grass, vegetation, and abundant, fertile growth."

The Blue Hat -- Represents organized thinking. "The blue hat is concerned with control, the organization of the thinking process." Like a blue sky, the blue hat is above the others.

In the next installment, we'll take a close look at the red hat and how it addresses one of the biggest obstacles to genuine teamwork.

The red hat is the hat of emotion. De Bono writes, "We are brought up to apologize for emotions and feelings because they are not the stuff of logical thinking. That is why we tend to treat them as an extension of logic. If we dislike someone, there must be a good reason for this."

In many team settings, emotion is often withheld, depending on the role of the person in the meeting. Or it is fully alive and presented as "reason and objectivity," often without the individual realizing that emotion is the catalyst. It gets mixed in with data, creativity, caution and many other factors in normal team meeting sessions and therefore cannot be evaluated for what De Bono believes it is -- one of the essential elements of decision making.

But when meeting participants specifically "wear" the red hat, they are free to be unapologetically emotional. That perspective and feeling is separated from data, creativity, caution, etc., validated and factored in as a distinct element of the decision making process.