Positive, Six Thinking Hats

The following text is from wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Thinking_Hats The de Bono Hats system (also known as "Six Hats" or "Six Thinking Hats") is a thinking tool for group discussion and individual thinking. Combined with the idea of parallel thinking which is associated with it, it provides a means for groups to think together more effectively, and a means to plan thinking processes in a detailed and cohesive way. The method is attributed to Dr. Edward de Bono and is the subject of his book, Six Thinking Hats[1]. The method is finding widespread use in the UK innovation sector, is offered by numerous facilitation companies and has been trialled within the UK civil service.[2] Yellow hat – Positive Participants identify benefits associated with an idea or issue. This is the opposite of black hat thinking and looks for the reasons in favor of something. This is still a matter of judgment - it is an analytical process, not just blind optimism. One is looking to create justified statements in favor of the idea or issue. It is encapsulated by the idea of "undecided positive" (whereas the black hat would be skeptical - "undecided negative"). The outputs may be statements of the benefits that could be created with a given idea, or positive statements about the likelihood of achieving it, or identifying the key supports available that will benefit this course of action Commercial examples are: * That would be useful in market X * That would reduce the environmental impact of our activities * This approach will make our operations more efficient * We could use our existing distribution channels for this product Examples from the referenced article are: * Everyone is able to say what is on their minds. * It can be fun. * Not only the ‘smart kids’ get to speak. * One doesn’t have to wait to share their ideas and therefore risk forgetting information.