, (7 Hats 1 hm- ,m- mim- pmblums that never scent in in _i\i;ii Hm .trc around in our ortlillllj minim \cul utter unit is there any way ol [t \ lll‘l to \L\l\L' these old problems # \ttliteiltlltg that you have never tried before? at \\ I urea (t‘tlwntlolh lust l'nll :t presen- tation culled lite Mugtc of Thinking in Color urn putt ol the program. Since the majority ut' Home A Country readers did not attend li’lUsC contentions, the following is a synop- m at the magical presentation! lhe ILlCJ is based on a book by Edward LIL" Bonn culled Six Thinking Hats. [1 sug- gests there are Lil I'lerent ways of looking at tin» \IIUJlltlll or problem and if we are able to Ll\t" each ol‘ the ways eitecrively. we can come up with new and realistic ways of suiting old problems. Thusc ditlt‘rent ways are designated by drt'terent lt.ll\ or colors and there are six of them tn [LllilL The first is white. Pretend you tire wearing it white hat. While you are wearing this hut. you are concerned with UbJEL'lHI'.‘ um and figures. put forward in :1 neutral niannct'. Argument, interpretations and opinions are not permitted while you’re wearing u w hue hat. For example, the weather 1\ cold in February. in Ontario. we mperrence an average snowfall of 44 centi- meters in February. Non, replace the white hat with a red hat. \\ hen “curing this hat, you will give your emotional \iew». \ou wrll say how you feel about the problem or issue and those feel- ings don't hate to be based on facts. For example, l hate the weather in February. 1 Ieel like I can't get out from under all that Milo“. When you have donned a yellow hat, you \siil be looking at the positive side of a matter. You will be thinking constructively. For example. il' we didn't have snowfall, a lot of snowplow drivers would be out of X H (KL ( .lnn. l‘eb. Mar. 1987 off to this idea! work. The cold weather provides us with opportunities to ski and skate. As you may have guessed. a black hat wearer is opposite to the yellow hat wearer. This person will play the role of the devil's advocate and will tell why something can‘t be done and what is wrong with an idea. While looking at the negative side, the black hat thinker must be logical and give reasons. For example, skiing isn’t an ideal sport â€" there are injuries incurred and also it depends upon the amount of natural snow and the perfect conditions for making snow. When you are wearing a green hat, you will present new ideas, new approaches, new concepts. You don't have to concern yourself with whether the ideas presented will or won’t work. It gives you a chance to let your imagination t‘ly unfettered. For example. let’s go to Florida for February and forget about the weather! Last but not least is the blue hat. When you are wearing this hat. imagine you are sitting in front of a control panel. The blue hat helps coordinate wearing the other hats. It tells which hat to wear, when to switch hats, even if we are mixing up our hats! The important points to remember in this colored hat approach are: I. each hat has merits 2. every person in your organization can wear any hat. ie. no one has to wear the same hat all the time 3. sometimes it takes more than one hat to solve a problem 4. some people may need encouragement to try on new hats Perhaps when the same old problem rears its ugly head again, your group could try this approach for ï¬nding a solution.