ARP

Task #4:  Applying the Six Thinking Hats Approach to Project Management (The result of this task should be helping you write parts of your paper draft) 

PROJECT MANAGER ROLE:

In developing an approach based on this task #4, the project manager’s primary role is to encourage and facilitate full team involvement in understanding how the use of the Six Thinking Hats approach can keep team meetings moving smoothly and generate novel ideas at the same time.  In addition, the project manager will also act as the subject matter consultant and/or the expert on the use of the Six Thinking Hats and make sure that each team member has the opportunity to be placed on one of the team meeting agendas to use this leadership thinking approach.  Hopefully, increased idea creativity and new ways of thinking will enhance the team’s productivity.

Now, with you doing an actionable research paper, this concept can be viewed a bit differently.  This will help you complete parts of your paper and think about whether your potential recommendations would work for your client (either Jerry Martin or Robyn Brown).  

BACKGROUND ON THE SIX THINKING HATS:

The Six Thinking Hats approach is called “Lateral Thinking” and/or “Parallel Thinking.”  It is designed to focus “thinking energy” in one direction.  In this approach, people engage in objective fact-finding together, discuss the positive aspects of an idea(s), and mutually explore the risks and/or the disadvantages of the idea(s) in the spirit of play.  Those who feel that they are part of the process are more likely to accept and/or buy into the outcome.  In this approach, people often end up with a better appreciation of the others’ positions.  It is an example of focused team thinking where consensus is the goal.  Hats are a metaphor for putting on one’s “thinking cap.”  This model is a simple technique that encourages cooperation, exploration, and innovation, all under the umbrella of metaphorically applying six colorful “hats.”

The Six Thinking Hats approach was originated by Edward De Bono and it is a systematic, coordinated way of thinking.

The “Hats” Involved in the Six Thinking Hats Approach:

• White Hat Thinking – responsible for facts, figures, and/or objective information – it describes what is actually there for the team to use.
• Red Hat Thinking – responsible for emotions, feelings, hunches, intuition – it lets the team members tell how each of them feel about a situation.
• Green Hat Thinking – responsible for creativity, idea generation, provocative thoughts, lateral thinking – it comes up with new ideas, possibilities, and/or alternatives to be considered.
• Black Hat Thinking – responsible for negative thoughts, playing the “Devil’s Advocate” – a cautious approach that identifies what is wrong with an idea and/or why something will not work.
• Yellow Hat Thinking – responsible, positive, logical, constructive thoughts – it sees the good in ideas and acts in a cheerleading mode.
• Blue Hat Thinking – responsible for controlling the process, directing attention to the other “hats” as necessary – it serves to summarize and point the process in the proper direction.

REQUIREMENTS:     

RESPONSIBILITIES TO BE COMPLETED BY THE INDIVIDUAL:

In the course of completing the Service-Learning Project, I hope that you will have the opportunity to use the Six Thinking Hats approach to chair and/or facilitate a brief meeting either with your client or with the interviewees that you will include the context/results in your paper. You will then report on how the model worked and whether or not it was helpful to progress of the project. 

The results of doing this task should help you with many sections of your paper.  This section should be no longer than four double-spaced pages in the written summary and should include the following two components that are to be completed by each student:

First, describe the problem and/or issue discussed using the Six Thinking Hats approach in 2-3 sentences. 

Next, describe in detail how the “hats” were used to guide the team through developing a solution and/or answer(s) to the problem and/or issue.  Were you and your team members able to think in one direction? 

Include an example or two from the team meeting.  Be sure to cite which “hats” were the most helpful and which “hats” (if any) did not seem to contribute much to the Six Thinking Hats  Provide an opinion, based on your observations of its overall use for the team, on the Six Thinking Hats model.  Would you use it again?  Why or why not?

As an example of how a student working on the ARP might approach this task,

• White Hat Thinking – responsible for facts, figures, and/or objective information – it describes what is actually there for the team to use.  This is your literature review in all three topics.  I expected that you would try your best to submit the literature review part of your paper.  It does not need to be completed but at least make sense.  You will keep working on this for the paper if needed. 
• Red Hat Thinking – responsible for emotions, feelings, hunches, intuition – it lets the team members tell how each of them feel about a situation.  This is something that you got from the meeting with your client and this will also narrow your ideas down to the thesis statement of your paper (identified challenges). 
• Green Hat Thinking – responsible for creativity, idea generation, provocative thoughts, lateral thinking – it comes up with new ideas, possibilities, and/or alternatives to be considered.  This is where you should start to come up with actionable plan to be implemented. 
• Black Hat Thinking – responsible for negative thoughts, playing the “Devil’s Advocate” – a cautious approach that identifies what is wrong with an idea and/or why something will not work.  This part is to help you think of what could potentially go wrong and make your actionable plan not implementable. 
• Yellow Hat Thinking – responsible, positive, logical, constructive thoughts – it sees the good in ideas and acts in a cheerleading mode.  Suggestions and recommendations that could be further from what your actionable plan (something that might be ideas that might not be actionable but have some potential). 
• Blue Hat Thinking – responsible for controlling the process, directing attention to the other “hats” as necessary – it serves to summarize and point the process in the proper direction.  Further study or plans for yoru actionable plans. 

 Suggested Lussier and Achua textbook chapters for this task include Chapters 7 and 8.