Put Your Thinking Cap On

Do you remember ever being told to put your thinking cap on? This notion repeated

countless elementary teachers has more truth to it than perhaps we realize. There are often time we need to practice looking at things in a different way.

Edward de Bono developed a process that he calls the “Six Thinking Hats” meant to invite people to look at situations from six different angles. It is a brilliant process that can be used in a group setting or by an individual when brainstorming on their own.

I will briefly summarize the six hats and their approaches but you click here for a PDF that has more detail. If you want to learn more about this process, you may want to pick up de Bono’s book “Six Thinking Hats”. If you don’t feel like you can add one more book to your pile, you can simply Google it to find out more. In the meantime, here's a quick summary:

White Hat: What information is known or needs to be known. Wearing this hat invites the person to look at things objectively, only viewing the known information or asking questions about the information that needs to be known.

Yellow Hat: An optimistic outlook on the idea. This hat invites a person to look for all of the good that is present in the idea or the good that will result.

Black Hat: This hat explores the idea more critically and looks for what might go wrong with this idea or what the risks associated with it might be.

Red Hat: This hat is about feelings: what does your intuition tell you about this idea. This hat also can explore how the possible audience might react to the idea.

Green Hat: This hat invites creativity into the process and asks questions or explores options that will help develop the idea.

Blue Hat: This hat controls the thinking process so that it stays on task.

How could you use this approach in ministry? Let’s pretend that your church has recently decided to start a parent ministry. This ministry will focus on providing parents with the tools and support they need to help their children in the journey of life because let’s face it, kids don’t come with instruction manuals.

You’ve assembled a team who has come up with the idea of doing a daylong workshop that will provide different sessions that parents can choose from. Before you pursue this idea, you implement the six hats in your committee. These are some questions that might be asked using the six hat approach:

Yellow Hat: How would this ministry benefit parents? What are the things about it that would make them want to come?

Black Hat: What are the risks of holding this day? What about it might turn parents away?

Red Hat: How will parents react to this? How are you feeling about this event? Do you have any hesitations? Do you feel excited about the idea? Where is this excitement/are these hesitations coming from?

White Hat: What information are we still in need of? How many parents do we have in our church? Where are they on the parent scale (young children, preteens, teens, empty nesters)?

Green Hat: What should our topics for the day be? How will this event be unique?

Blue Hat: What are the next steps? Should we consider looking at this further through the lens of one of the other five hats?

My impression is that these thought patterns already take place in our heads, but this process invites us to do so with consciousness. Thus, we end up developing something that is both unique and well-rounded, allowing it to be a well formed idea.

Imagine what our ministries would look like if we practiced this, especially in committee or staff meeting settings. It would stir up thoughts and excitement within everyone. Plus it would welcome everyone’s feedback and contributions. Our ministries would experience a strength that they might have not possessed before.

May the Creative Spirit stir within you!