Take your hat off to Edward de Bono

The man who invented the concept of 'lateral thinking' is now 80 but I was reminded just how fresh Edward de Bono's ideas remain when I was recently asked to help a financial company with their business strategy.

I wanted to get all the key people in a room and really thrash out the issues facing their business and I know of no better way of doing this than to use De Bono's 'Six thinking hats'; you may well have come across this technique but if you haven't,  I highly recommend it. Why? Because I'm sure you've sat through those interminable meetings discussing business issues which go on for hour after hour, lacking any structure and possibly being dominated by one or two people; they seem to sap all your energy and leave you no clearer what has been achieved or which direction the business should take.

What de Bono realised is that the main difficulty of thinking is confusion. We try to do too much at once. Emotions, information, logic, hope and creativity all crowd in on us. It's like juggling with too many balls. He also appreciated that often people who are very satisfied with their thinking skills are in fact poor thinkers who believe that the purpose of thinking is to prove themselves right  – to their own satisfaction.

De Bono's method is simple yet remarkably effective. You become able to separate emotion from logic, creativity from information, and so on. Putting on one of the metaphorical hats (although I have been in a session where there were real hats) defines a certain type of thinking. It allows people to think in different ways: to use their gut instinct - red hat;  to be highly factual - white hat;  or to see the negative side of a proposal - black hat.

Just like a conductor might lead an orchestra, you can call forth what you will. It can turn a meandering meeting in to a constructive, conclusive session, which allows all to contribute valuable thinking.

ABB used to spend thirty days on their multi-national project team discussions, using the 'six hats' method, the discussions now take as little as two days.

If you're interested in trying it out, I suggest you read the book, 'Six thinking hats' which will guide you through the process. So next time you are faced with one of those brain numbing strategy meetings, why not try De Bono's thinking hats on – you'll be amazed