Six Thinking Hats®:
The Key to Creating Long-Term Customer Value
By Lynda Curtin,
The Opportunity Thinker

Think Your Way to Success

I was first introduced to Edward de Bono's work in the mid '80s. I had no idea who he was and had never really thought about my own thinking skills, or for that matter even wondered about how I had learned to think. I attended a packed seminar in Toronto with 499 other people who had each paid $450 to learn about this odd technique, "The Six Thinking Hats®." That day I was struck by the idea that you could take charge of your thinking energy in order to think your way to success. My thinking journey had begun. I was hooked.

I began to learn as much as I could about de Bono's tools and techniques. A most amazing piece of information that I discovered - Edward has in place or available around the world a thinking skills program designed for school children called CoRT. Imagine that. There are schools that are actually teaching children how to become comprehensive productive thinkers!

In Quality Digest, March 1995, Scott Madison Paton asked Edward what he thought his most important work has been. His reply, "My most important work has been to show the logical basis of creativity." I have come to believe that this is the missing piece in the creative thinking puzzle for many people; understanding the logic.

I also believe that our customers want us to help them think their way to success. To do this we need a good robust tool kit that compliments the processes we choose to use. With the rapid pace of change today and the intensely competitive market there is enormous pressure on everyone to become more creative and innovative in their approach. Here at Convergence 98 we have a wonderful opportunity to tap into the expertise of many talented people willing to help each of us travel on our thinking journeys. Seize it! Read on to explore how two companies are building long-term customer relationships using Six Thinking HatsÒ.

Washoe Health System's Approach (1996 Winner George Land Award for Innovation)

"Committed to search for new and innovative ways to improve care and services with the goal of exceeding customer's expectations."

Washoe Health System (WHS) services include a 500 bed acute care hospital, home health agencies, long term care facility, urgent care centers, family medical clinics, a full line of insurance services, and a community health resource center.

In 1995 WHS University was created to teach employees about the resources available and skills necessary to provide "platinum" level customer service. Every employee has attended our premiere three day course , "One Team, One Purpose" consisting of six modules: innovation, attitude, team building, quality, great service, and living for your customer. The Six Thinking Hats® is the follow-up course. We have already trained 150 "blue hat" wearers, process control facilitators, and are utilizing them throughout the organization to facilitate team meetings and to tackle tough issues.

"We know health care is changing. We don't have to sell the need for creativity. For us it's the implementation piece; the next step. We see the Six Thinking Hats® as a method to go beyond generating ideas ... a way to help teams effectively and efficiently evaluate the merits of the ideas they learned to generate during our "One Team, One Purpose" course."

- Jennifer Kirby

Fast Decision

Challenge: Purchase new equipment for the Intensive Care Unit. Budget is limited. Can only select one piece. A key group wanted a flashy new piece of equipment. A "blue hat" wearer led the team to a decision in 15 minutes. Unheard of! The team selected a much better piece of equipment and all were in agreement, thus, saving time, avoiding conflict, and a costly purchasing error.

Big Savings

Challenge: Maximize caregiver time at the bedside for 600 nurses. Currently nurses must complete 15 chart audits per year, taking one hour each. 55 Caregivers met for a one day Six Hats session and decided to invent a "new tool" that takes much less time, requires less paper work, and enables more time with patients. Roll-out February 1998.

The Nestlé Food Division Approach

"Six Hats is a simple, yet powerful tool that can be learned rapidly and used immediately to achieve long-lasting results. Six Hats has helped our product development group to generate ideas quickly, evaluate them efficiently, and implement action plans effectively."
- Laura Donahue

The Nestlé USA Food Division is home to such well-known brands as Stouffer's® and Lean Cuisine® frozen entrees, Ortega® Mexican foods, Nestlé Toll House® morsels, baking products and cookie dough, and Libby's® Pumpkin, among others.

The Six Thinking Hats® process was introduced to this Solon, Ohio-based division during a special application-based training session attended by employees from marketing, operations and product development groups.

Participants in the session were impressed by the versatility of the Six Hats tool and the ease with which it can be used to quickly achieve outstanding results.

Now, many of these employees are successfully applying Six Hats thinking in a variety of situations within their own departments. Using the Green Hat, in particular, has helped those facing challenges to generate a larger array of options, often leading to more innovative solutions.

In fact, the human resources group was so impressed with the new thinking techniques that The Fundamentals of Creativity and Innovation: The Six Thinking Hats® course will be offered to the division's employees.

Brand Building

Challenge: Strengthen brand portfolios. The product development team presented 19 new concepts they had created to marketing employees of two sub-groups of a well known frozen food brand. Each concept was quickly evaluated using the Six Hats process to look for benefits and disconnects with the different sub-brand strategies. When the panel concluded, both groups were pleased. Each had selected concepts that fit with their individual portfolios while strengthening the overall brand portfolio. Elapsed time: just one hour.

Increase Sales

Challenge: A cross-functional product development/marketing/sales team convened an idea session for the purpose of assisting a key retail customer to increase product sales. The retailer's buying group joined the session led by a Six Hats thinker. In less than two hours, the group generated several excellent ideas, evaluated them, selected the best ones, and created an action plan to implement them.

To book Lynda Curtin, contact Andrea Woodward at (805) 563-1438 or e-mail staff@thinksmart.com.