In the 6 hats workshop, we learned how to raise a solution, evaluate the solution, and judge the process. The 6 colors of the 6 hats represent different roles in problem-solving. Normally when we consider problem-solving, we just think of the question, analyze our scenario, generated some ideas and consider problem solved. However, we are only performing 3 roles among all 6 in hats thinking process. The three roles we are missing are evaluating the benefit, the drawbacks, and analyzing feelings of people. They play critical roles and shouldn’t be ignored.
In the workshop we did, I was in the black hat group, which was to display the drawbacks of the solutions provided by the green team. It’s not an easy task because members of the green team themselves have done careful analysis already. Especially when the red team raised their positive judgments on the solutions, our mission becomes even harder. However, through Eric’s example, we learned to analyze the solutions not just from the solution, but from the essence of the overall problem. Eric claims that he needs to meditate, yet he never has time for it. We decided to start from the reason why he needs to meditate, does he really needs it. Because if it’s essential for him, he must have intentionally saved time for doing it.
Sometimes different roles in the 6 hats help us view the problem from different angles. Red hat, which stands for analyzing feelings, also plays an important role. We sometimes ignore the subject’s feeling when we are providing him with our solution. Would our perfectly designed solution fulfill our customer’s feelings? Is it something that can be accepted or want to be accepted. These are all elements to be considered in problem-solving.