Webinar 3 — Empowering Active Citizenship through Critical Thinking: United for Social Transformation’s Webinar on De Bono’s Hats and Design Thinking

On the 12th of June Paul and Mel facilitated a webinar on critical thinking and active participation for United for Social Transformation participants as part of their Online Training Course (OTC). Together with young people from Portugal, Lithuania, Spain, Italy, and Ireland, we discussed learning biases, critical thinking tools like DeBono’s hats and the importance of informed action.

De Bono’s Hats is a critical thinking methodology that encourages us to think in different ways. It helps us to problem solve and ideate by looking from multiple perspectives. The white hat wearer looks at the logical, rational and facts of the situation. The black hat invites us to think critically and look for the challenges that many face us and potential negative outcomes. Balance arrives as the yellow that encourages its wearer to see with optimism, positivity, and identify the benefits. The red hat roots us into the emotional, gut wisdom of intuition and feeling. The green hat brings creativity, possibility, and the excitement of new ideas. The blue hat or conductor over sees the process and manages the implementation.

This thinking technique can be combined with the design thinking process described in the Online Training Course to facilitate diverse, impactful thinking for the many projects our active citizens might be engaging in.

During the session group work and participatory learning activities supported the participants to embody the learning! A few laughs, silly hats and balloon bursting also helped!