Six Twitter Hats

Have you ever come across this:

These are, of course, de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats (more info HERE) the idea being that in order to have a productive meeting participants should direct their thinking in each of these areas, by metaphorically putting on these hats. However I do wonder if we have a naturally affinity to one hat in particular? And I do wonder weather we can apply this sort of thinking to social media and productive conversations within social media?

I find “hats” fascinating because although I don’t advocate putting people into boxes (or even making them wear hats, particularly if they don’t suit!) I do think that the roles that people take on in Twitter discussions can be very identifiable.  I have been hosting Twitter discussions for nearly 8 years now and I have certainly noticed that some individuals take on the same role each time – including me! I am more often a wearer of a yellow hat ! So with absolutely no evidence, bar my own observations I would like to say that:

• I have seen people in Twitter discussions who are gatherers and users of data,
• I have seen people who often share feelings and tweet from the heart,
• I have come across people who are bursting with positivity
• and conversely those who like to challenge and question,
• there are also those who aren’t afraid to share ideas and be creative
• and there are those who like to bring the thinking together with summation

I feel that I rarely see – and indeed I myself rarely do it – people wearing more than one hat! So I am left wondering what would our Twitter discussions be like if we wore multiple hats ? Would they be richer? Perhaps it’s something to try out … the next time you are in a Twitter discussion try a few different colour hats and see what happens.