Bad PR Solved By Thinking Hat

Late last night while lying in bed I started thinking about using Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats as a tool for good PR.  The Six Thinking Hats allow you to see an event from six different perspectives.  This can be useful in PR when things have gone wrong and you need your audience to see events from a different angle.

So today I tried writing some copy using the six thing hats as a starting point.

Event:  Not Getting Funding From My Local Education Authority

My local education authority turned down my appeal for a discretionary grant.   I felt cheated and angry.  The worst thing was that this decision meant I had to find an extra £10,000. The good thing about it was that it pushed my fundraising abilities into overdrive.  I seem to prefer the more adventurous paths in life; I love the road less travelled! Now I am grateful that that one decision allowed me to develop my financial capability, entrepreneurship and creative thinking abilities.

And another attempt:

Event: The Twin Towers

In 2004, the World Trade Centre was destroyed by terrorists flying two hijacked planes.  Watching the event on TV, I felt sickened and saddened.  What depths had humanity sunken to now?  The worst thing about it were the thousands of innocent lives lost.  Despite this, heroic rescue attempts were made and people helped one another in extraordinary ways.  Suddenly the West started to question its relationship to the Middle East.  Were we really these untouchable, super-power nations, or just wealthy shysters with vulnerable Achilles heels? This one event changed the way we live our lives in the West, and forced us to remember that our commercial 'celebrity' nations are not so popular the whole world over.

Well, what do you think?  It seems to work, huh?

This could be a great tool for use in speeches, debates, negotiations, the press and even essays. Like the great genius mathematician, scientist and painter Leonardo da Vinci said, you should always see things from at least three perspectives. 

I think he and Edward de Bono are right.  Thinking about things from multiple perspectives allows for reasonable presentation of facts, feelings, good and bad without ego getting in the way.  I am definitely going to use this more often when communicating to an audience.

Hey, send me your attempts to write or communicate in this way!