LATERAL THINKING IN MANAGERIAL DECISION MAKING THROUGH SIX THINKING HATS TECHNIQUE

The importance of decision making in organizations need no emphasis. Organizations more than ever before are confronted with problems which require appropriate solutions at the appropriate time so much so that the manager is largely a decision maker than anything else.  Although confronted with a lot of repercussions of a faulty decision, managers cannot ignore taking decisions. Different thinking approaches are adopted to analyse any given problem or situation. Originally developed for individual problem solving during counselling sessions, Six Thinking Hats is a lateral thinking method to analyse a concept, situation, or problem, idea or a model.  This technique uses different thinking approaches required by an individual/group while analysing a given problem/situation in an effective way. In this model different thinking approaches are used in a systematic manner indicated bya different set of frame of references called coloured hats. By conceptualizing each type of hat, the manager focuses on the style of thinking associated with each colour so that the problem can be analysed from different angles and perspectives. In this paper, we have discussed how this technique can be used as a Tool for Lateral Thinking in Managerial Decision Making Process by integrating it with Decision Theory model.