Recently I was involved in an office meeting that included myself, a unit Manager and the Area Director. A complaint was filed against me, suggesting that because I was not doing my job correctly, I denied a client medical benefits. The client was the best friend of the Manager.

The Manager was very upset and embarrassed by the complaint and requested the meeting. She had been in this position for over five years and supervised primarily with a red hat, addressing most issues based on her emotions. (deBono, 1999) I do see the benefit of having this hat on in certain situations, but not with this issue. The manager was too close to the client and issue to see beyond her emotions.

In retrospect, I believe I wore several hats during that meeting. I presented the plain facts to the Manager and Director, providing the data that I requested the required documents, entered the data received timely and denied the application appropriately, albeit my white hat. I then stated that doing anything other than that would have resulted in fraud on my part, as well as the client, the black hat. From there, I suggested that we go forward and be proactive. The verifications that were requested have all been received at this point, but the application had expired. I explained that we can very easily resolve this issue by asking the client to complete another application. I would process the new application with the data that we now had and approve services that the client qualified for, obviously wearing my green hat. (deBono, 1999)

Fortunately, the Director performed his job, regularly, wearing all hat colors, but mostly the blue hat, distributing an aura of objectivity and control. (deBono, 1999) I can see how focusing on just one hat could be very dangerous. There is a definite advantage in recognizing the danger and practicing the other hats attributes for a well-rounded, objective look at any given situation.

I believe I approached the situation representing more of a creative thinking approach, opposed to critical thinking, however my creative thinking abilities were not completely liberated as described in Creative Thinkering. (Michalko, 2011) I could have very well had several different solutions or suggestions to solving the problem, which would have reflected a more creative thinking approach with more options.

de Bono, E. (1999). Six Thinking Hats. New York, NY: Back Bay Books.

Michalko, M. (2011). Creative thinkering: Putting your imagination to work. Novato, Calif.: New World Library.