{"id":3763,"date":"2026-07-23T10:38:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T10:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpblog.indigobusiness.co.uk\/?p=3763"},"modified":"2026-07-24T14:45:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-24T14:45:49","slug":"how-to-run-better-meetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpblog.indigobusiness.co.uk\/how-to-run-better-meetings\/","title":{"rendered":"Use Six Thinking Hats\u00ae to transform meetings from a drag to a driving force"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>The meeting that never ends<\/h2>\n

Picture the scene: a project is behind schedule, the room is tense, and everyone has an
\nopinion. One person is worried about the budget. Another is convinced there\u2019s a better way to do it. A third just wants to know the facts. Forty-five minutes later, the meeting ends the way it started – nobody agrees, nothing is decided and everyone\u2019s calendars are full for the rest of the week. If you\u2019ve ever wondered how to run better meetings than this, the answer isn\u2019t a stricter agenda – it\u2019s a different way of thinking together.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a familiar scene that barely registers as a problem anymore. But it is one, and it has a price tag. Research from Grammarly and The Harris Poll\u2019s State of Business Communication<\/em> study estimates that businesses lose up to $1.2 trillion a year to poor workplace communication, with leaders estimating their teams lose nearly a full working day (7.47 hours) a week to it – around $12,506 per employee, per year (Agility PR Solutions<\/a>). Unstructured meetings, where discussion loops without resolution, are a major contributor.<\/p>\n

An idea that started with a hat<\/h2>\n

In 1985, Dr Edward de Bono published Six Thinking Hats<\/em>, a book built on a simple but unusual premise: much of the friction in group discussions doesn\u2019t come from disagreement over facts, it comes from everyone trying to think in a different mode at the same time. One person being emotional, another cautious, another creative, with none of them talking about the same kind of thinking (Six Thinking Hats, Wikipedia<\/a>).<\/p>\n

De Bono\u2019s fix was \u201cparallel thinking\u201d: get everyone thinking in the same<\/em> direction at the same<\/em> time, one direction after another, rather than everyone arguing from a different one simultaneously. Each direction is represented by a coloured hat:<\/p>\n