Early in my 40-year recruiting career, it seemed to me that many of the successful people I knew shared something with artists and writers—a “creativity gene” so to speak. I spent most of my time working with companies populated by engineers, scientists and business people pushing the envelope in new product development, and it always seemed to me that good science went hand in hand with creativity. In my spare time, I enjoyed reading the work of the masters; Dr. Edward de Bono is one who always comes to mind for the creative process.

Edward de Bono coined the term “lateral thinking,” a popular business term that refers to the ability to look at problems from different angles to find creative solutions. His books are classics in the field. After my second or third read of his book “Six Thinking Hats,” I felt that I wanted to meet him. The problem was he lived on a little island off the coast of Italy.

To make this story considerably shorter, I found him—after a difficult search and a fair amount of lateral thinking myself—and extended an invitation to speak at a careers panel discussion in the San Francisco area. While I knew that Dr. de Bono charged quite a lot for a seminar presentation, I had no idea that it was tens of thousands of dollars. But luckily, I never had to ask what it would cost, as he ended up doing it as a courtesy. I’m still not certain whether it was my persistence or because of his love of one particular restaurant that I promised to take him to if he could join my panel.

A few weeks later, I was one of 400 Bay Area attendees listening to the master talk for nearly 90 minutes about the creative process. After his amazing presentation, I traveled with him in his limo and enjoyed a fine meal and a bottle of his favorite wine, all the while wondering how and why I happened to be so lucky. Years later, I still consider the late Edward de Bono—through his many books—to be one of my most important mentors.

Deliberate thinking versus background thinking

Some people go their entire lives using the brain only for background thinking. In other words, they’ve never made the effort to sit down and deliberately enjoy the pure, unadulterated joy of thinking.

While their minds work very well to help them cope with their daily lives, Dr. de Bono believes they are handicapping themselves. The daily stimulation of the mind, which he likens to “putting on the thinking cap,” is both a pleasure as well as a necessary tool for personal growth.

Background thinking is simply the “walking-talking-breathing type of thinking that we do all the time.” Deliberate thinking requires an effort. As an example, anyone can run, but an athlete runs deliberately.

The problem is that many of us take up our daily problem-solving simply through background thinking. In a job search? Background thinking has you scan the Internet job ads or throw out a few LinkedIn contacts over the morning cup of coffee. Later, even a networking call can be made from background thinking, asking the contact if he or she has seen any openings at their firm.

In the San Francisco career panel that I organized, Dr. de Bono pointed out that the first thing job seekers needed to do was to move away from background thinking and begin doing deliberate thinking about their situation. Only when you look at things from a different perspective will fresh ideas start to flow.

Wearing the Six Hats of Edward de Bono

Dr. de Bono’s classic text, “Six Thinking Hats,” takes deliberate thinking one step further by describing different viewpoints through which the thinking process can be refined. Through the analogy of colored hats, de Bono describes how the final “map” for a decision can be made only after viewing the problem in these ways. Each of these viewpoints, or “hats,” is only one piece of the overall thinking process. J.K. Rowling may have borrowed from this idea for her various hats in Harry Potter.

Here are de Bono’s six thinking hats and how to interpret them:

•  White Hat thinking is neutral and only concerned with objective facts.
•  Red Hat thinking is charged with emotions.
•  Yellow Hat thinking is sunny and positive; the optimistic view.
•  Black Hat thinking is negative, pessimistic; why it can’t be done.
•  Green Hat thinking is creative and innovative; wild and wacky ideas.
•  Blue Hat thinking is all about control and organization of the thinking process; used by group facilitators.

Putting creativity into your job search

John, a chemist who has been looking for a job change on-and-off for nearly two years, moved from background thinking about his quandary to deliberate thinking. He put his White Hat on and analyzed the situation, with the objective view demanded by this color.

“I’ve been in touch with a total of 36 companies, of which 7 responded. Of those responses, 3 moved on to the phone interview, and of the phone meetings, I got 2 company interviews. But both resulted in someone else getting the offer,” he thought. Forcing himself into the objective facts-and-figures of the white hat, he looked up how many possible employers reside in his region of interest. That number was just over 300.

Moving to the Red Hat, he felt emotional about a lack of success, and knew that he couldn’t wear this hat for more than a few minutes without dropping into a feel-sorry session. But while wearing the Red Hat, he did have a good idea. One person at the last company he met with had offered to help him; he recalled the camaraderie he felt with this manager but at the time he had been overwhelmed and never followed up.

The Yellow Hat was fun. Going back to his notes, he realized that he had only tapped about 10% of the market with his CV. And it took him nearly two years for that snail’s pace. Just think what he could do if he got serious and reached the other 90%! The optimism he was feeling generated some ideas and he was overwhelmed with a great feeling of untapped potential.

But, another change of hats was called for. No more sunny thinking, as he mentally slipped on the Black Hat and began to think of all that could go wrong with his plans. He played the devil’s advocate to his earlier ideas. “So, what happens if I continue with the same approach and just contact more companies?” he asked himself. “More turn-down’s, that’s what. The plan won’t work without a serious review of my CV, and a total re-do of the networking approach.”

John was still thinking about that networking approach of his when he slid under the Green Hat. It was a time for new growth, fresh ideas, and possibly some wacky ones as well. He saw himself passing out a business card with a mini-resume on the back. He started jotting ideas down about unique ways to meet people and social opportunities that could bring him new contacts. He even saw that his work could be valuable to food companies, something he hadn’t been considering.

In conclusion

As John sat back and looked at his notes, he saw that he had indeed shaken himself out of the usual “job search thinking.” Using the Six Hats approach of Dr. de Bono, he had opened up some new ideas for implementation.