h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I recently read a De Bono book which mentioned another of his ideas, Parallel Thinking.
He points out that when a group of people get together to think about something they tend to have discussion, i.e. argument. X has an idea, Y says no what about this, Z says, but won't that mean the other.
Parallel thinking gets everyone thinking in the same direction.
One of the methods for doing this is "Six Hats". There are six imaginary hats, different colors. During the meeting you might for example have 5 minutes "wearing" the black hat. While everyone is wearing the Black Hat you can only think about the dangers and risks. Then when done you might all put on the White Hat and all think about facts and information needed, then yellow hat for talking about positive things and benefits.
(There's also a red hat for emotional reactions, green for creative or provocative ideas, and a blue hat that you wear to think about which hat to wear next
It sounds silly in a way but the idea is that formal rules help it work.