Six Thinking Hats

Definition of Six Thinking Hats

The Six Thinking Hats® is a role-playing model presented by Edward de Bono in 1986. It serves as a team-based problem solving and brainstorming technique that can be used to explore problems and solutions and uncover ideas and options that might otherwise be overlooked by a homogeneously thinking group.

The basic premise hinges upon the idea that most people think and reason in a specific way based on their personality type. This means that a more emotional person may generate ideas differently than a more analytical person, and vice-versa. Similarly a pessimist will approach a situation very differently than an optimist.

Edward de Bono identified 6 types of one-dimensional personalities or “Thinking Hats”. While the average person will often imbue qualities from several of these 6 types, the goal of the Six Thinking Hat model is to assign each member of the team a different, one-dimensional “Thinking Hat” for the duration of the problem solving or brainstorming session.

The Six Thinking Hats of De Bono

De Bono suggests dividing research into 6 distinct phases. To imagine his method, the 6 phases are represented by hats of different colors, each of which symbolizes a method of thinking. The method of 6 hats is a method of parallel thinking. Each "Thinking Hat" is a different style of thinking. These are explained below:

source: FGC Consulting

• White Hat: This is the rational hat. With this thinking hat, you focus on the available data. Look at the information that you have, analyze past trends, and see what you can learn from it. Look for gaps in your knowledge, and try to either fill them or take account of them. The hite hat thinks information. It is the color of neutrality, objectivity.
• Red Hat: The Red hat thinks feeling. It is the emotional hat. Considering the problems using intuition, emotions, instinctive reactions. It is the color of anger, rage, emotions. You are at the opposite of the impartial, objective information. "Wearing" the Red Hat, you look at problems using your intuition, gut reaction, and emotion. Also, think how others could react emotionally. Try to understand the responses of people who do not fully know your reasoning.
• Black Hat: This is the pessimistic hat. Looking all the negative aspects of the decision. Looking caution, danger. You try to see why it will not work. Looking weaknesses.The Black hat thinks caution. It is a gloomy and negative color. Using Black Hat thinking, look at a decision's potentially negative outcomes. Look at it cautiously and defensively. Try to see why it might not work. This is important because it highlights the weak points in a plan. It allows you to eliminate them, alter them, or prepare contingency plans to counter them. Black Hat thinking helps to make your plans "tougher" and more resilient. It can also help you to spot fatal flaws and risks before you embark on a course of action. It's one of the real benefits of this model, as many successful people get so used to thinking positively that they often cannot see problems in advance. This leaves them under-prepared for difficulties.
• Yellow Hat: This is the optimistic hat. This hat helps you to think positively. It is the optimistic viewpoint that helps you to see all the benefits of the decision and the value in it. Yellow Hat thinking helps you to keep going when everything looks gloomy and difficult.The Yellow hat thinks advantage. It is a sunny and positive color. You consider all the benefits of the decision and their value. You are constructive.
• Green Hat: It is the creative hat. You strive to find creative solutions, you give free rein to your imagination. You do not criticize the ideas. You try to fetch beyond what is known. The Green hat thinks alternative. This is the color of grass, vegetation, fertility. The Green Hat represents creativity. This is where you develop creative solutions to a problem. It is a freewheeling way of thinking, in which there is little criticism of ideas. (You can explore a range of creativity tools to help you.)
• Blue Hat: This is the controller hat. In a meeting, he’s the person presiding. He controls the process. He calls on the group to change hats. This is the conductor. The Blue hat thinks coordination. It is the color of heaven which is above all things. This hat represents process control. It's the hat worn by people chairing meetings, for example. When facing difficulties because ideas are running dry, they may direct activity into Green Hat thinking. When contingency plans are needed, they will ask for Black Hat thinking.
• The White Hat: This is the rational hat. You focus on practical and available data. You don’t interpret. These are facts, figures, information. The White hat thinks information. It is the color of neutrality, objectivity. You focus on practical and available data. You don’t interpret. These are facts, figures, information.

Underlying Principles of Six Thinking Hats

The premise of the method is that the human brain thinks in a number of distinct ways which can be deliberately challenged, and hence planned for use in a structured way allowing one to develop tactics for thinking about particular issues. De Bono identifies six distinct directions in which the brain can be challenged. In each of these directions the brain will identify and bring into conscious thought certain aspects of issues being considered (e.g. gut instinct, pessimistic judgement, neutral facts). None of these directions is a completely natural way of thinking, but rather how some of us already represent the results of our thinking.[citation needed]

Since the hats do not represent natural modes of thinking, each hat must be used for a limited time only.[citation needed] Also, some will feel that using the hats is unnatural, uncomfortable or even counterproductive and against their better judgement.

A compelling example presented is sensitivity to "mismatch" stimuli. This is presented as a valuable survival instinct, because, in the natural world: the thing that is out of the ordinary may well be dangerous. This mode is identified as the root of negative judgement and critical thinking.

Colored hats are used as metaphors for each direction. Switching to a direction is symbolized by the act of putting on a colored hat, either literally or metaphorically. This metaphor of using an imaginary hat or cap as a symbol for a different thinking direction was first mentioned by De Bono as early as 1971 in his book "Lateral Thinking for Management" when describing a brainstorming framework.[4] These metaphors allow for a more complete and elaborate segregation of the thinking directions. The six thinking hats indicate problems and solutions about an idea the thinker may come up with.

Similarly, "The Five Stages of Thinking" method—a set of tools corresponding to all six thinking hats—first appears in his CoRT Thinking Programme in 1973:

The Importance of Six Thinking Hats Model

Using Six Thinking Hats®, you and your team will learn how to use a disciplined process which will…

• Use Parallel Thinking as a group or team to generate more, better ideas and solutions
• Make meetings much shorter and more productive
• Reduce conflict among team members or meeting participants
• Stimulate innovation by generating more and better ideas quickly
• Create dynamic, results oriented meetings that make people want to participate
• Go beyond the obvious to discover effective alternate solutions
• Spot opportunities where others see only problems
• Think clearly and objectively
• View problems from new and unusual angles
• Make thorough evaluations
• See all sides of a situation
• Keep egos and “turf protection” in check
• Achieve significant and meaningful results in a less time

Significant Applications for the Parallel Thinking Process of Six Thinking Hats

• Leadership Development
• Team Productivity, Alignment and Communication
• Creative and innovative thinking
• Meeting leadership and decision making
• Product and Process Improvement, and Project Management
• Critical, Analytical Thinking and Problem-Solving
• Organizational Change/Performance
• Wherever High Performance Thinking and Action is needed

The Steps in the Six Thinking Hats Process

• Considering the topic, Insight or Trend consciously adopt the wearing of a hat
  • White Hat: examine your data, fill gaps in your knowledge
  • Red Hat: use emotion and gut feel to understand your own and possible responses from other people
  • Black Hat: critique all the potential downsides, flaws and risks
  • Yellow Hat: think positively and creatively about ideas and solutions
  • Green Hat: develop creative solutions without critiquing at this stage
  • Blue Hat: check that the right hat is being worn and that people are focused on it
• Avoid criticizing others ideas or censoring people
• Listen to and build off of others ideas
• Generate lots of ideas and allow the session to free-wheel
• Don't allow discussion or questioning though light clarification of an idea may be helpful at this stage
• Sort your ideas into priority order or a logical order
• Capture your most exciting idea and biggest fear
• Look for breakthrough innovations, incremental innovations, new venture innovations and new business models
• Determine the fixed factors (almost certain hard trends) that will inform your strategic response: slow-changing phenomena e.g. demographic shifts, constrained situations e.g. resource limits, in the pipeline e.g. aging of baby boomers, inevitable collisions e.g. climate change arguments.
• Capture variable factors: critical uncertainties i.e. variables, soft trends and potential surprises. Both these and the fixed elements will be key to creating scenarios and examining potential future paradigm shifts.
• Capture unique insight into new ways of seeing that can be utilized by the organization. What are the advantages and disadvantages?
• What conclusions can we draw from the exercise(s)?
  • How might the future be different?
  • How does A affect B?
  • What is likely to remain the same or change significantly?
  • What are the likely outcomes?
  • What and who will likely shape our future?
  • Where could we be most affected by change?
  • What might we do about it?
  • What don't we know that we need to know?
  • What should we do now, today?
  • Why do we care?
  • When should we aim to meet on this?
• Finish by noting your next steps. Next steps could include a further round of iteration, a recommendation on how to get the answers or use of other research and methods such as 'Starburst' to create more vantage points on the issue. Repeat the exercise from a different perspective e.g., taking a negative view or an unusual position, or from the viewpoint of another stakeholder. (see the Tear-Down thinking method here).

Example of Six Hat Thinking

The directors of a property company are considering whether they should build a new office block. The economy is doing well, and the vacant office spaces in their city are being snapped up. As part of their decision-making process, they adopt the Six Thinking Hats technique.

Wearing the White Hat, they analyze the data that they have. They can see that the amount of available office space in their city is dwindling, and they calculate that, by the time a new office block would be completed, existing space will be in extremely short supply. They also note that the economic outlook is good, and steady growth is predicted to continue.

Thinking with a Red Hat, some of the directors say that the proposed building looks ugly and gloomy. They worry that people would find it an oppressive or uninspiring place to work.

When they think with the Black Hat, they wonder whether the economic forecast could be wrong. The economy may be about to experience a downturn, in which case the building could sit empty or only partially occupied for a long time. If the building is unattractive, then companies will choose to work in other, more attractive premises.

Wearing the positive Yellow Hat, however, the directors know that, if the economy holds up and their projections are correct, the company stands to make a healthy profit. If they are lucky, maybe they could sell the building before the next downturn, or rent to tenants on long-term leases that will last through any recession.

With Green Hat thinking, they consider whether they should redesign the building to make it more appealing. Perhaps they could build prestige offices that people would want to rent in any economic climate. Alternatively, maybe they should invest the money in the short term, then buy up property at a lower cost when the next downturn happens.

The chairman of the meeting wears the Blue Hat to keep the discussion moving and ideas flowing, encouraging the other directors to switch their thinking between the different perspectives.

Having examined their options from numerous viewpoints, the directors have a much more detailed picture of possible outcomes, and can make their decision accordingly.