Wearing Six Thinking Hats

Abstract

The difference between poor and effective teams lies not so much in their collective mental equipment but in how well they use their abilities to think together. The Six Thinking Hats technique helps actualize the thinking potential of teams.

In a Word The difference between poor and effective teams lies not so much in their collective mental equipment but in how well they use their abilities to think together. The Six Thinking Hats technique helps actualize the thinking potential of teams.

Introduction

Routinely, many people think from analytical, critical, logical perspectives, and rarely view the world from emotional, intuitive, creative, or even purposely negative viewpoints. As a result, their arguments do not make leaps of imagination, they underestimate resistance to change, or they fail to draw contingency plans.

Lateral thinking ¹ is reasoning that offers new ways of looking at problems—coming at them from the side rather than from the front—to foster change, creativity , and innovation . One tool of lateral thinking, the Six Thinking Hats technique, was devised by Edward de Bono in 1985 to give groups a means to reflect together more effectively, one thing at a time.

Six Hats, Six Colors

The Six Thinking Hats technique involves the use of metaphorical hats in discussions.² Participants put on hats in turn, possibly more than once but not necessarily all of them, to indicate directions (not descriptions) of thinking. The color of each is related to a function

• White hat thinking—neutral, objective—focuses on the data and information that are available or needed.

• Red hat thinking—emotional—looks at a topic from the point of view of emotions, feelings, and hunches, without having to qualify or justify them.

• Black hat thinking—somber, serious—uses experience, logic, judgment, and caution to examine the difficulties and problems associated with a topic and the feasibility of ideas.

• Yellow hat thinking—sunny, positive—is concerned with benefits and values.

• Green hat thinking—growth, fertility—intimates creative thinking and movement, not judgment, to generate new ideas and solutions.

• Blue hat thinking—cool, the sky above—concentrates on reflection, metacognition (thinking about the thinking required), and the need to manage the thinking process.³

  

  Fig. Wearing six thinking hats. Source Author

Applications

Pertinent applications for the Six Thinking Hats technique include team productivity and communication; product and process improvement, as well as project management; critical and analytical thinking, problem solving , and decision-making; and creativity training, meeting facilitation, and meeting management.

Benefits

The Six Thinking Hats technique provides a common language that works in different cultures. It promotes collaborative thinking, sharpens focus, facilitates communication, reduces conflict, enables thorough evaluations, improves exploration, fosters creativity and innovation , saves time, and boosts productivity.

Discipline

Discipline is important. The facilitator’s role is to define the focus of the thinking, plan the sequence and timing of the thinking, ask for changes in the thinking if needed, handle requests from participants for changes in the thinking, and form periodic or final summaries of the thinking for consideration by participants. Each participant must follow the lead of the facilitator, stick to the hat being used, try to work within time limits, and contribute honestly and fully under each hat.