In 1999, Dr. Edward de Bono published a book entitled Six Thinking Hats. He theorized that the human brain thinks in a number of distinct ways, or states, which can be identified, deliberately accessed, and therefore planned for use in a structured way, allowing team members to develop strategies for thinking about particular issues.
Six Thinking Hats is a powerful technique that helps teams look at important decisions from different perspectives. It helps them make better decisions by pushing members to move outside their habitual ways of thinking. It helps them understand the full complexity of a decision, and identify issues and opportunities which they might not otherwise notice.
In order to make it easier to clearly identify and work with these states, colored hats are used as metaphors for them.
The act of putting a colored hat on allows individuals to symbolically think in terms of the state, either actually or imaginatively.
White Hat: Neutrality
Participants make statements of fact, including identifying information that is absent, and presenting the views of people who are not present, in a factual manner. Examples of these are based on the “What?” “Where?” “When?” and “How?” set of questions.
Red Hat: Feeling
Participants state their feelings, exercising their gut instincts. In many cases this is a method for harvesting ideas; it is not a question of recording statements, but rather getting everyone to identify their top two or three choices from a list of ideas or items identified under another hat. It is applied more quickly than the other hats to ensure it is a gut reaction feeling that is recorded. Post-it notes can be used to allow a quick system of voting; they create a clear visual cue that creates rapid, if yet incomplete agreement around an issue.
Alternatively, it may be used to state one’s gut reaction or feeling on an issue under discussion; this is more common when using the hats to review personal progress or deal with issues where there is a high degree of emotional content that is relevant to discussion. Finally, this hat can be used to request an aesthetic response to a particular design or object.
Black Hat: Negative Judgment
Participants identify barriers, hazards, risks, and other negative connotations. This is critical thinking, looking for problems and mismatches. This hat is usually natural for people to use, the issues with it are that people will tend to use it when it is not requested and when it is not appropriate. Preventing inappropriate use of the black hat is a common obstacle and vital step to effective group thinking. Another difficulty faced is that some people will naturally start to look for the solutions to raised problems, they start practicing green on black before it is requested.
Yellow Hat: Positive Judgment
Participants identify benefits associated with an idea or issue. This is the opposite of black hat thinking. This is still a matter of judgment; it is an analytical process, not just blind optimism. One is looking to create justified statements in favor. It is encapsulated in the idea of “undecided positive” (whereas the black hat would be skeptical – undecided negative). The outputs may be statements of the benefits that could be created with a given idea, or positive statements about the likelihood of achieving it or identifying the key supports available that will benefit this course of action.
Green Hat: Creative Thinking
This is the hat of thinking new thoughts. It is based around the idea of provocation and thinking for the sake of identifying new possibilities. Things are said for the sake of seeing what they might mean, rather than to form a judgment. This is often carried out on black hat statements in order to identify how to get past the barriers or failings identified there (green on black thinking). Because green hat thinking covers the full spectrum of creativity, it can take on many forms.
Blue Hat: The Big Picture
This is the hat under which all participants discuss the thinking process. The facilitator will generally wear it throughout and each member of the team will put it on from time to time to think about directing their work together. This hat should be used at the start and end of each thinking session, to set objectives, to define the route to take to get to them, to evaluate where the group has got to, and where the thinking process is going. Having a facilitator maintain this role throughout helps ensure that the group remains focused on tasks and improves their chances of achieving their objectives.
