Six Thinking Hats

T h e Six Thinking Hats brainstorming technique developed by Edward de Bono is used by thousands of organizations
and millions of people around the world.

S
ix Thinking Hats is a profound and powerful technique. It is used to look
at problems and decisions from different perspectives. The idea is that
this forces you to think outside your usual constraints. This technique was
introduced by Edward de Bono in his book, Six Thinking Hats, first
published by Little, Brown and Company in 1985.
Many people think from an analytical, rational point of view. This is one reason
why many such people are very successful. However, these same people on many
other issues may neglect to consider their problems from a creative, emotional or
intuitive viewpoint. This means that they may underestimate resistance to plans,
fail to make creative leaps and not make essential contingency plans.
Similarly, there is a tendency for pessimists to be defensive. Emotional people
may fail to look at decisions calmly and rationally. The approach of the “Six Think-
ing Hats” technique is to allow people to solve problems using all approaches. De-
cisions and plans then mix ambition, skill in execution, public sensitivity, creativity
and good contingency planning.

How to Use the Six Thinking Hats

You can use Six Thinking Hats in group meetings or on your own. It makes an
excellent approach to developing research proposals. In group meetings, “Six
Hats” can block confrontations that happen when people with different thinking
styles discuss the same problem. The result is that the energy in these meetings is
devoted to moving forward rather than stagnating by a lot of defensive debating.
Each “Thinking Hat” represents a different style of thinking that is metaphorically
“put on your head” while you think through your issues. Each of the “Six Hats” is
explained below:

Blue Hat: The Blue Hat stands for organization and control. The Blue Hat is worn by
people chairing meetings and may be shared with others while organizing how the
meeting is to be run. de Bono suggests that the Blue Hat be used at the beginning of
meetings and at the end of the meetings, sort of like bookends, to help organize the
agenda and lay out the discussion plans.

6 EnVision 2020 B October 2004

 White Hat: The White Hat is the data and information hat. With White Hat think-
ing, you collect and examine information you have or can get, then look at what
you can learn from that information. For example, the number of acres of citrus
production is a White Hat topic. Look for gaps in your knowledge or where trends
can be revealed, then try to fill them or take account of them. White Hat is where
you analyze past trends and extrapolate into the future from available historical
data.

Red Hat: Red hat thinking allows you to consider problems using intuition, gut
reaction, and emotion. This is where everyone gets to see how other people will
react emotionally to the ideas being developed during the session. You do not
necessarily have to have logical explanations for your comments under the Red
Hat - just try to get your feelings out. But this is an opportunity to understand the
feelings of people about the merits or drawbacks of a project.

Black Hat: Using black hat thinking, you consider the critical aspects of problem
solving. Black Hat is an opportunity to examine the issues cautiously and defen-
sively. Try to see why an idea might not work. Black Hat is very important (de Bono
says one of the most important) since it highlights potential weak points in a plan. It
allows you to eliminate, alter or prepare contingency plans to counter weaknesses
in a plan.

Yellow Hat: The yellow hat is the positive hat. It is the optimistic viewpoint that
helps you 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.

Green Hat: The Green Hat is the creativity hat. Green Hat is where you can de-
velop creative solutions to a problem. It is a freewheeling way of thinking, in which
there is little criticism of ideas. A whole range of creativity tools can help you here.
Some people think of Green Hat as corresponding to traditional brainstorming
techniques.

A variant of this technique is to look at problems from the point of view of different
professionals. For example, if you are a grower, try to solve the problem through the
eyes of a researcher customer. Researchers can benefit from using “Six Hats” to
better understand the issues that growers face going into the future.