Six Thinking Hats

Edward De Bono. Six Thinking Hats (1985)

In our thinking, we often try to do too much at the same time. We look at the facts of the matter. We try to build a
logical argument. We may try to come up with some new ideas. We may even get emotional. Marketing managers
tend to be multitasking and often have many projects on the go at the same time. Marketers have deadlines to meet.
Marketing is creative, and the Six Thinking Hats helps us to provide marketing solutions to marketing problems.

The six thinking hats can be used occasionally as a means of switching thinking or systematically where a sequence
of hats is established in advance to enable the thinker(s) to go through each stage of thinking.

The six thinking hats is a method for doing one sort of thinking at a time. Instead of trying to do everything at once,
we wear only one hat at a time. It’s a metaphor. There are six colored hats and each color represents a type of
thinking.

Green Hat.
The green hat is for creative thinking. Creative thinking may mean new ideas, alternatives, new solutions or
inventions. It could also mean making something happen. The main uses of green hat are:
1. To explore the situation in terms of ideas, concepts, suggestions and possibilities.
2. To put forward proposals or suggestions of any sort, e.g. suggestions for action, possible decisions, etc.
3. To consider further options or alternatives. The green hat seeks to broaden the range of options before pursuing
any one of them in detail. Yellow and black hat thinking are used to assess alternatives.
4. To come up with some new ideas. Lateral thinking techniques can be used deliberately in order to generate some
new ideas.
5. To put forward some deliberate provocations. A provocation is not meant to be a usable idea. It is a way of
releasing the mind from its usual track.

Blue Hat.
The blue hat gives an overview of our thinking. It covers the following points:
1. Where are we now in our thinking?
2. What should we do next in our thinking?
3. To establish an agenda or sequence for our thinking.
4. To summarize what has been achieved so far in the thinking.

White Hat.
The white hat means neutral information. White hat thinking focuses on the available information. There are three
key questions:
1. What information do we have?
2. What information is missing?
3. How do we get the information we need?

Red Hat.
The red hat is for emotions, feelings, hunches and intuition. Unlike white hat the red hat is not interested in facts, but
only in people’s feelings. The purpose of the red hat is to allow us to put forward our feelings so they can take part in
the thinking. The red hat provides a clear label for those feelings. Intuition is often based upon experience about a
matter, but we cannot exactly explain why we have such an intuition. The red hat allows the thinker to put forward a
hunch or intuition without any need to support or justify it.

Black Hat.
The black hat is generally the most used of all the hats. It is the one that prevents us from making mistakes and doing
silly things. The black hat is concerned with the truth, reality and critical thinking. The key questions are:
1. Is it true?
2. Does it fit?
3. Will it work?
4. What are the dangers and the problems?

Yellow Hat.
In general the yellow hat is optimistic and looking forward to the future. It can however be used to review the past
but from the perspective of what we can learn from past experiences i.e. being positive and looking on the bright
side. The key questions are:
1. What are the benefits?
2. Why should it work?
Parallel Thinking in Action
Our natural way of speaking often combines multiple hats. For example we may say, "This idea aligns
with our current strategy and could improve our market position, but I'm not sure the cost is reasonable or
that our customers will fall in love with it." That sentence goes from white hat (aligns with strategy – a fact)
to yellow (improve market position – a benefit) to black (costly – what could go wrong) to red (customers
may not love it – feelings). The six hat approach helps us to analyze these hats into different statements
and consider them separately.

Hat Definition Examples

Manages the thinking "We will discuss this matter for one hour."
process by "Time to Yellow Hat this idea. Everything else aside, what are
timekeeping, the benefits of this plan?"
Blue
moderating, and "Let’s set aside emotional responses for the moment; we’ll come
Hat ensuring the Thinking to them when it is time to put on the Red Hat."
Hat guidelines are
observed.

"What does it cost us to manufacture one unit?"

Calls for and provides "Revenue was up 8.5% last quarter."
Whit facts and data that are "There are estimated to be 75 million people that are
e Hat known or needed. 18-34 years of age in the US, as of last year."
 "Instead of manufacturing in China, we could refurbish a plant
Focuses on in Detroit."
Gree alternatives, new "This is a difficult position. Let’s brainstorm some potential
perceptions, or fresh
n Hat solutions to address the Black Hat problems."
ideas. "Are there other options?"

"Can we curtail heating or air conditioning to save on energy

Yello Finds the value and costs?"
benefits of ideas and "Our sales staff already has a lot of experience selling widgets."
w "Pushing into a new market segment would open up a lot of room
supporting concepts.
Hat for growth."

Acknowledges feelings "That suggestion makes me angry."

like fear, "I really love this project! I’m excited to work more on it!"
Red disappointment, "There is no White Hat data to support it, but my gut says customers
enthusiasm, and are afraid we'll cut legacy support down the road."
Hat
expresses intuitions or
hunches.

Spots problems and "We don’t have the production capacity to expand that fast."
tries to make the best "I’m pretty sure that would be illegal."
Blac
argument against an "That idea has a lot of Yellow Hat benefits, what problems can
k Hat we find with it?"
idea.

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Using The Thinking Hats in Team Activities

Teams can use these hats in any order during a discussion, but typically progress from blue, to white, to
green, to yellow, to red, and finally to black. This order organizes the discussion:

 Blue: Start with the approach and process

 White: Review the facts
 Green: Generate new ideas without judgement
 Yellow: Focus on the benefits
 Red: Consider emotional responses to any ideas
 Black: Apply critical thinking after the benefits have been explored to test the viability of the new
ideas

Any hat could make a reappearance in the discussion. For example, after facts (white) are laid out, more
process (blue) may be applied, or after pros (yellow) and cons (black) are discussed, new ideas (green)
may surface.
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Here is an example using the Six Thinking Hats to examine and discuss a potential business decision. At
Storyboard That, we constructed a fictional project: Social-Local-Mobile-Food, or SoLoMoFoo to illustrate
all sorts of business ideas. This example shows how the Six Thinking Hats would be applied by the
SoLoMoFoo team. Thoughts are explicitly broken down as answers to questions that correspond with
each hat.

For more information and examples with SoLoMoFoo, check out Storyboard
That's Illustrated Guide to Product Development.

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Six Thinking Hats Example: SoLoMoFoo

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Parallel Thinking

”Parallel Thinking” is de Bono’s term for a constructive alternative to “adversarial thinking”, or debate.
Unlike adversarial approaches, where participants are championing ideas against each other, parallel
thinking proposes that each participant work along a different track of thought, or that all participants
approach one way of thinking at a time. Rather than opposing each other, everyone participating works
along separate courses towards a common goal.
This is what a meeting looks like when parallel thinking isn’t enforced. The participants aren’t actively
using the six hats, and while their statements, questions, and suggestions can each be identified, value is
being lost as they shift between modes of thinking and get caught up on individual ideas.

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An Undisciplined Approach

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This isn’t a bad meeting, but it is easy to see how participants could get caught up defending a pet idea or
attacking other people’s suggestions. Let’s look at how it could improve if the participants engage in
parallel thinking. As this scenario illustrates, parallel thinking has a number of advantages. It separates
thoughts to avoid confusion and helps participants furnish better answers by asking them to tackle small,
discrete questions, rather than large, complex ones. It creates an atmosphere conducive
to exploring ideas rather than one set on proving one side right. The Six Thinking Hats are a tool for
enforcing a disciplined parallel thinking strategy.

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Parallel Thinking in Action

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Thinking Hats in Practice

Using these hats takes some practice. Remember that this approach is not intended to "feel natural" at
first. It is intended to help individuals focus on problem solving. Practice, however, can help the team flow
through the hats more easily, and gives everyone in the organization a shorthand to focus on the analysis
rather than their complicated thoughts and responses to the process.
Here are a few tips for running a “Six Hats” meeting:

 Empower a moderator (a designated blue hat) who has read de Bono’s book beforehand to set an
agenda and facilitate the meeting.
 Use six physical hats of different colors (or labeled with the different roles) to remind participants of
the different thinking categories and signal what category is the current focus.
 Ensure that participants all have a way to record ideas, either for brainstorming, or to save for
when the conversation moves to the appropriate hat.

If you're having trouble getting started, here's a Six Thinking Hats template like the one for SoLoMoFoo.
Answer the questions posed in each caption with your own text and then design pictures in the cells.
Illustrating your most salient thought in each category can make them concrete for yourself and fellow
brainstormers.

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Six Thinking Hats
Looking at a Decision From All Points of View
© GettyImages; Kirill4mula

Changing your thinking style could help you to find new solutions to tricky problems.

What is your instinctive approach to decision making? If you're naturally optimistic, then chances are
you don't always consider potential downsides. Similarly, if you're very cautious or have a risk-averse
outlook, you might not focus on opportunities that could open up.

Often, the best decisions come from changing the way that you think about problems,
and examining them from different viewpoints.

"Six Thinking Hats" can help you to look at problems from different perspectives, but
one at a time, to avoid confusion from too many angles crowding your thinking.

It's also a powerful decision-checking technique in group situations, as everyone

explores the situation from each perspective at the same time.

Six Thinking Hats was created by Edward de Bono, and published in his 1985 book of
the same name. You can now find it in a new edition.
It forces you to move outside your habitual thinking style, and to look at things from a
number of different perspectives. This allows you to get a more rounded view of your
situation.

You can often reach a successful solution or outcome from a rational, positive
viewpoint, but it can also pay to consider a problem from other angles. For example,
you can look at it from an emotional, intuitive, creative or risk management viewpoint.
Not considering these perspectives could lead you to underestimate people's resistance
to your plans, fail to make creative leaps, or ignore the need for essential contingency
plans.

In this article, we explore how to use the Six Thinking Hats technique, and show an
example of how it can work.

How to Use the Six Thinking Hats Model

You can use Six Thinking Hats in meetings or on your own. In meetings, it has the
benefit of preventing any confrontation that may happen when people with different
thinking styles discuss a problem, because every perspective is valid.

Each "Thinking Hat" is a different style of thinking. These are explained below:

 White 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.
 Red Hat: "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: 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 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.
 Green Hat: 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 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.
A variant of this technique is to look at problems from the point of view of different
professionals (for example, doctors, architects or sales directors) or different
customers.

An 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.

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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.

Key Points
De Bono's Six Thinking Hats is a powerful technique for looking at decision making
from different points of view.

It allows emotion and skepticism to be brought into what might normally be a purely
rational process, and it opens up the opportunity for creativity within decision making.

Decisions made using the Six Thinking Hats technique can be sounder and more
resilient than would otherwise be the case. It can also help you to avoid possible
pitfalls before you have committed to a decision.