The 6 Thinking Hats

(A Brain Storming Technique)

Think ! Think !
Think !

Think !

Think Think !

Edward DeBono Thinking Framework (C) Nina Godbole 1

 Six Hat thinking
What is Six hat thinking?
'Six Thinking Hats' is a powerful technique that helps you look at important decisions from a
number of different perspectives. It helps you make better decisions by forcing you to move
outside your habitual ways of thinking. As such, it helps you understand the full complexity of
the decision, and spot issues and opportunities to which you might otherwise be blind
This tool was created by Edward de Bono in his book '6 Thinking Hats'.
Many successful people think from a very rational, positive viewpoint. This is part of the
reason that they are successful. Often, though, they may fail to look at a problem from an
emotional, intuitive, creative or negative viewpoint.
This can mean that they underestimate resistance to plans, fail to make creative leaps and do
not make essential contingency plans.

Similarly, pessimists may be excessively defensive, and more emotional people may fail to
look at decisions calmly and rationally.
If you look at a problem with the 'Six Thinking Hats' technique, then you will solve it using all
approaches. Your decisions and plans will mix ambition, skill in execution, sensitivity,
creativity and good contingency planning.

(C) Nina Godbole 2

Six Hat Thinking

3
 Think !
The WHITE Hat Think !

• NEUTRAL AND OBJECTIVE – THE WHITE HAT IS

CONCERNED WITH OBJECTIVE FACTS AND
FIGURES
• Focus on INFORMATION
– What do we know?
– What do we need to know?
– What is missing?
– What Questions should we ask?
– How might we get the information we need/
(Information = Hard Facts + Soft Information)

• No longer a matter of looking for the information that fits

your point of view and your case (as in case of
COGNITIVE DISSONANCE and GROUP-THINK
EFFECT)
(C) Nina Godbole 4
 Think !
The RED Hat
• SUGGESTS ANGER, RAGE and EMOTIONS.
THUS, THE RED HAT GIVES THE EMOTIONAL
VIEW
– I don’t like this idea at all
– My feeling is that this simply will not work out
– My intuition is that extending the schedule will bring in other problems
– My gut feeling is that this is highly dangerous to do
– I feel it is a waste of time

• In normal thinking, our feelings and emotions are not supposed to come in. In
business/work situations, we are expected to ‘disguise’ emotions under ‘logic’

• Under the RED Hat, you do not have to give any reasons at all for your
feelings….(because, in many cases, the reasons behind the feelings are not
clearly known)

• RED Hat Thinking respects that sometimes, Intuition can be based on

experience (C) Nina Godbole 5
 The BLACK Hat Think !

• Somber and serious – the BLACK HAT is for caution and

carefulness. it points out the weakness in an idea
• The most used hat in normal behaviour
• Basis of ‘critical thinking’ (Greek word ‘kritikos’ meaning
judge)
• Critical Thinking is judgment thinking – is this RIGHT or
WRONG?
• The Black Hat stops us from doing things that are wrong,
illegal or dangerous
• Forces us to think “does this fit?”
– Does this fit our values?
– Does this fit our resources?
– Does this fit our strategy and objectives?
– Does this fit our abilities?
(C) Nina Godbole 6
 The YELLOW Hat Think

• Sunny and positive – the YELLOW HAT is optimistic

and covers hope and positive thinking
• Under this, we look for values, benefits and why
something should work
• Value Sensitivity means looking at something with the
intention of finding the value in it
• The YELLOW HAT invites everyone to make an effort to
find value…..
• Rather than criticizing and being negative about the
other is suggesting….

(C) Nina Godbole 7

 Think !
The GREEN Hat
• Grass, vegetation and abundant, fertile growth. The
GREEN HAT indicates creativity and new ideas ! Out-
of-Box thiking
• The Green Hat is the ‘Creative’ Hat
• Asks for Ideas, Alternatives, Possibilities and Designs
• Creativity on Demand !!
• New Ideas range from ideas which are very logical
through the ideas that are just probable/possible to even
ideas that are on the side fantasy!

(C) Nina Godbole 8

 Think !
The BLUE Hat
• Blue is cool, also the colour of the sky which above
everything else
• THE BLUE HAT is concerned with process, control
and overview
• The Blue Hat is like the conductor of the orchestra
• The role of Blue Hat is to organize the other hats
and to organize the thinking
• The second function of the Blue Hat at the
beginning of a Brain Storming session is to lay out
the sequence of hat for the session

(C) Nina Godbole 9

 An Example – ‘Hat’ Responses
Problem – low student attendance for classes
White Hat – 17 out of 30 students absent
Red Hat – Too tough to motivate students to come to
class; they need to travel a lot to make it to
classes
Yellow Hat – if I work on tougher Qns on priority, my
understanding of the subject would improve
Green Hat – lets us work on making Remotely
administered Video mode classes with pre-
recorded sessions
Blue Hat – what is process we are going to follow? How shall we
record the attendance of students who downloaded the
video session and went thru it?
Black Hat – who will pay for the Video Conferencing cost

(C) Nina Godbole 10

 Additional Slides

Psychological Backgrounds

(C) Nina Godbole 11

 What Happens with “Group-
Think”?
•The more cohesive the group the more susceptible it is to groupthink

•A cohesive group is likely to quickly agree on a decision without a

complete, thorough, and objective evaluation of the alternatives

•Members of a cohesive group are less willing to risk social discomfort

or rejection by questioning the majority viewpoint or presenting a
dissenting opinion

•Thus the critical evaluation of ideas is inhibited during decision making

and creativity is reduced during problem solving.

(C) Nina Godbole 12

 Common characteristics of
“Groupthink” Effect
• The illusion of invulnerability: Group members overemphasize
the strengths of the group and exaggerate its capacity to
successfully carry out a risky course of action
• Rationalization of negative information: Group members
collectively discount and rationalize warnings of danger and
indications of likely losses from pursuing a particular course of
action
• Stereotyping of out-groups: Group members share a distorted
perception of rivals, enemies and competitors as too weak and
stupid to be a threat
• Self-censorship: Group members keep silent about their doubts
and misgivings regarding the group’s course of action
• Mind-guarding: Group members take it upon themselves to
protect the group from negative information by suppressing it
• Direct social pressure: Group members apply social pressure to
discourage any expression of doubts or criticism about the
group’s illusions, stereotypes, or judgments.
(C) Nina Godbole 13