Put On Your Thinking Hat

Carolyn DicksonPosted by Carolyn Dickson on May 4th, 2010 | 0 Comments

In 1985, Edward DeBono published a book that changed the way I think about group dynamics. Six Thinking Hats put forth an easy-to-understand, easy-to-implement method of communicating among team members that leads to time saving, and focused problem solving.

The premise is this: When an idea is offered, someone will like the idea, someone else will think it’s crazy, and another will be reminded of something else entirely and take the conversation in a different direction entirely. People will argue over who is right and who is wrong. Sides are drawn, arguments ensue, and nothing really gets accomplished.

The Six Thinking Hats creates an environment where everyone operates in what DeBono calls parallel thinking. That is, together people look at a topic from one side, then switch their thinking and look at it from another side, then another, and so on. By calling for people to “switch hats to one of a different color,” a group leader or facilitator can orchestrate a problem-solving session free of ego, power plays, and/or emotional outbursts.

In the past few years, we haven’t heard much about the Six Thinking Hats. Perhaps they’ve fallen out of favor. They can be such a valuable tool, however, that I believe it’s worth taking a fresh look at them.

The white hat. The white hat is about information. It is neutral and objective, concerned with facts and figures. It answers the questions: What information do we have? What information do we need? What information is missing?

The red hat. The red hat gives you an opportunity to express feelings, emotions and intuition without any need to explain or justify them.

The black hat. The black hat is the hat of caution. It helps us figure out what is wrong, what does not fit, and what is not going to work. The “devil’s advocate” wears the black hat.

The yellow hat. The yellow hat is positive and constructive. Under the yellow hat, people think of possible ways to put the idea into practice. They ask, “How can we make this work.”

The green hat. Under the green hat, people brainstorm. It’s the time to be creative—off the wall—out of the box. The green hat is a way of escaping from old ideas and making a deliberate, focused effort to find new ones.

The blue hat. The blue hat is for the management of thinking. Like the conductor of a great orchestra who brings the diverse instruments together into a brilliant, sonorous ensemble, the group leader or facilitator wears the blue hat and orchestrates the thinking of the group.

As you can see, these six colored hats cover the range of thinking needed in problem solving. Although there are many ways to put them in order, here is one example of how they can be effectively sequenced.

  1. The blue hat comes first. State the purpose of the meeting and lay down the guidelines.
  2. Wearing the white hat, go on a fact-finding mission. What do we know? What do we need to know? How can we get information we don’t have? What questions do we need to ask?
  3. Green-hat thinking comes next. Brainstorm new ideas. Anything goes, No one can censor an idea when he or she is wearing the green hat.
  4. Now is the time to think positively. Put on the yellow hat and find ways to make things work. Look for value in every idea.
  5. Even though it’s been difficult, the black hat has had to wait. Only now can you examine what you’ve done with a critical eye. What’s the downside? What are the risks?
  6. Finally the red-hat question can be asked: How does this make you feel? What’s your gut reaction? What does your intuition tell you?
  7. Throughout, the blue hat has been managing the process, making sure people stay on track and change hats until it’s time.

This method takes personalities out of problem solving. If everyone is in yellow-hat mode, no one can turn the discussion negative. But when it’s time for the black hat, cool, clear-headed analysis takes the sting out of negative thinking. And emotion can take its rightful place when the red hat is called for.

The Six Thinking Hats can be a valuable tool in the facilitator’s bag of tricks. I hope you will give it a try.

Image by Øyvind Brunvoll

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