The Six Thinking Hats

The Six Thinking Hats

	White Hat Thinking White Hat thinking focuses on data, facts, information known or needed.		Black Hat Thinking Black Hat thinking focuses on difficulties, potential problems. Why something may not work.
	Red Hat Thinking Red Hat thinking focuses on feelings, hunches, gut instinct, and intuition.		Green Hat Thinking Green Hat thinking focuses on creativity: possibilities, alternatives, solutions, new ideas.
	Yellow Hat Thinking Yellow Hat thinking focuses on values and benefits. Why something may work.		Blue Hat Thinking Blue Hat thinking focuses on manage the thinking process, focus, next steps, action plans.

White Hat Thinking from Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats

Within Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats process, White Hat Thinking focuses on data, facts, and information known or needed. White Hat Thinking separates fact from speculation. With the White Hat, we look for information that is relevant to the current focus. The value of the information will fall along a spectrum of relevance and of accuracy.

Relevance may range from crucial fact to barely relevant. Accuracy may range from hard fact that can be checked easily to information that is likely to be untrue. Information that falls at any point along these two spectrums can be offered in White Hat thinking so long as the person who offers it also indicates where on each spectrum it falls.

Here are some of the areas that are pursued under the White Hat:

White Hat Thinking: Information That We Have

We can often find more information by taking a close look at what is known than we might expect. It’s like detective work: each known fact can be examined for its significance.

Example:

“The dates of employment for each position on this applicant’s resume shows that she has never held a job for more than 18 months.” (Note: we don’t jump to conclusions, we just note the fact.)

White Hat Thinking: Information That We Would Like to Have

Here we include everything that comes to mind, without deciding whether there is a way to get the information or how urgently it is needed. Sometimes there are ways of getting information that at first seems unattainable.

Example:

“It would be nice to know how this applicant would cope if George retires early and she is left to sort out his recruiting system on her own.”

White Hat Thinking: Information That We Need

If we focus on information that we need after we’ve listed everything that we’d like to have, then it’s a matter of prioritizing. If we’ve gone straight to thinking about what is most needed, then it’s a matter of discriminating. What’s the minimum information we must have before we can move forward?

Example:

“We have to find out if this applicant has experience in integrating social media into a marketing plan before we put her in the final running.”

White Hat Thinking: Information That is Missing

Here we are pinpointing exactly what information is missing.

Example:

“We do not know why this candidate has never held a job for more than 18 months.”

White Hat Thinking: Sources for Getting any Missing Information

Listing sources of information and planning how to get information are part of white hat thinking. It’s never enough to complain that the information is missing. We have to go out and get it.

Example:

“We could ask people who have worked with her in the past.”

White Hat Thinking is very important because the quality of any decision made depends on the quality of the information on which it is based.


Black Hat Thinking from Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats

Within Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats process, Black Hat Thinking explores ways that an idea may not fit the situation, problems we may need to overcome, faults, or why something may not work. During Black Hat Thinking we consider obstacles, existing or potential downsides, and concerns.

The single word that best describes the nature of the Black Hat is “caution.” If we are not cautious, we risk damage, danger, and disaster both for ourselves and for others. Black Thinking Hat protects us from harm.

Black Hat Thinking: Exploring Lack of Fit

Whenever something is suggested, we need to make sure the idea fits the circumstances. Black Hat Thinking points out things that do not fit the facts, regulations, strategy, our experience, or our values.

Examples

“Following this suggestion won’t fit recent changes in the tax laws. It’s no longer to our advantage to do it this way.”

“This proposal to change the specs for building that addition would be less costly. But it doesn’t fit the building codes.”

Black Hat Thinking: Looking at faults

The Black Hat helps us improve on an idea by drawing attention to the faults in the idea. Once we see the faults, we may be able to think of ways to overcome them. Note: We think of ways to overcome them later, when we’re using Green Hat Thinking.

Example

“If we order these items in larger quantities to take advantage of the volume discount, we will have the expense of renting more storage space to warehouse the inventory.”

Black Hat Thinking: Scanning for Potential Problems

Black Hat Thinking can discover potential problems that might arise. Then we can either design ways to avoid the problems or be prepared to address the problems if they do come up.

Example

“If we describe our product in detail on the website, it may be an open invitation for others to copy our design.”

Black Hat Thinking: Assessing Yellow Hat Output

Black Hat Thinking is a powerful assessment tool to use after Yellow Hat Thinking. Before an idea is put into action, we need to see if it is safe, legal, feasible, profitable, etc.

Example

“We found a lot of benefits to this idea; now let’s black hat it.”


Red Hat Thinking from Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats

Within Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats process, Red Hat Thinking focuses on feelings, hunches, gut instinct, and intuition. Red Hat Thinking should last no longer than 30 seconds and is best described in one to two words.

Red Hat Thinking gives validity to feelings and intuition and doesn't require any explanation. Red Hat Thinking may be used more than once within a Six Thinking Hats sequence to gauge feelings, for example, after new White Hat Thinking is presented, and it is not uncommon for Red Hat feelings to change throughout Six Hat Thinking.
The Red Hat Thinking may be used to measure buy-in or commitment after a decision has been made. Red Hat Thinking is also a helpful tool used to sort or prioritize new ideas generated during Green Hat Thinking.

Red Hat Thinking: Signaling feelings

Red Hat Thinking is very valuable because it makes clear that intuition, feelings, and emotions are going to be expressed as such. There is no need to pretend that they are something else. If feelings are indeed present, it is helpful to know what these feelings are. We can then see what we are dealing with.
Example
“My Red Hat feeling is that I resent the email that was sent out.” (Notice that no reasons are given. It is difficult but important not to explain the reasons.)

Red Hat Thinking: Considering Feelings in Decision Making

Feelings and intuition cannot be checked out, so it is unwise to use the Red Hat alone for decision making. However, Intuition, hunches, feelings, and emotions have a high value as “ingredients” in the thinking that leads up to a decision.
Example
“The facts do not support going ahead with the plan, but my Red Hat feeling is that we should explore it further.”

Red Hat Thinking: Recognizing a Range of Feelings

Red Hat Thinking includes a wide variety of possible feelings. On the positive/negative scale, people may report everything from detesting an idea to being wildly enthusiastic. More subtle feelings are also included: feeling curious or mildly interested, being uncertain or ambivalent, finding a proposal boring, etc.
When taking the general temperature of a group (rather than feelings about a specific issue), various members may report feeling upset, fearful, excited, angry, determined, exasperated, optimistic, tired, or a host of other internal states. It can be helpful to know what state people are in before you even start the agenda. Remember not to ask for explanations.
Examples
“I’m excited that we’re meeting today and can’t wait to get started.” 
“My Red Hat is annoyance.”

Green Hat Thinking from Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats

Within Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats process, Green Hat Thinking focuses on creativity & innovation: possibilities, alternatives, solutions, new ideas. Green Hat Thinking provides a specific time that is dedicated to creative thinking and innovation. Green Hat Thinking helps us find new ways of doing things, and it also provides an opportunity to think about ways to overcome concerns identified during Black Hat Thinking.
Green Hat Thinking may be used on its own or within a Six Thinking Hats sequence where the hats are used in a particular order to thoroughly explore a subject.

Green Hat Thinking: The Green Hat as a Formal Signal

People often say that they cannot be creative because they don’t have time or their work culture doesn’t encourage it. Green Hat Thinking creates a micro culture for innovation at any given moment.
Example
“We need to think of other ways to do this. Put on your Green Hats.”

Green Hat Thinking: Expecting Creative Effort

You cannot demand that people have wonderful new ideas, but you can expect them to develop a habit of making a creative effort. Use Green Hat Thinking to call for this effort. Creativity is a matter of investing time in generating ideas. You won’t get a wonderful idea every time you use Green Hat Thinking, but if you do not put forth any effort, you may not get any new ideas at all.
Example
“This is a difficult situation. Let’s spend three minutes using the Green Hat. Jot down your ideas individually. Then we’ll see what we’ve come up with.”

Green Hat Thinking: Adopting a Creative Attitude

What if you’re in a Green Hat session and can’t think of any ideas? The simplest form of creative effort is to look for alternatives. Even if these are well-known, it’s a creative effort to recall and list them. The minimum creative effort during Green Hat Thinking is to think of alternatives.
Example
“Here’s one alternative: We could bundle some of the slower selling items in with more popular ones and sell the combination as a package. What are other options?”

Green Hat Thinking: Green Hat Thinking in Problem Solving

When Black Hat Thinking reveals faults, the Green Hat is used to remove these faults. When Black Hat Thinking points out difficulties, Green Hat Thinking tries to overcome these difficulties.
Example
“Let’s use the Green Hat right now to see if we can fix the Black Hat problems.”

Yellow Hat Thinking from Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats

Within Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats process, Yellow Hat Thinking focuses on values, benefits, or why something may work. With the Yellow Hat, we look for reasons for optimism and feasibility. We also separate the specific idea from the underlying concept.

Yellow Hat Thinking: Values and Benefits

Values are more abstract than benefits. We may sense a value in an idea and then need to look around to see how the value can be enjoyed. Benefits are more specific. Who will reap the benefits? How are the benefits going to be enjoyed?

Examples
“Could we implement this idea in such a way that it improves customer satisfaction?”
“Awarding a bonus for employees at their five-year anniversary may reduce our turn-over.”


Yellow Hat Thinking: Reasons for Optimism
In Yellow Hat Thinking, there must be reasons to support the benefits that are claimed. In Green Hat Thinking, we note possibilities even if they are vague and unlikely. With the Yellow Hat, we must have reasons why something has value or might work.
Example
“If we include home décor along with our outdoor sporting equipment, we could attract people who don’t actually get out much, but who like to feel that they lead a healthy, active lifestyle.”

Yellow Hat Thinking: Feasibility

Can this idea be made to work? Will this idea work in practice?  We can estimate feasibility given the existing system, and we can also consider modifying either the idea or the system to increase the feasibility.
Example
“How could we feasibly expand the public school system downward to cover children aged three and up?”

Yellow Hat Thinking: Concepts

Sometimes the idea itself is unattractive, but the concept behind the idea has great value. Any idea is only one way of carrying out a concept. There may be better ways. So we keep the concept alive and later use Green Hat Thinking to develop more feasible ways to carry it out.
Example
“This idea is not very attractive but the underlying concept of creating an online store as well as setting up distributors has a lot of potential.”

Blue Hat Thinking from Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats

Within Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats process, Blue Hat Thinking focuses on managing the thinking process, keeping participants on track, and stating what has been accomplished.

Every Six Thinking Hats sequence begins and ends with Blue Hat Thinking. At the beginning of Six Hat Thinking, the Blue Hat is used to define the focus (what we're going to think about). Under the Blue Hat, we also lay out which hats will be used, in what order, and for what amount of time. During the meeting, the Blue Hat takes requests and maintains discipline.

At the end of a Six Thinking Hats session or meeting, Blue Hat Thinking is used to note conclusions and determine next steps.

Blue Hat Thinking: Defining the Focus

In defining the focus, Blue Hat questions include these kinds of things:

• What is the subject?
• What are we thinking about?
• What is our goal?

Example

“We agreed to hold this meeting to target the customers most likely to keep buying our products during an economic downturn.”

Blue Hat Thinking: Setting out the Agenda

Here we’re referring to making a plan for using the hats as well as for how and when we’re going to handle any other activity during the meeting.

Example

“Okay, Blue Hat, everyone. We have the conference room for one hour. What hat sequence would make the most of our time?”

Blue Hat Thinking: Maintaining Discipline

When discussions become heated or get off track, there is a need for someone to put on the Blue Hat and control the situation. Otherwise, the thinking can quickly revert to the traditional argument.

Examples

”That is a good Yellow Hat point. Right now, however, we are using Green Hat Thinking and listing all of the alternatives we can think of.“

“The focus of this meeting is how to eliminate unnecessary steps in the ordering process. We can change the focus if we all agree, but we don’t want to drift away from it by accident. Let’s stick to the original focus for now.”

Blue Hat Thinking: Noting Conclusions

It is part of Blue Hat Thinking to state conclusions that a group seems to have reached and get agreement to or revision of the stated conclusions. Even if no decision has been made, the conclusion should note new ideas and approaches that have been considered. A summary is concerned with what has taken place. A conclusion is concerned with what has been achieved.

Example

“The conclusion is that each sales area should decide on its own promotion and price-cutting policy.”