Six thinking hats

1. De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats
Dr Sunil Gupta

2.  It is a technique that helps meetings become more
productive.
 The attendees of the meeting separate thinking
into six distinct categories.
 Each category is identified with its own coloured
metaphorical “thinking hat.”
 The hats are red, black, yellow, green, white and
blue.
Six Thinking Hats

3.  By mentally wearing and switching "hats," the
whole meeting focuses better attention at the
problem.
 The whole meeting wears one hat at a time and it is
the role of all the attendees to come up with
information which is relevant during that part of
the meeting to the hat being discussed.
 The hats can be worn in any order and more than
once in a discussion on a particular topic.
 The hats can also be used by an individual thinking
about a problem.
Six Thinking Hats

4.  Change from adversarial to parallel thinking
 More focused thinking
 Saving time from doing one thing at a time
 Removing ego from decisions and more
collaboration
 More creativity and innovation
Results of Six Hat Thinking

5. De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats

6.  The White Hat calls for information known or
needed
 Neutral and objective
The White Hat

7.  The Red Hat signifies participant’s feelings,
hunches and intuition
 Do not have to give any reasons or
justification
 Keep it short
The Red Hat

8.  The Black Hat is judgement, the devil’s
advocate or why something may not work
 Cautious, dangers, problems, faults
 Logical reasons must be given
The Black Hat

9.  The Yellow Hat symbolizes brightness and
optimism
 Why it may work
 The good points in the idea
 Positive Thinking
 Constructive
 Give logical reasons
The Yellow Hat

10.  The Green Hat focuses on creativity: the
possibilities, alternatives and new ideas
 How to overcome the Black Hat problems
 How to reinforce Yellow Hat values
The Green Hat

11.  The Blue Hat is used to manage the thinking
process
 Setting the Focus
 Making summaries
 Overviews
 Conclusions
 Action Plans
The Blue Hat

12.  Define the focus of your thinking
 Plan the sequence and timing of the thinking
 Ask for changes in the thinking if needed
 Handle requests from the group for changes
in the thinking
 Form periodic or final summaries of the
thinking for consideration by the team
Facilitator’s Role

13.  Follow the lead of the facilitator
 Stick to the hat (type of thinking) that is in
current use
 Try to work within the time limits
 Contribute honestly and fully under each of
the hats
Participant’s Role

14.  Six Thinking Hats is a useful technique to
make meetings more productive.
 The whole meeting wears one metaphorical
hat at a time.
 It can save time, bring about more focused
thinking, more collaboration and more
creativity.
Summary

15.  Edward De Bono. Six Thinking Hats (1985) ISBN 0-316-
17831-4
 http://www.debonogroup.com/six_thinking_hats.php
Further Reading