This document introduces the Six Thinking Hats technique for structured thinking and decision making. The technique requires individuals or groups to imagine wearing colored hats that represent different perspectives or modes of thinking. The six hats are: Blue for process control, White for objective facts, Yellow for optimism, Green for creativity, Red for emotions, and Black for caution. By deliberately switching between these hats, groups can consider problems from different angles to make better decisions. The document provides examples of questions to ask while wearing each hat to guide the associated type of thinking.

1. INNOVATION TECHNIQUES
Finding solutions

2. SIX THINKING HATS

3. Introduction
• Thinking like any other creative process can be chaotic, create conflicts and lead
to debates at times heated
• Everyone has a ‘point-of-view’, ‘bias’, opinion and different way of thinking
which has been conditioned by their experiences
• Invariably an effective decision should have scrutinized/evaluated the outcomes
from multiple views
• Considering multiple different point of views collectively and consciously as a
technique can therefore enable us make better decisions
• Six Thinking Hats is a thinking technique proposed by Edward De Bono that
helps teams and individuals be innovative and holistic thinkers and decision
makers

4. Introduction
• Six Thinking Hats Technique requires you to ‘imagine’ there are Six hats of
specific colours that you can put on or take off.
• Each is a different colour and represents a different direction/point-of-
view/mental model of thinking.
• Parallel Thinking - Everyone thinks in the same direction at any given point.
• Constructive alternative to arguments
• When we change hats - we change our thinking. Everyone changes direction at
the same time!

5. SIX THINKING HATS
• TRIZ sees problem solving as 4 Step Process

6. BLUE HAT: CO-ORDINATION/ORGANISING/OVER-
SIGHT/CONCLUDE
• Begin & end session with blue hat
• Facilitator, session leader’s role
• Ensure Discipline and focus in discussions
• Controls thinking & the process
• The organization of thinking
• Control of the other hats
Example of questions to ask when wearing Blue Hat:
• At Start:
• What is Problem Statement, What we want to achieve, where we want to end
up, What are Ground Rules, How will we sequence the hats
• At End :
• Summarise the discussion/solution, its benefits/disadvantages etc.,

7. WHITE HAT: INFORMATION/FACTS
• Discuss data, facts, information known or needed
• Be neutral, and objective
• Quote anecdotes, real stories, testimonies
• No room for perception
• Remove biases if any in data
• Example of questions to ask when wearing White Hat:
• What do we know?
• What don’t we know and what do we need to know
• Does this data has any bias?
• What are anecdotes, data about the situation, problem we are going to solve?
• What did our customer say about the problem?

8. YELLOW HAT: POSITIVITY/OPTIMISTIC/BENEFITS
• Consider the goodness of options/solutions on table
• Positive & speculative
• Optimism, opportunity
• Benefits
• Best-case scenarios
• Reasons must be given
• Example of questions to ask when wearing Yellow Hat:
• What are the benefits?
• What is the value?
• Who will benefit?
• In what ways can we make a broken system work?

9. GREEN HAT: CREATIVITY/NEW
IDEAS/ALTERNATIVES
• New ideas, concepts, perceptions
• Deliberate creation of new ideas
• Discuss Alternatives and more alternatives, No criticism
• Discuss New approaches to problems
• Creative & lateral thinking
• Example of questions to ask when wearing Green Hat:
• What is Possible?
• What ideas do you have?
• Can we combine these ideas?
• Is there an alternative?
• What different can we do in this situation?
• Is there an analogous solution that can be applied here?

10. RED HAT: FEELINGS/EMOTIONS/HUNCH AND INTUTION
• Emotions & feelings
• Hunches, intuitions, impressions and perceptions
• Share freely and avoid criticism
• Doesn’t have to be logical or consistent
• No justifications, reasons or basis need to be given
• Example of questions to ask when wearing Red Hat:
• What I feel about this idea?
• Do you think this will be a great idea?
• How will this be perceived?
• Do you like/dislike this?
• What is your opinion?

11. BLACK HAT: NEGATIVITY/FAILURES/DANGERS/LOSSES
• Cautious and careful
• Play Devil’s Advocate: Logical negative – why it won’t work
• Critical judgment, pessimistic view
• Separates logical negative from emotional
• Focus on errors, evidence, conclusions
• Logical & truthful, but not necessarily fair
Example of questions to ask when wearing Black Hat:
• Why this solution won’t work?
• In what cases will this fail?
• What all negative impact this solution has?
• What are roadblocks to get this done?

12. HOW TO APPLY 6-TH TECHNIQUE
• Define clear agenda/goals for discussion, Set Ground Rules,
Think!!
• Use any hat, as often as needed
• Not necessary to use every hat
• Time under each hat: generally, short ~5 mins
• Requires discipline from each person – While using it, stay in
the idiom
• Can be used by individuals and groups

13. 6-TH: SIX THINKING HATS
Thanks!!
Q&A