The Six Thinking Hats
by Norm Peplow
Part One
Did you ever have a meeting that was out of control – going all over the map? Where attendees had their own agenda. People playing “devil’s advocate” to put down others ideas or trying to earn points with the boss.
Many organizations, such as IBM, NASA, and Du Pont, recognized these
problems, and implemented Dr. Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats methods to
improve performance. These methods will help: separate ego from performance,
encourage parallel thinking, and encourage
full-spectrum thinking
Parallel Thinking
First, lets look at parallel thinking. The purpose is to ensure everyone present is looking at a subject from the same direction or point of view at the same time. The following is paraphrased from an example by Dr. de Bono, ‘When looking at a large and beautiful house one person is standing in front, one in back, and one on each side of the house. All four are arguing that the view they see is the correct description of the house. In contrast, using parallel thinking the observers view each side at the same time, in parallel and from the same point or direction. The house is then fully explored by all.’
The Six Hats of Thinking?
You may remember being asked to put on your thinking hat. This concept is expanded into the Six Hats of Thinking to allow for full spectrum thinking and identification of the thinking direction. Each of the Six Hats serves a specific purpose.
Part Two
In the last part we reviewed Parallel Thinking as a means to fully explore an idea or subject. To facilitate parallel thinking, the Six Hats of Thinking concept can be used. With this concept, each hat represents a different thinking direction, has its own color, and is symbolic.
White Hat thinking collects information and pulls it together. It drops arguments, feelings, and proposals and focuses on the data.
Green Hat thinking represents creativity, exploring new ideas, suggestions and proposals.
Yellow Hat thinking is used when assessing value and benefits, and determining how to make something work.
Black Hat thinking is the hat of judgment and caution. It is the hat of logic and is used to evaluate facts, systems and policies.
Red Hat thinking is used to express emotions, feelings and intuitions. It does not have to be backed up with data and facts.
Blue Hat thinking is the hat of organization. Use it to evaluate what was done and what needs to be done next.
The Six Hats in Practice
The concept can be used in meetings to ensure items and ideas are thoroughly evaluated, points-of-view are identified, facts and data are presented, and opinion and feelings identified. For example:
- To establish direction, start a meeting with the Blue Hat to evaluate what was previously done
- Focus on facts - have team wear the White Hat to present facts and data - no opinions here
- Need new ideas on a project? Have team put on the Green Hat
- What are benefits of new program? Ask for some Yellow Hat thinking
- Put on the Red Hat when stating feelings on a subject
- Question to separate facts from opinion - "Was that White Hat or Red Hat?"
- Use Black Hat when evaluating and making judgments
Continue the process as required. Finally, you may put on the Blue Hat to review and summarize meeting results.
Implementation
Train your team members in the concept. Teams must know the meaning of the Hats, must follow the system and practice.
Benefits
As this approach is understood and implemented, you will see benefits including the following:
- More productive meetings
- Items more fully explored
- Decisions more easily reached
- Data separated from opinion and emotion
Now, put on your Yellow Hat and think of how this could benefit you or your team. Additional information and guidance can be obtained from the book Six Thinking Hats, by Edward de Bono, published by Back Bay Books.