Six Thinking Hats

Situation! John Q was a guy that was recently

fired from his job, because he was too lazy. He has no family, but he wants to change his way of living.

White Hat

With this hat people usually think in an analitic way. The search for all the information they already have to make desicions later.

With this situation, John has no job, need to earn money and avoid his lazyness, so he analyzes why he was fired, what can he do about it and how.

Black Hat

This hat thinks of solutions that avoid something you don´t want to do that could damage yourself or other people.

With this kind of thinking, John Q has these solutions:

-If he gets a job, he might damage his

co-workers and the enterprise because he`s too lazy. He might not get enough money or he`s just too lazy to work again.

Yellow Hat

This is the hat people uses to see the bright side of the situation and start being optimist.

John Q this time would be thinking that a job will bring him a lot of benefits.

Green Hat

This hat stands for creativity.

In this case, John Q would think of very different solutions. For example, he would think of looking for a job that he has never done, or at something that he`s good at. Most likely, he would think of solutions that he didn´t think on before.

Red Hat

Blue Hat

Stands for process control.

John Q would orther the ideas he already though and then look for the better one.

In this case it would be changing his lazyness for responsability and look for a job in which he`s good at.

But where are the 6 thinking hats from?

Dr. Edward De Bono

Suggested use of the Thinking Hats

It better separates fact from opinion.

It more easily identifies important parts of the decision making process.

It provides a neutral language for meta-discussion. You can say, "Take off your black hat for a moment and look at the upside." The idea is not that black hat is wrong, but that it is not the appropriate hat here. All the hats are equally valuable.

It prevents arguments by keeping everybody under the same hat at the same time, and putting down contradictory ideas in parallel.

It provides a discipline to ensure that the issue under consideration is seen from many sides (e.g., from the points of view of all six hats).

So, in summary they`re used

To encourage people to use more hat's than they normally do to.

To defer inappropriate modes of thought to a more appropriate moment in the discussion and not to eliminate them.

Six Thinking Hats Applications

Facilitation of meetings (both live & virtual) Leadership development Innovative Thinking Problem solving and decision making Project management Preparation for discussions New products and new designs Marketing Strategic Planning Six Sigma and process improvement Customer focus groups/interviews

Thanks!