The Six Thinking Hats

This is a valuable exercise in Creative Thinking that can be used individually or in groups.  It applies to your personal and professional life. 

There are six metaphorical hats and the thinker can put on or take off one of these hats to indicate the type of thinking being used. This putting on and taking off is essential. The hats must never be used to categorize individuals, even though their behavior may seem to invite this. When done in group, everybody wears the same hat at the same time.

White Hat thinking

This covers facts, figures, information needs and gaps. "I think we need some white hat thinking at this point..." means Let's drop the arguments and proposals, and look at the data base."

Red Hat thinking

This covers intuition, feelings and emotions. The red hat allows the thinker to put forward an intuition without any need to justify it. "Putting on my red hat, I think this is a terrible proposal." Usually feelings and intuition can only be introduced into a discussion if they are supported by logic. Usually the feeling is genuine but the logic is spurious. The red hat gives full permission to a thinker to put forward his or her feelings on the subject at the moment.

Black Hat thinking

This is the hat of judgment and caution. It is a most valuable hat. It is not in any sense an inferior or negative hat. The rigor or negative hat. The black hat is used to point out why a suggestion does not fit the facts, the available experience, the system in use, or the policy that is being followed. The black hat must always be logical (explain why)

Yellow Hat thinking

This is the logical positive. Why something will work and why it will offer benefits. It can be used in looking forward to the results of some proposed action, but can also be used to find something of value in what has already happened.

Green Hat thinking

This is the hat of creativity, alternatives, suggestions, new angles, proposals, what is interesting, provocation and changes.

Blue Hat thinking

This is the overview or process control hat. It looks not at the subject itself but at the 'thinking' about the subject. "Putting on my blue hat, I feel we should do some more green hat thinking at this point." In technical terms, the blue hat is concerned with meta-cognition.

Dr. Edward de Bono is the world’s leading authority on conceptual thinking as the driver of

organizational innovation, strategic leadership, individual creativity, and problem solving. Since

1970 his exclusive tools and methods have brought astonishing results to organizations large

and small worldwide and to individuals from a wide range of cultures, educational backgrounds,

occupations, and age groups. Dr. de Bono delivers the advanced training solutions so needed

for success in these challenging times.

Dr. de Bono has been credited with producing thinking techniques that are simple, practical, and

powerful. His Six Thinking Hats®, Lateral Thinking™, and DATT™ (Direct Attention Thinking

Tools) training courses are now being implemented in organizations of all sizes because of their

simplicity and their power to change thinking behavior, increase productivity, foster teambuilding,

and evoke profitable innovation.

Born in Malta, de Bono was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, is an M.D. and Ph.D., and has held

appointments at Oxford and Cambridge Universities, the University of London, and Harvard

University. He has written over 60 books, and his work has been translated into over 35

languages. He is the owner of the Isle of Tessera, Venice, the headquarters of the Promostudio

Training and Management Centre.