Six Thinking Hats Overview
The following is a summary of the six hats from the book Six Thinking Hats by Edward De Bono
The Blue Hat
- Why are we here
- What are we thinking about
- The definition of the situation or problem
- Alternative definitions
- What we want to achieve
- Where we want to end up
- A plan for the sequence of hats to be used
The White Hat
- What information do we have?
- What information do we need?
- What information is missing?
- What questions do we need to ask?
- How are we going to get the information we need?
- Who, What, Where, Why, When, How?
The Green Hat
- Layout options and alternatives
- Seek to modify and improve suggested ideas
- Put forward possibilities
- New ideas and new ways of looking at things
- Some answers are much better than others; they cost less, are more reliable or are more easy to implement
The Red Hat
- Express feelings and emotions without justification
- Feelings are emotions are not always accurate
- Specify what the Red hat is being used for
- If people think they have to validate their feelings, they will put forward only feelings that can be validated
- Express feelings as they exist – not to force a judgment
- Feelings and emotions can be bring about non-rational aspects of thinking
The Yellow Hat
- Provides opportunity for positive thinking
- A deliberate search for the positive
- Sometimes this search is futile
- There may be very positive points that are not at all obvious at first sight
- Covers positive judgment
The Black Hat
- A symbol for caution
- Used for being careful
- Opportunity to be logical
- Make possible to examine and point out deficiencies in the thinking process itself
- Opportunity to express differing points of view
- Provides opportunity to identify clear map of possible problems, obstacles, difficulties and dangers
The Blue Hat
- What we have achieved
- Outcome
- Conclusion
- Solution
- Next steps