Six Thinking Hats Exercise

Edward DeBono's Six Thinking Hats exercise is an alternative way to look at making decisions and setting goals using information, emotions, logic, creativity, caution and optimism.

Each "hat" represents a different perspective. You can use this technique individually or with a team to consider a problem from different angles.

An Overview of Each Hat:

WHITE HAT is the information hat and fact gathering. This is a neutral position hat.

RED HAT: is the intuitive and feeling hat. What is your gut reaction?

BLUE HAT: the planning and organizing hat.

GREEN HAT: the creative hat for new ideas and solutions.

BLACK HAT: the caution hat looking at risks, problems, pit-falls.

YELLOW HAT: optimism, looking at positive benefits and advantages.

 

Questions that go with each HAT:

WHITE:  Who, what, where? What are the facts?

RED: What is your hunch or intuition? What are your feelings or gut response?

BLUE: What is the main idea? What is action plan? Was the problem solved?

GREEN: What else can be done? What is the value? What might be holding us back?

BLACK: What are the risks? Are there weaknesses? What are the consequences?

YELLOW: Can we make this work? What are the benefits? What are the positive outcomes?

I have used the Six Thinking Hats in a networking group and it was a lot of fun and very informative. If you like working with a spreadsheet or graph, the below is an example of how to pull this together. Have fun with it!