Six Thinking Hats

Overview

The Six Thinking Hats is a group thinking exercise developed by Edward de Bono and was published in 1985. The Six Thinking Hats is used to structure and plan thinking processes for ... and is described as parallel thinking, as it encourages exploration and lateral thinking.

Methodology

.... parallel thinking .... differing points of view

.... not the natural way of thinking .... hats are not meant to be worn for lengthy periods of time

Method

Each hat represents a different type of thinking and is worn by each member during group discussions, ensuring all members are able to investigate and explore all points of view in parallel.

Red Hat

The red hat is used to explore the emotional perspective of a project, program or portfolio. Th wearer is usually intuitive and instinctive and will usually rely on their gut reactions, feelings, emotions and instincts for the discussion. The wearer will not provide any justification for their responses.

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Red Hat

Yellow Hat

The yellow hat is used to explore the optimistic persepctive of a project, program or portfolio. The wearer will be optimistic and always thinking about the benefits. Typically the wearer will try to identify the positive aspects of the project/program/portfolio and will provide logical reasoning for them. Yellow hat thinkers are also seeking harmony within the discussion.

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Yellow Hat

Blue Hat

The blue hat is used to explore the managing perspective of a project, program or portfolio. It is used to discuss process control and typically the wearer of the blue hat is trying to organise the thinking and plan for action, they will ask questions, ask for summaries, conslusions and decisions.

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Blue Hat

Green Hat

The green hat is used to explore the creativity persepctive of a project, program or portfolio. It is used to enable outside the box thinking and typically the wearer will provoke others and i´nvestigate ideas or thóughts. The wearer of the green hat usually comes up with alternatives, ideas and solutions to black hat problems.

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Green Hat

White Hat

The white hat is used to explore the facts of a project, program or portfolio. The wearer of the white hat will only use available information in their assessments and discussions and will remain neutral and objective.

Typical questions asked by white hat wearers:

"What are the facts?" "What do I know?" "What do I need to know?" "How will i get the information I need?"

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White Hat

Black Hat

The black hat is used to explore the cautious perspective of a project, program or portfolio. The wearer will typically think of the risks, challenges, obstacles and barriers. The black hat thinker will provide logical reasons for their concerns and is generally conservative, practical and realistic in their reponses.

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Black Hat