Whether you’ve heard of the Six Thinking Hats before, consider this as your sign to give it a try for yourself at least once. Here’s why. Not only is it an exercise you can do as an individual or as part of a team, but it can also be applied to a wide variety of situations we encounter every day in the workplace. It’s as the founder of the concept, Dr. Edward de Bono, wrote in his book, “It is the sheer convenience of the Six Thinking Hats that is the main value of the concept.”
In the following article, we’ll provide you with a brief but straightforward explanation of the Six Thinking Hats, a list of questions, instructions on how to lead an exercise of your own, and a template to get you started. Let’s begin.
The Six Thinking Hats is an exercise that can be used to make decisions, develop ideas, challenge assumptions, and spark conversation. Today, it is used by individuals, leaders, and teams around the world in all industries, including business and government.
Originally, the concept was published in the 1985 book, Six Thinking Hats by physician and psychologist Dr. Edward de Bono. In the book, Dr. de Bono explained, “In many cultures, there is already a strong association between thinking and ‘thinking hats’ or ‘caps’. The value of a hat as a symbol is that it indicates a role. Another advantage is that a hat can be put on or taken off with ease.”
The great thing about this exercise is that you can use it in countless different situations, whether with a group or on your own. In fact, here are a few of the most common use cases of the Six Thinking Hats in today’s workplace:
The arguably most common use of the Six Thinking Hats exercise is during the decision-making process, prompting you to think about a decision from all angles and perspectives.
Whether you’re debriefing a project, mistake, or problem, it can be difficult to get everything you need out of retrospective and post-mortem meetings. The Six Thinking Hats exercise is the ideal remedy for this, as it provides structure and ensures every perspective is covered.
When dealing with a workplace conflict where all sides have dug in their heels, the Six Thinking Hats exercise can be used to get people thinking about the situation from a different perspective, which in turn, can make them more amenable to a resolution.
If you’ve come up with an innovative idea or solution, the Six Thinking Hats exercise will help you develop that idea further and come to a conclusion about whether or not it is an idea you want and are prepared to pursue.
After announcing a change initiative, you can use the Six Thinking Hats exercise to help gain buy-in and reduce resistance to change, as it makes people think about the initiative from a perspective they might not have otherwise.
So, what are the six metaphorical thinking hats, exactly? Here is a brief overview of them and the specific role they play in this exercise:
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The blue hat focuses on translating the thinking of all the other hats into actionable steps. In his book, Dr. de Bono likens the blue hat to a conductor as “conductors get the best out of the orchestra by seeing that what should be done is done at the right time.”
The white hat is objective and logical. It remains neutral by focusing on facts, data, and information that can be proven, not on offering ideas or opinions of its own.
The red hat leans into their emotions, feelings, instincts, and gut feeling. As Dr. de Bono points out, “Using the red hat gives you an opportunity to [these things] without any need to explain or to justify them.”
The yellow hat leans into the desire to “make things happen,” says Dr. de Bono. They are focused on being optimistic and finding value in the problem/decision/task at hand.
The black hat is the one that points out all the reasons why something won’t work. They are focused on foreseeing possible dangers, risks, consequences, difficulties, and roadblocks.
The green hat asks, “What’s possible?” They are focused on finding creative, out-of-the-box solutions and alternatives.
Given that this concept has been around for nearly 40 years, today, many opinions exist about the best way to lead a Six Thinking Hats exercise. While the instructions below are certainly one way to go about it, they aren’t your only option. We encourage you to experiment with them and make them your own over time so that they work as you need them for your team and workplace.
Always starts and ends up with the blue hat. Beyond that, the rest of the hats have no right or wrong order. Here’s an example: Blue, White, Red, Yellow, Black, Green, Blue.
Give everyone time to collect their thoughts and make notes under the relevant hat using this Six Thinking Hats template.
Before opening up the floor, set a time limit for each hat so that you don’t accidentally spend the entire time allotted for the exercise on only one or two of the six hats. Of course, if the discussion is going well for a particular hat, you can allow for extra time as needed.
As the leader, outline the purpose of the exercise, explain the situation/decision/problem, set ground rules, and describe what you want to achieve by the end of the exercise.
Start the timer and open the floor for discussion. As the leader, it’s your job to ensure the discussion remains on the hat in question and does not deviate to another. It’s also up to you to capture everyone’s thoughts and take notes. If you’re conducting the exercise virtually, Google Docs or Canva Whiteboards will allow you to do this together in real time. Though, a whiteboard or a wall and some sticky notes will have a similar effect if you’re doing the exercise in person. If you choose the latter, just be sure to snap a picture at the end.
Repeat the previous step for each of the remaining hats.
Once all the hats have been discussed, return to the blue hat so you can draw conclusions and assign any action items that came from the exercise.
In his book, Dr. de Bono notes that, in some cases, you may want to return to the red hat one final time. He writes, “This final red hat reflects back on the ‘thinking performance’: What do we feel about our thinking? Are we happy with the outcome? Did we do a good job?”
After the exercise, don’t forget to send a copy of the notes you took to everyone who participated.
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