Six Thinking Hats

The Six Thinking Hats designed by Dr Edward de Bono, is an ingenious framework to think through a subject in a focused way that makes time and space for creative thinking.  It is used extensively in companies such as DuPont, IBM, Prudential Life Insurance, British Airways, and Tata Consultancy Services to have efficient, productive meetings.

The underlying principle in the Six Thinking Hats framework is that parallel thinking is more productive than argument.  There are six hats.  Each hat has a different colour and represents a different dimension in thinking about the subject being addressed.  Everyone wears the same hat at the same time.  The hats can be put on and taken off depending on the sequence of thinking that makes the most sense.

The Six Thinking Hats framework is easily explained to participants by an experienced facilitator in 10-15 minutes and can effectively help people think though different issues in one to two hours.  It encourages parallel thinking with others, directs thinking in discrete segments, switches thinking from one mode to another, separates ego from performance, and provides a way to systematically explore a subject thoroughly and creatively.  It can be used individually or in groups, at work or at home.

The Six Thinking Hats framework generally works best with a mixed group of participants who range from highly “adaptive” to highly “innovative”.  The reason is that regardless of the hat the group is wearing, there is a more balanced input to the thinking process.  Adaptive-style creative thinkers tend to express viewpoints consistent with existing structures, while innovative-style creative thinkers generate less convential views.

During the six-hat discussion, “adaptors” consistently follow the rules of parallel thinking, while “innovators” often stray and require reminders.  Generally, adaptive-style thinkers and innovative-style thinkers contribute equally to the successful output of the Six Thinking Hats framework.