Six Thinking Hats

By Edward de Bono

Essentially, "Six Thinking Hats" is about improving communication and decision-making in groups. De Bono's style is accessible, succinct, well-structured and easy to follow. It is not with a certain justification that he claims that "his work is in use equally in board-rooms of some of the world's largest corporations and with four-year-olds in school." Well, where is the difference, anyway?

What de Bono wants to achieve is to structure thinking and make it more effective. "Thinking often proceeds as drift and waffle and reaction to what turns up from moment to moment. [...] Suggestions, judgements, criticism, information and plain emotions are all mixed together in a sort of thinking stew," he writes. The six "thinking hats" are different ways of looking at an issue that has to be decided: under the white hat one presents the facts, under the red hat one says how one feels about the issue, under the black hat one looks at the negative effects of the decision, under the yellow hat one looks at the positive effects of the decision, under the green hat one thinks of alternatives, and under the blue hat one clarifies which kind of thinking is going on. Overall, thinking becomes clearer when the different parts that go into it are brought into the open.

The idea of the "hat" has the advantage that it allows people to play with a new perspective. People who argue by criticism, for example, can remain mostly critical. But by putting on the red hat they can voice their emotions, or by putting on the yellow hat they can think about positive effects. Western thinking tends strongly to focus on "black hat thinking," says de Bono: "At a Western-style meeting the participants sit there with their points of view and in many cases the conclusion they wish to see agreed upon. The meeting then consists of arguing through these different points of view to see which survives the criticism and which attracts the most adherents." De Bono wants to get away from this judgmental, confrontational style towards a more open, positive, creative and playful way of discussing.
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