Six Thinking Hats

The book – Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono is a guide to channelize our thinking in an effective way and accomplish the job gracefully. Six hats’ thinking method of thinking is based on the scientific study of how the brain works under different moods. In this method, the main focus is on collaborative thinking rather than spending time in arguments. Thus during meetings all members are made to think on a single aspect of the problem at a time. Eventually all aspects of a problem are studied and so the conclusion is easy and faster to arrive at. According to de Bono, there are six different ways/moods to look at a problem. Each of these moods can be represented by a different color; a hat is used as a metaphor for a man’s role in the current situation.
I jotted down certain main points while reading this book, so that I can run through those at any point of time later. Here is the summary of the book, which I guess is quite sufficient for one to understand de Bono’s idea of thinking hats.

White Hat – Under this hat one has to pay attention to absolute information. The thinker has to be neutral at the time of White Hat thinking.

Red Hat – As opposed to White Hat, you can give your feelings/intuitions/emotional thoughts about the problem/solution at hand. The thoughts presented under this hat need no reasoning or justifications. Don’t let your emotions lay away. They are equally important in decision-making as the detached inputs of White Hat.

Black Hat – Black means Danger, Black means Caution. You have to think about all the hindrances. You must use your critical abilities to the fullest. You must think of all negatives. (This is termed as Western Style of thinking.) However critics without logic is not Black Hat thinking but Red Hat thinking. This hat mainly focuses on risk assessment.

Yellow Hat – Think of sunshine, think of a positive. There is a yellow hat. An optimistic outlook about the problem/solution is expected of a yellow hat thinker. Under this hat you are supposed to present your constructive ideas and suggestions. While Black hat thinking is about thinking of negative aspect of the solution, the yellow hat has an answer for those critics. Black hat points out the faults but do not state what is right where as the yellow hat shows the right methods to opt for.

Green Hat – Green hat is a symbol of creativity and growth. One has to wear green hat to search for alternatives, creativity being the fundamental of it. Provocation (termed as po) is an important part of this hat. The hat seeks movement all the time. The thinker has to provoke a new idea from the current.

Blue Hat – Blue signifies the sky, an overview. It helps to define a problem at a broader perspective. At the beginning, it is used, it helps to define the scope of the problem and again in the end, it can be used to evaluate the solutions arrived at during the discussion. A coordinator should wear this hat throughout the meeting to ensure a discipline. This hat is to be used as a milestone where the progress made so far is to be analyzed and strategy for the next steps is to be decided. Thus by wearing the blue hat we can track the progress of the whole thinking. It means thinking/organizing the thinking process itself. It sets a purpose to the thinking process. The difference between a good thinker and a poor thinker is the ability to focus and that’s the key role of blue hat thinking.

Summary
I can illustrate the use of thinking hats with an example of a half-empty and half-filled glass. A person wearing a white hat will state the simple fact that the glass is half empty and half filled. A person wearing a black hat can only see the emptiness of the glass. A person wearing a yellow hat will emphasize on the being half-filled. A person wearing a red hat will show his concern about the half filled glass and will wish to see the glass filled completely. A green hat thinker can suggest some ways to fill the rest of the glass. The blue hat thinker, mostly the head of the meeting, will analyze those ideas.

The book puts forth a new concept of thinking hats that resemble human’s thinking patterns. By wearing each hat separately depending on the need (the order is alterable as required), one can make his/her brain to think in a particular direction. Thus Edward de Bono suggests that a human can actually learn to think if a careful attempt is made. Well, that sounds interesting to me. Now I am looking forward to read his other books viz. – Teach Yourself to Think, Practical Thinking lateral etc. Lets see when I get hold of these books. Till then I am full of hats…