Origins & Intentions
Created by Edward De Bono, The Six Thinking Hats is a brainstorming framework meant to address the problems traditional brainstorming. It attempts to create a cohesive mental environment for groups or individuals.
The issue with traditional brainstorming is that the groups of people are often unable to reach meaningful resolutions due to conflicting states of mind. This can be attributed to unfamiliar interpersonal relationships or disparate communication. De Bono uses his framework to identify the six stage of minds:
The blue hat is meant to address the “big picture”. In order to grasp the overlying aspects of a project, we must use the managing hat (blue) to ask questions such as “What is the subject?” and “What is the goal?”.
The white hat is used to look at facts. What are the definite truths we know? It is particularly important to understand that the white is meant to explore the information available. Therefore, assumptions nor projections are not included in this section.
The emotional red hat looks at the immediate emotional response participants have. It can be described as identifying the “gut instinct”. The most important part of this section is that participants need not any justification for their emotional response.
The black hat is known as the discernment hat where participants are meant to approach the given facts and solutions practically. Users must identify gaps in logic and approach each solution with caution.
The optimistic response hat or yellow hat is used to explore ideas that are possible given perfect circumstances. It is described as “logic applied to identifying benefits”.
The green hat acts as the “creativity” hat i.e., “think outside the box”. Participants should look further into ideas without constraint.
Procedure
Each iteration of De Bono’s Six Hats Exercise can vary according to the project needs and the moderator. The moderator is meant to wear the blue hat at all times in order to maintain a forward moving momentum for the entire group. He or she is permitted to change the order of hats to better facilitate the project. However, each sequence begins and ends with the blue hat.
A note on the red hat is that it should only be worn for a short amount of time (about 30 seconds) so that it has a significant impact. Its goal is to get the visceral reaction so, best to not dwell in the mind space. Otherwise, the hat should be worn for about 2 minutes.
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