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If The Cap Fits....
‘Six Thinking Hats’ is a book by Edward de Bono, in which he develops and enhances the concept of brainstorming. It’s the type of skill that Insight teams should have in their armoury whenever they need to get to grips with a difficult issue, or find a solution to a problem.
The book is worth reading, even though the author makes some wild claims and is not averse to some excessive self-advertisement. However, these factors shouldn’t detract from the concept itself. It is a valuable tool that strives to provide structure to the thought process, with the aim of improving group communication and decision making.
The six coloured ‘thinking hats’ represent different ways of thinking about issues. The group is asked to wear just one type of hat at any time:
White hat – With this hat on, the group looks at the information available from a factual viewpoint. It also assesses what information is still needed, and whether and how this could be found.
Red hat – This hat requires emotive and intuitive responses to the issue being raised: what do members of the group feel about the problem? What do their instincts tell them? (They don’t have to justify any comments they make at this stage)
Black hat – This enables the group to look at any potentially negative aspects; or any elements where they think caution should be exercised. By focusing on possible areas of weakness, this can help the team to envisage and avoid specific problems before they arise.
Yellow hat – In contrast, this only allows the group to look at positive elements of the issue, and the benefits that could be gained by moving forward. However, these must be based on logic rather than emotion. This hat helps to counteract a group’s natural tendency towards caution and negativity.
Green hat – This hat perhaps comes the closest to traditional brainstorming. It enables members of the group to exercise their creativity and to suggest alternative and perhaps radical approaches, or completely new ideas.
Blue hat – This is usually worn by the person chairing the group, who will direct the type of thinking (i.e. choose the colour of hat) used at any stage of the discussion. However, it can also be passed from person to person. The blue hat wearer can summarise thoughts so far and ask for conclusions or actions that need to be taken.
