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This article introduces the Six
Thinking Hats framework,
designed to help teams reach
conclusions acceptable to all,
or open up new ways of
thinking about a challenge.

Six Thinking Hats:

how to work out what’s a good idea
Summary
Six Thinking Hats (6TH) was developed by internationally respected consultant Edward de Bono.
His work is now widely used in education and business.
It’s a useful technique for helping groups:

• engage in developing and sharing ideas

• make better decisions about which ideas to progress
• align their thinking – so using parallel thinking rather than confused or conflicted
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The technique is based on the idea that there are six imaginary hats. Each hat is a different colour,
and represents a different type of thinking. When you ‘put on’ a hat, you operate exclusively in that
mode of thinking. When you change from one hat to another, you change thinking modes. And
importantly everyone thinks the same way at the same time – so avoiding futile positive versus
negative conflict.

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De Bono uses a hats metaphor because:
• there’s a link between ‘thinking’ and ‘hats’ – for example, people say ‘put on your thinking
cap.’ So the idea makes sense to people when you explain it to them
• hats can be put on or taken off very easily. This encourages people to switch and think in
different ways rather than to stay stuck in one mode.
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What’s the problem?
DeBono developed the technique having noticed that when critical or contentious decisions need to
be made, teams can find themselves in deadlock, unable to make a decision and move forward. And
there are times when teams get stuck in a rut, simply recycling the same ideas or variations on the
same theme. This latter is especially challenging when what’s actually needed is some focused
creative thinking to drive meaningful and innovative changes to what the team does or how they do
it.
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So how do we bring fractious discussions to a conclusion acceptable to all, or open up new ways of
thinking? De Bono’s answer was to devise a framework for focused, systematic thinking – the Six
Thinking Hats.
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What are the principles?
De Bono chose six hats to cover the different approaches to thinking he’d identified, and he gave
them different colour to allow easy association and visualisation. Each coloured hat represents a
particular type of thinking, each with its own ‘rules’ about that type of thinking.
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6TH requires everyone taking part in a discussion or in the decision-making to ‘put on’ the same hat
at the same time and only use that hat at that time. By moving through the different ways of
thinking collectively a more rounded approach is taken to appraising an idea, and new avenues of
discussion are often uncovered.
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Importantly De Bono emphasised that 6TH was about modes of behaviour and not individual
personalities. Of course, many people have a preference for certain types of thinking. (And in the
world of business ‘critical’ thinking is highly regarded, whereas in the arts ‘creative’ thinking is more
often praised.) So when there are two or more people with different preferences involved in a
discussion it can, not surprisingly, be very hard to get consensus as each person is convinced theirs is
the most accurate point of view.

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By requiring everyone to use the same hat – way of thinking – at the same time, 6TH both ensures
everyone has the opportunity to air their views and that every angle of the issue is properly
explored. And you get a full and open discussion with everyone working together.
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The Six Hats explained
The White Hat – facts & information
This hat is all about factual, observable data. It looks at what is known and what
information could be missing. The association is with paper, on which ‘facts’ are
recorded.
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The Red Hat – feelings & intuition
This hat about feelings, insights and intuition. It focuses on what people feel about the
issue under discussion. Importantly, there’s no need to rationalise or explain.

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The Yellow Hat – benefits & advantages
Sunshine and optimism is represented here. The team all think about the possible
advantages, benefits or opportunities an idea can present.

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The Black Hat – caution & problems
Black like lawyers’ robes, this hat is the opposite of the yellow hat. The focus here is on
problems, risks and challenges that this idea might pose.

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The Green Hat – creativity & solutions
Representing new growth, this hat asks the team to consider new approaches or to
build on and improve an existing approach. This hat is often used in a brainstorm to
generate ideas.

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The Blue Hat – managing thinking
For blue-skies and oversight. Unlike all the other hats, the Blue Hat is only worn by one
person, who chairs the discussion. The Blue Hat wearer, with agreement, defines the
process – what de Bono calls the pre-set sequence (see below) – and ensures
everyone wears the right hat at the right time. This hat also summarises discussions
and pulls out the conclusions/next steps. @contact us
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De Bono encouraged different sequences of hats, called a pre-set sequence, to enable different
types of discussions: so one set for innovation, one set for risk analysis, one set to promote
discussion.
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How can I use this tool?
6TH can be used to help progress discussions, achieve consensus and drive innovation. Here are
some examples of how we’ve used it with our clients.
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1. Facilitation
6TH is very useful as a facilitation tool, setting a structure for the discussion A pre-set sequence for
the hats can be agreed at the start, depending on the type of discussion. Taking on the Blue Hat, the
facilitator can then oversee the process, and keep the discussion moving through the hat sequence
at the agreed intervals.
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6TH is a great tool for recognising when a group of people have fallen into 1-hat thinking and the
discussion is going nowhere. The facilitator then needs to move the group on to a different hat to
open up the discussion. For example, we’ve found when facilitating teams who are looking for new
ideas for projects, or wanting to make changes to internal processes, such as reducing the amount
of internal bureaucracy, that there can be a tendency towards Black Hat thinking. People
concentrate on the problems or obstacles to doing something new or different. “That will never
work,” “Our processes don’t allow that to happen.” They then get stuck in a rut, always
concentrating on the ‘why we shouldn’t’ and as a result nothing changes and no new ideas are
taken forward.
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To break this way of thinking we ask key questions to shift the group into Yellow Hat thinking, giving
them the space and time to explore the advantages and solutions to different processes or ideas.
“What opportunities could this present?” “What are the advantages of working in this way instead?”
“Are there any benefits?”
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In other instances when we find a group talking in circles around an issue with lots of assumptions
flying around, Introducing some White Hat thinking – “What are the facts in this case?” – can help
to clarify the situation, as will “Let’s remind ourselves of what we definitely know…”

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2. Reaching Consensus
Reaching consensus in group decision-making is probably what 6TH is best known for. Depending
on the group, it can feel like an impossible ask at times, but is the outcome most desired. Using 6TH
ensures the group views the problem from all angles and helps to get individuals out of particular
mind-sets. Everyone has the opportunity to really get their view across and work collectively
towards an outcome that is not driven by individual preferences, which can create conflict, but by
the desire to get the best possible result through consensus.
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For example, a recent client was getting frustrated at the lack of buy-in from his senior
management team to increase their investment in supporting volunteers. With a bit of coaching, he
applied 6TH to the discussion and he discovered that they had been spending a lot of time on White
Hat thinking, focusing largely on the facts and figures around new staff and costs. What he and the
senior management team hadn’t done was take into account how people felt about what the
investment could mean for the organisation and its volunteers. Our client went back and balanced
the White Hat thinking with some Red Hat “How do we feel about our volunteers?” “What’s your
gut reaction to this idea?” By finally recognising how people were feeling about what volunteers
bring to the organisation above and beyond the financial considerations, the SMT was able to reach
a consensus and our client to get his increased investment.
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3. Creativity and Innovation
At =mc we use 6TH to decide which of the ideas generated in a creativity brainstorm should be
moved on to innovation. We examine each creative idea, and use the hats to properly explore its
viability and potential implementation.
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We also use this approach to encourage groups to get away from business as usual, to bring a new
dimension into the discussion. The hats encourages people to embrace a different line of thinking in
a structured environment. Early Green Hat is key in these discussions. It focuses on creativity,
opening up the space for new ideas. It’s important at this point that you don’t allow any Black Hat
thinking in to kill ideas. Green Hat thinking allows discussion of a new project idea that appears to
be outside the scope of the work the organisation or team is known for. The output is often a
brainstormed list. If you have 20 ideas you probably need to cut them down. Red Hat allows you to
select maybe five that people ‘feel’ have some traction. Then Yellow Hat followed by Black Hat
applied to each idea works out the advantages and disadvantages. Finally a repeat of Red Hat helps
choose the ‘winning’ idea.
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Wider success stories
There are some well-known examples in the private sector where 6TH has been used successfully,
including Motorola, IBM and Boeing. They have reported significant outcomes such as cutting
meeting times by half and successfully brainstorming new products. Perhaps less laudably,
1
researchers for the new Speedo swimsuit used 6TH to circumvent new rules set by Olympic
officials. They started with Green Hat to generate new ideas, then moved on to the Black and
Yellow Hats to weigh up the feasibility of those ideas.
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In the non-profit sector, ODI reports that the German and Sri Lankan governments used 6TH to
collaborate on post-tsunami reconstruction. At the beginning of meetings they used the method “to
generate a shared sense of the key issues in the reconstruction process that needed to be further
explored and practically addressed.” 2
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Hospitals have found 6TH invaluable in the rehabilitation of children with post-operative problems.
In one case doctors replaced hats with balloons, as a tool to open up the conversation between
children, their families and the medical staff in charge of their care. And finally schools are now
teaching and using de Bono’s tool to introduce students to different ways of thinking and to
facilitate discussions on contentious issues in the classroom.
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What next?
If you’ve found this article helpful and you would like more information, please call +44 (0)20 7978
1516 and speak to one of our learning and development consultants.
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Or, if Six Thinking Hats sounds exactly what your organisation needs, talk to us about our in-house
training programmes on Facilitation skills or Creativity and Innovation.
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1 Article: How Speedo created the new swimsuit (using 6TH)

2 ODI article: Collaboration Mechanisms: Six Thinking Hats @contact us
The Management Centre (=mc) is a management consultancy working internationally to transform the
performance of ethically driven organisations - charities, public bodies, INGOs, and cultural organisations. Page 6
© The Management Centre 2015