Six Thinking Hats

WHAT IT IS?

The Six Thinking Hats tool is a powerful technique used to look at decisions from different points of view. This helps us move away from habitual thinking styles and towards a more rounded view of a situation.
There are six different imaginary hats that you can put on or take off. Each hat is a different color and represents a different style of thinking. When we change hats, we change our thinking.

THE PROCESS

You can use Six Thinking Hats on your own or in meetings, where it can minimize the confrontations that happen when people with different thinking styles discuss the same problem. Each hat represents a different style of thinking:

BENEFITS

The main benefits of the Six Thinking Hats method are the following:

1. allows you to say things without risk; 
2. generates understanding that there are multiple perspectives on an issue; 
3. is a convenient mechanism for “switching gears”; 
4. focuses thinking; leads to more creative thinking; 
5. improves communication; and 
6. improves decision-making.

KEY POINTS AND PRACTICAL TIPS

This technique allows the necessary emotion and skepticism to be brought into what would otherwise be purely rational decisions, thus opening up an opportunity for creativity within decision-making. It also helps, for example, persistently pessimistic people to be positive and creative.

Plans developed using the Six Thinking Hats technique will be sounder and more resilient than would otherwise be the case. It may also help you to avoid public relations mistakes, and spot good reasons not to follow a course of action before you have committed to it.

In a Six Thinking Hats session the facilitator must:

1. define the focus of your thinking; 
2. plan the sequence and timing of the thinking; 
3. ask for changes in the thinking if needed; 
4. handle requests from the group for changes in the thinking; and 
5. capture periodic or final summaries of the thinking for consideration by the team.