Six Thinking Hats (Book Summary)

The Six Hats Method Allows The Brain To Maximize Its Sensitivity In Different Direction At Different Times

Imagine a grazing antelope suddenly hears a subtle movement in the grass. Automatically, its neuronal clusters associated with fight or flight are activated, so that as soon as the threat, in this case, a Lion, is recognized, the antelope flight response allows it to escape. This sensitization is a key part of how the brain works and why it is so efficient.

On the other hand, it may not be possible to be sensitized in different directions at the same time, just as it would not be possible to design a golf club that was the best club for driving and, at the same time, the best club for putting. This is why you need the “Six Hats” method. It allows the brain to maximize its sensitivity in different directions at different times. It is simply not possible to have that maximum sensitization in different directions all at the same time.

The main difficulty of thinking is confusion. We try to do too much at once.

A doctor treating a child with a rash will think of some possible “boxes”. Is it sunburn? Is it a food allergy? Is it measles? He then examines the signs and symptoms and makes a judgment. If the symptoms fit into the “measles” box, then the treatment of measles is written on the side of that “box,” and the doctor knows exactly what to do. That is traditional thinking at its best.

From past occurrences, we create standard situations. We judge which “standard situation box” a new situation falls. Once we have made this judgment, our course of action is clear. This type of system works very well in a stable world. In a stable world, the standard situations of the past still apply. But in a changing world, the standard situations may no longer apply.

We need to be thinking about what can be not just about what is.

Instead of judging our way forward, we need to design our way forward. Yet the basic tradition of Western thinking (or any other thinking) has not provided a simple model of constructive thinking. That is precisely what the Six Hats method (parallel thinking) is all about.

Each of the six thinking hats has a color: white, red, black, yellow, green, and blue. The color provides the name for the hat, it is also related to its function.

WHITE HAT: white is neutral and objective. The white hat is concerned with objective facts and figures.

RED HAT: red suggests anger (seeing red), rage, and emotions. The red hat gives an emotional view.

BLACK HAT: black is somber and serious. The black hat is cautious and careful. It points out the weaknesses in an idea.

YELLOW HAT: yellow is sunny and positive. The yellow hat is optimistic and covers hope and positive thinking.

GREEN HAT: green is like grass, vegetation, and abundant, fertile growth. The green hat indicates creativity and new ideas.

BLUE HAT: blue is cool, and it is also the color of the sky, which is above everything else. The blue hat is concerned with control, the organization of the thinking process, and the use of the other hats.

Thinking is the ultimate human resource. Yet we can never be satisfied with our most important skill. No matter how good we become, we should always want to be better. Usually, the only people who are very satisfied with their thinking skills are those poor thinkers who believe that the purpose of thinking is to prove yourself right — to your own satisfaction.

The author, in this book, puts forward a simple concept that allows a thinker to do one thing at a time. He or she becomes able to separate emotion from logic, creativity from information, and so on. The concept is that of the six thinking hats. Putting on any one of these hats defines a certain type of thinking. He describes the nature and contribution of each type of thinking.

Did you know?
The six thinking hats allow us to conduct our thinking as a conductor might lead an orchestra. We can call forth what we will. Similarly, in any meeting, it is very useful to switch people out of their usual track in order to get them to think differently about the matter at hand.

The White Hat Energy Is Directed At Seeking Out And Laying Out Information

The white hat is about information. When the white hat is in use, everyone focuses directly and exclusively on the information.

What information do we have?
What information do we need?
What information is missing?
What questions do we need to ask?
How are we going to get the information we need?

The White Hat is about information.
This information can come in the form of hard facts and figures that can be checked to soft information like opinions and feelings. If you express your own feelings, that is a red hat, but if you report on someone else expressing a feeling, that is a white hat.

These facts and figures can never be treated objectively when putting forward as part of an argument. So, we often need a switch that says “Just the facts please — without the argument.” Unfortunately, Western thinking, with its argument habits, prefers to give a conclusion first and then bring in facts to support that conclusion.

In contrast, in the map-making type of thinking (that means having the facts and figures first), we have to make the map first and then choose the route. That means that we have to have the facts and figures first. So white hat thinking is a convenient way of asking for the facts and figures to be put forward in a neutral and objective manner.

The White Hat is usually used toward the beginning of a thinking session as a background for the thinking that is going to take place.

Discussion, argument, and consensus. If no one puts forward an idea, where do ideas come from? Make the map first.

The Japanese never acquired the Western habit of argument. This may be because disagreement was too impolite or too risky in a feudal society or because mutual respect and saving face are too important to allow the attack of argument.

At a Western-style meeting, the participants sit there with their points of view and, in many cases, the conclusion they wish to see agreed upon. The meeting then consists of arguing through these different points of view to see which one survives the criticism and which one attracts the most adherents.

A Western-style consensus meeting is less fiercely argumentative because there are no outright winners or losers. The output is one that is arrived at by everyone and agreeable to everyone. This is more like “clay sculpture”: there is a core around which pieces of clay are placed and molded to give the final output.

Westerners often find it hard to understand that Japanese participants sit down at a meeting without any preformed ideas in their heads. They come to the meeting to listen to. So why is the meeting not unproductive?

Japanese meetings are not consensus meetings, participants simply come to listen — put on the white hat, and provide his piece of neutral information.

Gradually the map becomes more complete. The map gets richer and more detailed. When the map is finished, the route becomes obvious to everyone.

The point is that no one puts forward a ready-made idea. Information is offered in white hat fashion. This information slowly organizes itself into an idea. The participants watch this happen.

Did you know? A very important part of the white hat is to define the information that is missing and needed. The white hat defines the questions that should be asked. The white hat lays out the means (such as surveys and questionnaires) for obtaining the needed information.

The Red Hat Gives You An Opportunity To Express Feelings, Emotions, And Intuition Without Any Need To Explain Or Justify Them

In business dealings, emotions are supposed to be kept at bay. Somehow, they creep in and are then disguised as logic. The red hat provides a unique and special opportunity for feelings, emotions, and intuition to be put forward as such.

Red hat thinking is all about emotions and feelings and the non-rational aspects of thinking. The red hat provides a formal and defined channel for bringing these things out into the open — as a legitimate part of the overall map.

If you do not consider emotions and feelings inputs in the thinking process, they will stay in the background and affect your thinking.

Emotions, feelings, hunches, and intuitions are strong and real. The red hat acknowledges this. The Red hat thinking is the exact opposite of white hat thinking, which is neutral, objective, and free of emotional flavor.

The traditional view is that emotions distort thinking. The good thinker is expected to be cool and detached, not influenced by emotion. The good thinker is expected to be objective and to consider the facts in their own right and not for their relevance to his or her emotional needs. It is sometimes said that women are much too emotional to make good thinkers, that they lack the detachment that is needed for good decisions. Yet any good decision must be emotional in the end.

Emotions give relevance to our thinking and fit that thinking to our needs and the context of the moment.

They are a necessary part of the operation of the brain, not an intrusion or some relic of the age of animal survival.

There are three points at which emotion can affect thinking.

Inherent emotions such as fear, anger, hatred, suspicion, jealousy or love limits, and colors all perception. The purpose of red hat thinking is to make visible this background so that its subsequent influence can be observed. Your thinking processes may be clouded by these emotions.

The second point emotion can affect thinking is when you perceive yourself to have been insulted by someone. Therefore, your whole thinking about that person is colored by this feeling.

The third point at which emotions can come in is after a map of the situation has been put together. Such a map should also include the emotions turned up by red hat thinking. Emotions — including a great deal of self-interest — are then brought in to choose the route on the map.

Now that you know the three points at which emotion can affect thinking. let’s all put on our red thinking hats and allow emotions to give relevance to our thinking.

Did you know? Red hat thinking is all about emotions and feelings and the non-rational aspects of thinking.

The Black Hat Is The Most Used Of All The Hats

The black hat is perhaps the most important hat. The black hat is the hat of caution. The black hat is for being careful. The black hat stops us from doing things that are illegal, dangerous, unprofitable, polluting, and so on.

The black hat is the basis of Western civilization because it is the basis of critical thinking. The basis of a traditional argument has been to point out how something is contradictory or inconsistent. The black hat points out how something does not fit our resources, our policy, our strategy, our ethics, our values, and so forth.

Black hat thinking is always logical. There must always be a logical basis for the criticism. If the comment is purely emotional, then it comes under the red hat, not the black hat. Black hat thinking is not balanced. Under the black hat, the brain is sensitized to seek out possible dangers, problems, and obstacles. The focus is on why something may not work or may not be the right thing to do. The other side is presented under the yellow hat.

The specificity of the black hat relieves the thinker of the need to be fair and to see both sides of the matter at the same time.

Under the black hat, the thinker is encouraged to be as cautious as possible. Under the yellow hat, the thinker sets out to look for benefits. You cannot do both effectively at the same time.

An important function of the black hat is risk assessment. Proposed actions are going to be carried out in the future. This is an extremely important difference between “academic” thinking and “real world” thinking. In academic thinking, it is enough to describe, to do analyses, and to offer explanations. In the real world, there is the action element — which is sometimes called: Operacy — the skill of thinking for action instead of thinking for description.

We have to base speculations about the future on our own experience and on the experience of others.

Which of these statements are correct?
“In times of inflation, people save more.”
“In times of inflation, people save less.”

Both statements are correct. Where there is a past history of inflation, people save less because they know that money becomes worthless. Where there is no such history, they may start by saving more because they feel they need more money. Where there is a high level of financial sophistication, people may choose to borrow rather than save because the ultimate interest rate may be negative.

In looking into the future and using lessons from the past, the question is always whether that particular lesson is relevant. Are the circumstances the same?

Under The Yellow Hat, A Thinker Deliberatelt Sets Out To Find Whatever Benefit There May Be In A Suggestion

The yellow hat is a harder hat to wear than the black hat. There is a natural mechanism in the brain that helps us to avoid dangers. There is no such natural mechanism for the yellow hat. For this reason, most people are much better at using the black hat than the yellow hat. We need to develop “value sensitivity.” That means being as sensitive to value as we already are sensitive to danger. That is a habit that has to be developed.

The Yellow Hat has a high value because it forces people to spend time seeking out value.

Sometimes, there are big surprises under the yellow hat. Something that did not seem very interesting suddenly has a high value. Even the most unattractive ideas can be found to have some value if we look hard enough. The yellow hat should be logically based. There should be some reason given for the value put forward. The yellow hat is a judgment hat and is not based on fantasy.

Being positive is a choice. We can choose to look at things in a positive way. We can choose to focus on those aspects of a situation that are positive. We can search for benefits. Negative thinking may protect us from mistakes, risk-taking, and danger. Positive thinking has to be a mixture of curiosity, pleasure, greed, and the desire to “make things happen.” It could be argued that man’s progress depends on this desire to make things happen.

The yellow hat is termed “speculative-positive” because, with any plan or action, we are looking forward to the future. That is where the action or plan is going to be worked out. We can never be as certain about the future as we are about the past, so we have to speculate as to what might happen. We set out to do something because it is worth doing. It is our assessment of this “worth” or value that provides the “positive” aspect of speculative-positive.

For some people, being positive is a natural state of mind. Most people will be positive when they are putting forward an idea of their own. Most people will be positive about an idea if they immediately see something in it for themselves. Self-interest is a strong basis for positive thinking. The yellow thinking hat does not have to await such motivations.

The yellow thinking hat is a deliberate device which the thinker chooses to adopt. The positive aspect is not the result of seeing merit in the idea but precedes this. The yellow hat comes first. The thinker puts on the yellow hat and then follows its requirements to be positive and optimistic.

Although yellow hat thinking is positive, it requires just as much discipline as the white hat or the black hat. It is not just a matter of making a positive assessment of something that turns up. It is a deliberate search for the positive. Sometimes this search is futile.

Under The Green Hat, You Are Permitted To Put Forward Possibilities, Which Play A Big Role In Thinking

Under the green hat, we put forward new ideas, we layout options, and alternatives. These include both the obvious alternatives and fresh ones. Under the green hat, we seek to modify and improve suggested ideas.

In the Green Hat thinking, a specific time is set out for everyone to make a creative effort.

Creativity is no longer just the business of the “idea person” while everyone else sits around waiting to pounce on an idea. When the green hat is in use, everyone is expected to make a creative effort — or else keep quiet. People do not like keeping quiet, so they make a creative effort. The deliberate allocation of time to creative effort is very important. It acknowledges that creativity is a key ingredient in thinking.

Under the green hat, you are permitted to put forward possibilities. Possibilities play a much bigger role in thinking than most people believe. Without possibilities, you cannot make progress. Those who believe that progress arises from the analysis of information and steps of logical deduction are totally wrong. Without the framework of possibilities, we cannot even see the information in new ways.

During green hat thinking, suggested courses of action are put forward: “We could do this, or this, or this.” It is also used to overcome some of the difficulties put forward under the black hat. The green hat may suggest modifications to an idea to avoid the difficulties. The green hat may suggest the need for an additional idea. The green hat includes both “the top of the head” creativity and “deliberate” creativity.

The green color symbolizes fertility, growth, and the value of seeds. The search for alternatives is a fundamental aspect of green hat thinking. There is a need to go beyond the known, the obvious, and the satisfactory. The green hat thinker uses the creative pause to consider, at any point, whether there might be alternative ideas. There is no need for this pause.

In Green Hat thinking, the idiom of movement replaces that of judgment.

The thinker seeks to move forward from an idea in order to reach a new idea. Provocation is an important part of green hat thinking and is symbolized by the word po. A provocation is used to take us out of our usual patterns of thinking. There are many ways of setting up provocations, including the random word method.

Lateral thinking is a set of attitudes, idioms, and techniques (including movement, provocation) for cutting across patterns in a self-organizing asymmetric patterning system. It is used to generate new concepts and perceptions.

The Blue Hat Is For Thinking About Thinking

The blue hat is like the conductor of the orchestra. The conductor gets the best out of the orchestra by seeing that what should be done is done at the right time. The blue hat is like the ringmaster of a circus. It is for the management and organization of thinking.

It is under the initial blue hat that the agenda or sequence of use of the other hats is laid out. The blue hat may also specify other thinking processes — even if the hats are not to be used. The blue hat sets the thinking “strategy.” During the session, it keeps the discipline and ensures that people keep to the relevant hat. It also announces a change of hats.

Think of the blue sky above. Think of the overview. The Blue Hat is for thinking about thinking.

Typically, the blue hat is worn by the facilitator, chairperson, or leader of the session. This is a permanent role. In addition, during a specific blue hat session, anyone can make procedural suggestions. The blue hat thinker defines the subjects towards which the thinking is to be directed. Blue hat thinking sets the focus. It defines the problems and shapes the questions. It also determines the thinking tasks that are to be carried through.

Blue hat thinking is responsible for summaries, overviews, and conclusions. These can take place from time to time in the course of thinking, and also at the end. Blue hat thinking monitors the thinking and ensures that the rules of the game are observed. It stops the argument and insists on the map type of thinking. It also enforces discipline.

Blue Hat is responsible for summaries, overviews, and conclusions.

Blue hat thinking may be used for occasional interjections that require a hat. It may also be used to set up a step — by — step sequence of thinking operations, which are to be followed just as a dance follows the choreography. Even when the specific blue hat thinking role is assigned to one person, it is still open to anyone to offer blue hat comments and suggestions.

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Conclusion

The Six Thinking Hats concept simplifies thinking by allowing a thinker to deal with one thing at a time. Instead of having to take care of emotions, logic, information, hope, and creativity all at the same time, the thinker is able to deal with them separately. Instead of using logic to support a half-disguised emotion, the thinker can bring emotion to the surface with the red thinking hat without any need to justify it. The black thinking hat can then deal with the logic aspect.

Try this:
Allow a switch in thinking.
If a person at a meeting has been persistently negative, that person can be asked to take off the black thinking hat. This signals to the person that he or she is being persistently negative. The person may also be asked to put on the yellow thinking hat. That is a direct request to be positive. In this way, the six hats provide an idiom that is clear without being offensive.

Writer’s notes:
This is a summary of the book Six Thinking Hats by Edward De Bono. — These are not his words but rather a re-write of what was taken away from reading the book. Reading this summary will not give you the same feel and impact as reading the full book, so if you liked what you’ve read here, it is recommended to acquire the kindle, audio, or hardcover. This will not only support the author that inspired this post but also allow you to dive into this perspective a bit more.