Did you know that wearing a hat can lead to truly understanding problems and comprehensive solutions? Wearing a hat changes your perspective and stimulates your mind. And the best part is, it doesn’t even have to be a physical hat! With Edward de Bono’s six thinking hats framework you can focus your mindset on different aspects of problem definition and solution creation in a matter of minutes. Let’s take a look a brief look at the six hats and how you can use them every day.
The six thinking hats are six states of mind that we all go through, each represented as a colored hat:
White – a factual mindset. White is clinical and pristine without being sullied by opinion. What are the facts for our problem or solution? What, if we knew it, would change our outlook? How could we get more data? What do the trends of the past tell us about today and the future?
Red – an emotional mindset. Red is the color of passion and emotion. This hat gives credence to our gut reactions as we trust what our mysterious subconscious is telling us. How do we feel about this problem or solution? How would or do others feel about it? Is there FUD?
Yellow – an optimistic mindset. Yellow is the sunshine giving a happy positive outlook. What are the upsides of the problem or solution? What does stunning success look like? What advantages and opportunities do we have? How can we take advantage of our strengths?
Black – a pessimistic mindset. Black is the night casting shadows on your decisions. This mindset lets you play the devil’s advocate to holistically consider all aspects of your problem or solution. What does failure look like? What are the risks? What will be the first roadblock? Why is this an impossible situation?
Green – a creative mindset. Green is the color of life and growth. No idea is too crazy. What are we not considering? What are ways to avoid the problem entirely? What is the second best solution to our problem?
Blue – a control mindset. Blue, like a police uniform, enforces process. Did we consider all our hats? What do see after exploring all our mindsets? What outcomes or actions will we take going forward?
At work, I gave a mini-workshop on this framework and it was exciting for all of us to engage with our hats as the framework’s language is very accessible to everyone. We all have our favorite hats, and as product leaders we often find ourselves wearing different hats depending on our group. If a Team is being data-driven with white hat thinking, we can bring emotional red hat thinking to give passion to a problem. Or too much yellow or black hat thinking deserves the complement to ensure we’re being realistic in our assessments. Practicing the six hats can ensure we have the skills when a hat is needed. For example, I personally lean towards blue and green hats, and struggle with red hat thinking.
In our workshop, we took one of our company problems and trusted the process by going through the hats in order. We started with blue to outline the process for our session, went through each hat for about 5 minutes each, and finally came back to blue to tie it all together with an outcome or next actions. Using a whiteboard divided into 2 rows of 3 columns, one cell for each hat starting with white, is a great way to collaboratively take notes and show the progress through the hats. The results were great and we were all stunned by where we got in a short amount of time. It’s certainly hard to focus on only one hat at a time, but we got there after some practice.
If you’d like to learn more about the six thinking hats, there are many summary articles that go more in depth, or there’s the full book Six Thinking Hats. With it being such an accessible model, it can be a great choice for a new product manager as well as they learn decision making through shuhari. By starting with a semi-prescriptive framework they can build the confidence to start experimenting with their own decision making patterns. For me, the best way to learn is by doing, so take some time on your next challenge or opportunity and purposely think with all your hats and see how your decision improves!
What’s your favorite hat? What hat needs improvement for you? We’d love to hear your stories in the comments.