In this section, you will learn about the “6 Thinking Hats” Approach to Creative Thinking.

The “6 Thinking Hats” is a system designed by Edward de Bono as an approach to promote creative thinking. It is a tool used to enhance real thinking to make the process more productive and focused. The ‘6 Thinking Hats’ separates thinking into 6 different roles, each role identified with a colored symbolic thinking hat. This approach helps to redirect thoughts by mentally switching from one hat to the other.

The following are the 6 thinking hats and what each color represents:

1. “White Hat”- stating facts and information, things you already know.
2. “Yellow Hat”-looking at the bright side, being optimistic and positive, adding value and benefits.
3. “Red Hat”- expressing feelings and emotions, your reactions and opinions.
4. “Blue Hat”-managing and controlling, looking at the bigger picture.
5. “Green Hat”-exploring other alternatives, generating new ideas and solutions.
6. “Black Hat”-being realistic and practical, being cautious, finding where things might go wrong, discovering dangers and difficulties. Black Hat is usually called the ‘devil’s voice’.

The above 6 hats when combined together allows your mind to think clearly and objectively. For example, you can start by grabbing the “Blue Hat” asking yourself questions such as: what is our goal? Are the 6 guidelines observed clearly? What is the subject addressed? This helps you get an overall view of your problem. Next, you can grab the “Red Hat” expressing what you feel towards the problem and asking yourself who might be affected by this problem. Then, you can grab “Yellow” and later “Green Hat” to invent new concepts and solutions. Finally, you can switch between the “White” and “Black hat” in order to validate your solution by using information that you already know.

Start training your mind to switch directions from one hat to another to solve problems efficiently, effectively bringing out benefits too.