How I Use More of My Brain When Making Decisions with The Six Thinking Hats [Book Summary 1/7]
The quality of your life is largely determined by the quality of the decisions you make.
This book review is part of a larger series in which we learn about rationality and decision making from some of the world’s best decision makers and cognitive behavior experts.
What if there was a playful, easy-to-learn way to get teams to make much better decisions? That’s the promise of the Six Thinking Hats Method.
In this post, you’ll learn
- The main benefits of using the Six Thinking Hats
- Overview over the Six Thinking Hats
- How to use the Six Thinking Hats
Evidence of the following working: Anecdotal (with high believability)
Edward de Bono is a prolific psychologist, inventor, consultant, and author. He’s worked with many of the world’s largest corporations as well as many governments and NGOs. He’s been helping them how to think better in order to achieve better outcomes.
Along the way De Bono developed an amazingly simple technique to solve problems and make better decisions much faster.
It’s mainly aimed at getting groups to make better decisions. However, since starting to apply this method in my own personal decision making, I believe that turning on deliberate thinking creates tons of value even when applying it just by yourself.
Parallel Thinking
Do you see a rabbit or a duck in the picture below?
If I look at the beak first, I clearly see a duck. But if I start on the right of the picture and ignore the beak for split second, I can make out a rabbit face and then the beak turns into rabbit ears.
So it matters which direction I start looking at the picture.
Imagine four people trying to describe what a beautiful country house looks like. One person stands in front of the house, one in the back, and the two others on each side.
By intercom, each argues that their view is the correct view of the of the house. They make little progress.
This is what we do when we engage in adversarial arguing, each of us trying to be proven ‘right’. Finding all the facts and the best possible solutions is limited.
Using parallel thinking, they each walk around the house and look at each side together. While everyone is standing on one side of the house, they all look at the house from the same point of view, in parallel. This allows the subject to be explored fully.
This way gets us to all look in the same direction at the same time. We also don’t have to resolve different views unless there is a decision to be made which concerns these differences.
This kind of parallel thinking is what the Six Thinking Hats are all about.
Main Benefits of the Six Thinking Hats
The best thinking techniques
- work: They create massive ROI in terms of better decisions per time spent deciding
- spread: They are easy to teach, learn and remember.
I think the Six Thinking Hats method stands out in both ways. They were specifically designed to fulfill both these criteria.
On top of that, let’s look at what de Bono says are the four main benefits of using the technique.
Benefit #1: Effectiveness
You don’t want to argue against each other but all look into the same direction.
Only decide on things when needed, otherwise, let things stay open till they need to be decided on.
Benefit #2: Removes ego
Instead of disproving others or showing how strong you are, you can exert yourself.
Better to show how smart you are by using the six hats method well.
Benefit #3: One thing at a time
We often have multiple hats such as caution, information, and opportunities at the same time.
The technique allows us to have a single hat on at a time. It’s much easier to juggle one ball instead of six.
Our brains are wired to support different types of thinking with different brain regions & modes at a time.
Benefit #4: Time Saving
Deliberate modes of thinking allow us to be much more goal-directed and save tons of time and energy.
In short, the technique legitimizes specific thinking, such as emotional thinking or cautious thinking. It gives a proper place to place to express itself. And it also makes clear that this isn’t the only mode of thinking.
There is a certain playfulness in imagining to wearing a certain hat. This can help the mind relax and be more creative, open and understanding.
The Six Thinking Hats
Here’s the overview over all six hats
⚪️ White Hat: Information & Facts
When we wear the white hat, we are concerned with verifiable facts and want to know things like “What information do we have?” and “What information do we still need?”
Read more about the White Hat
While wearing the Red Hat, we can express our true emotions. We don’t have to validate them. Opposite to the White Hat, we can say things like “Don’t ask me why, but this is a terrible deal” or “I do not like him and do not want to do business with him”
Read more about the Red Hat
The Black Hat allows us to be asking critical questions. We want to point out what could go wrong in a project. Unlike with the Red Hat, we need to give reasons for our objections. We might say “We both like this house very much. That is strong Red Hat thinking. Let’s have some black thinking for a moment.”
Read more about the Black Hat
🌕 Yellow Hat: Positive Thinking
With the Yellow Hat, we aim to do positive speculation. It is concerned with doing things and being effective. We might say “You have told me all the reasons why this idea is going to fail. Now I want you to put your Yellow Hat firmly in place. What do you see now?”
Read more about the Yellow Hat
Under the green hat, we are allowed to have crazy ideas. It’s all about creating many novel ways to look at things. Say “Remember I’m wearing the Green Hat, so I’m allowed to say things like that.” Then, ideally, we can go from “What if everyone was a police officer?” (crazy proposition) to “Neighborhood Crime Watch” (successful policy)
Read more about the Green Hat
The Blue Hat is concerned with the meta-level. It makes sure we use the hats appropriately. It’s in charge of time management, the sequence of hats and keeping participants thinking with the hat that is currently demanded. “Let’s do some Red Hat thinking first, and then dive into White, Green and Black Hats.”
Read more about the Blue Hat
The reason why we use colors is that it’s easier to say “Let’s put on our red hats for a few minutes” than saying “Let’s be emotional for a few minutes”.
Here are some examples of how you may bring in the hats into a discussion.
“I’d like you to put on your yellow hat for a few minutes.”
“You are making some good points with a black hat, but let’s focus on the green hat now.”
How to Use the Six Thinking Hats
In a group setting, we should alway wear the same hats at the same time. Otherwise we go back to traditional arguing.
It’s not
“You are the Black Hat, I am the Yellow Hat”
but much rather
“Let’s put on our Black Hats. What do we see now?”
There are two ways you can use the Six Thinking Hats.
Single Use
The artificiality of putting on a hat is its strength. It’s a precise way to ask someone for a particular way of thinking.
Instead of saying “We need some creativity here” say “Let’s use some green hat thinking here”
When someone is critical you can say “That’s fine black hat thinking, but now let’s use some yellow hat thinking”.
Sequentially
Setup
- It’s better to use a pre-set sequence when you’re inexperienced. Otherwise, you might argue about which hats to use.
- Only the facilitator may decide when to switch hats as a group.
- You can’t be in one hat and say “I want to use my black hat here”. That would be like the usual way of arguing.
Timing
- 1 minute per person per hat
- extend if genuine points are being made
Sequence
Start and end with the Blue Hat
Initial Blue Hat:
- Why are we here?
- Definition of situation/problem
- What are we trying to achieve?
- How should we use our hats?
Final Blue Hat
- What have we achieved?
- Outcome/Conclusion
- Solution
- Next Steps
Possible Red Hat after Blue Hat
- How do we feel about our thinking?
- Are we happy with the outcome?
- Did we do a good job?
After the initial blue hat
- Yellow Hat before Black Hat
Your Turn
Do you see how this method could revolutionize how you conduct meetings? The information above should be enough to start trying it out informally with co-workers or friends.
Make your next important decision with the Six Thinking Hats!
But if it still seems a bit fluffy, despair not! Luckily for us, de Bono has written a ton more about each hat and I’ll bring you the key points I found the most useful and applicable in the coming weeks about each of the six hats.
Dig Deeper
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Flavio Rump is an entrepreneur and investor. He shares decision-making models from the world’s best decision makers. You can read his articles, watch his YouTube Videos or join his free newsletter to learn how to make better decisions.
