In 1985 Dr. Edward deBono invented a revolutionary way of thinking; Six Thinking Hats. The Six Hats are a powerful and important form of decision-making. Instead of making a decision-based on a few ideas, the Six Hats forces one to move outside one's comfort zone of critical thinking and helps explore other avenues. This type of thinking brings creativity, emotions, intuitiveness, negative and positives together in order to make a well-rounded and informed decision.
The Six Hats represent six different ways of thinking and should be used proactively rather then reactively. This form of thinking encourages performance rather than ego but most importantly, the Six Hats are a direction of thinking instead of a label for thinking and can be used for any situation.
When looking at problems using the Six Hats, one must use all steps in order to solve the problem. Each hat has a different function or style of thinking and each hat must be worn in order to fully benefit from the technique.
Man thinking on a train journey.
Inquiry: Critical Thinking Across the Disciplines
English: There are no symbols that represent skept...- White Hat: When wearing this hat the focus is on facts, informational needs, figures and gaps. Learn from the data and analyze previous trends, what information is needed and how can it be obtained.
- Red Hat: Wearing the red hat covers emotions, feelings and intuitions. When in this mode one needs to explore how others might react emotionally to the decision. Team members are allowed to present their views without fear of retribution or having to explain or justify their thoughts
- Black Hat: Judgment, caution, critical and looking for flaws are the focus on this hat. This is the negative hat. The black hat helps make plans resilient and helps eliminate or alter the weak points. The black hat uses logic rather then emotion.
- Yellow Hat: The yellow...