Six Thinking Hats

When I were in my Tenth Grade in school, one day our Head Mistress announced that a professor from an University would come to talk on the topic “Six Thinking Hats”. It was some 10+ years before, when we didn’t even know how a computer looks like, as we lived in a little remote area. So we didn’t have a chance to browse or Google to find what a “Six Hat Thinking” really means. Our whole class went on discussing and finally we concluded that it could be some marketing team to sell hats saying it will help to think better. It is funny to recollect those memories now.

So, what are those six thinking hats?

Dr de Bono identified five distinct states, in which the brain can become sensitive. During those states the brain will identify solutions in different ways like neutral facts or gut instinct. Now it has been extended as six distinct states, which are identified as below.

The White Hat represents Neutrality. This is the state where decisions will be based purely on the information available. The facts play role here. Generally it happens after the initial blue hat discussions.

For example, in an organization, they may lay off few employees based on the information and fact that their company’s growth/strategy grows low. The MD may come and say “Since our profit for this quarter is 3% less than last quarter, we are forced to make this decision”. So here, the information and fact played the role in making the decision.

The Red Hat represents feeling or anger. This is the state where decisions will be based on emotions like instinctive gut actions. It generally a decision taken, when one is given with two or three choices, out of which one choice has to be selected.

For example, you are in a hurry to attend an interview. On the way you met a person who is seriously injured in an accident. Either you can just keep moving or you can stop to help him. It all depends on the feeling, emotion you have. The decision depends on that. Another example is, taking a decision to do a new business, even though you don’t know the entire details, but just depending upon your confidence/guts also falls in this category.