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Dr. Edward De Bono devised a technique, or thinking tool, to aid group discussion and individual thinking. This technique allows for groups of people to think together more effectively.

The premise of the method is that that a human being thinks in a few distinct ways. Often in meetings we defer to arguing and point scoring, rather than problem solving and seeking solutions. De Bono developed a theory that forced a group of people to work together to achieve outcomes that fully considered all aspects of a problem or situation.

I have personally used the 6 Thinking Hats in meetings, in the classroom, and when making personal decisions. I have also taught hundreds of teachers and children on the few steps it takes to improve their ability to think, communicate and make decisions. I found it particularly effective in Indonesia when working with teachers on broadening their thinking and making decisions. Certainly if the 6 Thinking Hats are used in a meeting, personal agenda becomes more difficult to perpetuate.
The six colored hats are:

1. White hat: knowledge & data - “What did you learn?”
2. Red hat: feelings - “How did you feel?”
3. Black hat: Issues - “is there anything we have missed?”, or “what could be wrong with this?”
4. Yellow hat: benefits - “what is good about this?”
5. Green hat: creativity - “How could we do this differently?”
6. Blue hat: overseeing - “where do we go from here?”

Just in case you haven’t come across the 6 Thinking Hats before I will give you a quick example of how it worked in an education workshop I held in East Java, Indonesia.

We chose the topic of pollution to explore and quickly devised a list of current knowledge the teachers had (white hat). We then asked how each person felt about pollution (red hat). Next we looked at what problems and issues are created by pollution (black hat). Then we looked at the good things, the benefits of pollution (yellow hat). As you can imagine this raised some objections initially. Next we came up with ideas on how to address some of the issues we had come up with earlier (green hat). Last of all we looked at what we were going to do next (blue hat). We discussed what we might do as individuals regarding local pollution, and we also looked at how we could use the 6 Thinking Hats in our own classrooms.

This is a very simple explanation of how the 6 Hats can work for you. As you look into it further you will find it has a lot more depth. The following is an explanation by De Bono himself. It is really a very good (7 minute) explanation of the 6 Thinking Hats by the guy himself:

As always please comment and share your thoughts. Have you used the 6 Thinking Hats? Where do you see this being handy in your life?

6 Hats image from here