In his lifetime, Edward de Bono wrote 85 books, but he is arguably best known for his work around lateral thinking, including this one – The Six Thinking Hats. Over time, I’ve heard it cited as being a book about managing brainstorming sessions, but there’s much, much more to it than that.
At the very start, De Bono explains how the use of the Six Hats method helped, “three hundred senior civil servants… increase[d] productivity by 493%.” The preface and introduction are peppered with other similar examples.
This method is a way to make meetings, problem solving and decision-making more productive and seemingly faster too.
In short, this is achieved by separating out our different aspects of thinking – each one defined by a ‘thinking’ hat of a different colour. By switching hats to whichever mode of thinking is needed at a given point, any ego is taken out of the equation and issues explored from different perspectives denoted by the hat.
Why do things in a Six Hats way?
From reading this book, this approach has huge benefits. These different modes of our thinking processes – from facts to emotions to looking for new ways to make things work to spotting potential flaws to explore and providing a discerning eye across the process – are separated out which means that a team can all be thinking in the same mode at the same time. So, it’s almost like ‘clean’ thinking – you can put all your energy into one mode, rather than being sidetracked by an emotion of who an idea comes from for example, rather than the validity of that idea.
Plus, it gives people who may not otherwise speak up with their ideas the opportunity to do so. By putting on a black hat and sharing your thought from that perspective means that your idea is part of a process, rather than being considered as a direct, individual input or criticism.
If you are all clear and mindful of which hat you are wearing, you become equally conscious of what thinking mode you are in, rather than trying to sift through different perspectives - what de Bono calls parallel thinking.
If everyone is clear on the approach then we can each respectfully point out when someone might be stuck in black hat thinking, for example and move them into a yellow hat, to give a different viewpoint.
So, what’s needed to make it work? Well, everyone needs to be very clear on how the process works and you need a strong facilitator or chair who doesn’t have any ‘skin in the game’ on the topic being discussed. You also need to contract clearly at the beginning so everyone is clear how hats will be changed. The last thing you’ll need is disagreement on how it works when you’re part-way through a workshop.
I’ve really enjoyed reading this book. I’ve seen groups using this approach to unearth some very different thinking, not getting too bogged down in black hat thinking and instead, putting on a green hat to generate some great ideas. And, the use of the white hat has meant that any assumptions have been robustly challenged and ‘facts’ really validated, minimising misunderstandings and taking any ‘heat’ out of the discussion. Using the red hat has meant that emotions were openly shared, rather than being hidden among arguments.
The Six Thinking Hats is a short but great read – it will help you become mindful of the thinking mode you’re in at any one time. That makes is a really useful tool for any coach, facilitator or manager who is keen to optimise their team’s collective thinking for better results.