In today’s fast-paced world, effective problem-solving skills are highly valued. However, navigating complex challenges and making sound decisions can be daunting. To tackle this, Dr. Edward de Bono, a renowned psychologist, introduced the Six Thinking Hats framework.

Shippensburg University’s Office of Workforce Development, welcomes individuals, teams, and organizations to join us and learn this powerful method and framework to help problem analysis, encouraging diverse perspectives and fostering comprehensive solutions. Our purpose is to help you improve collaboration, problem-solving, innovation, and decision making.

What Are the Benefits of Using Six Thinking Hats?

The process can help you and/or teams:

• reduce meeting times
• become more productive
• improve the overall quality of decision-making
• create innovative solutions that leverages different perspectives for optimal solutions

The process supports building effective and efficient businesses by:

• establish clear meeting guidelines that promotes communication and active engagement from teams
• foster a culture of collaboration and open conversation
• encourage team members to focus on the collective goal and the best interests of the team, business, and solutions
• cultivates a positive and energized atmosphere where people feel empowered to develop ideas and solutions
• enables a framework for innovation and challenges the status quo while thinking critically about the root causes of problems

What are the Six Thinking Hats?

The Six Thinking Hats framework involves using different metaphorical “hats” to represent different modes of thinking. Each hat represents a specific perspective that helps in approaching a problem from multiple angles. By switching between these hats during problem-solving discussions, individuals can promote holistic thinking and avoid biases or limited viewpoints.

Here are the six metaphorical hats and their corresponding modes of thinking:

1. White Hat: The white hat prompts objective and factual thinking. It focuses on data, information, and what is known or unknown about the problem at hand.
2. Red Hat: The red hat represents emotions, intuition, and gut feelings. It allows individuals to express their feelings, hunches, and intuitions without needing to justify them logically.
3. Black Hat: The black hat signifies critical and cautious thinking. It explores potential risks, weaknesses, and potential pitfalls associated with a proposed solution.
4. Yellow Hat: The yellow hat symbolizes optimistic thinking and benefits. It encourages individuals to identify the positive aspects, benefits, and opportunities associated with a solution.
5. Green Hat: The green hat represents creativity and innovation. It stimulates the generation of new ideas, alternative solutions, and possibilities.
6. Blue Hat: The blue hat acts as the control hat and represents the process of thinking itself. It helps in organizing and managing the thinking process, setting objectives, and summarizing outcomes.

By implementing this framework, individuals can create an efficient meeting environment that fosters positive interactions, empowers innovation, and promotes effective problem-solving.

Additional Resources

Intrigued and want to learn more? Check out these resources about Dr. Edward de Bono and de Bono Thinking Methods:

• Summary of de Bono Six Thinking Hats – www.debono.com/six-thinking-hats-summary
• Explore de Bono Methodologies – www.debonogroup.com
• Case Studies – www.debonogroup.com/blog-articles
• Dr. Edward de Bono – www.debono.com