The Six Thinking Hats encourage people to approach a challenge from different perspectives

Edward de Bono Share this expert EdB Edward de Bono /Edward_de_Bono

0 ‘s Six Thinking Hats model encourages people to figuratively put on different thinking hats. The technique can be used by individuals or groups to deliberately encourage them to think in different directions. These are the hats:

• Yellow: Focus on the benefits. Takes a positive and optimistic perspective.
• Green: Focus on creativity and building on the ideas. Refrain from criticism.
• White: Data focus. Analyze trends & look for knowledge gaps.
• Red: Focus on intuition, gut reaction, and emotion. How could others react emotionally to the decision?
• Black: Focus on negative outcomes and flaws in the plan. Be cautious and defensive. Highlights weak points (in order to eliminate them later), makes thinking more robust.
• Blue: Focus on the process. Manages the discussion, defines where to focus.

The Six Thinking Hats

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