A mode of thinking training, or a model for thinking about problems comprehensively. It can turn chaotic thinking into clarity and turn team arguments into collaborative, creative brainstorming.
The Six Thinking Hats appear to use six different colored hats, representing 6 different modes of thinking.
White symbolizes blank paper, representing neutrality and objectivity free of any colored bias. It is responsible for collecting and organizing information and data; the key is to distinguish which of these pieces of information are facts and which are opinions, without evaluating the information, and certainly without adding subjective preferences or emphasis.
Green symbolizes vitality, representing creativity and imagination. It is responsible for expressing positive possibilities and variability. Ideas and change have no positive or negative side, no right or wrong—just boldly use your imagination, because the other hats need the green hat's inspiration.
Yellow symbolizes gold, representing yes and value. It is responsible for expressing positive, optimistic, hopeful, constructive viewpoints—either as an evaluation of white hat thinking or as a positive judgment on the green hat's results.
Black symbolizes saying no, focuses more on risk, and is responsible for applying skeptical and doubtful views, making reasonable criticism, voicing negative opinions, and finding logical errors. It can hold in check the wild, imaginative ideas of the green hat, and can also question the yellow hat's judgment.
Red is full of passion and represents intuition and emotion. It is responsible for expressing one's feelings and hunches; you can freely express your likes and dislikes without providing any supporting evidence. To say a bit more: this hat is the least 'thinking' of the six thinking hats, because we all have likes, dislikes, and intuitions that are hard to put into words yet truly exist within us. If these irrational factors with tremendous inner drive are not allowed to participate—for example, being unable to do something you especially love that others don't favor, or having to persist in something you particularly dislike yet seems correct—then this long-suppressed emotion will surely have a huge negative impact on behavior after the decision is made. When pure irrationality meets extreme rationality, emotion and intuition often play an enormous role. This is why the red hat must be included among the thinking roles.
Blue symbolizes calmness and, representing the sky, is the hat that controls the other hats. The blue hat does not participate in thinking; it only controls and regulates thinking—including planning in the early stage the order and frequency of use of the various hats, in the middle stage controlling their depth and thinking time, and in the later stage delivering the final conclusion.
In short: white is responsible for finding, green for imagining, yellow for affirming, black for arguing, red for feeling (haha), and blue for keeping everyone in line.
Key point one: a thinker is only allowed to wear one hat at a time. Whether in individual thinking or team discussion, two or more voices must not exist simultaneously—for example, while gathering information, saying this one isn't as good as that one, or while criticizing, also accepting criticism of the criticism. Otherwise it will return to chaos and mutual bickering.
Key point 2: If you’re going to use the Six Thinking Hats, use all six. Many people weren’t familiar with the Six Thinking Hats before, but think they’re already using them. In reality, many use them casually and without rigor: they either keep wearing one hat for too long or fail to use all six—for example, by simply venting their dissatisfaction or offering nothing but negative judgments and criticism. They may wear the White Hat casually and fail to gather all the relevant information, or wear only the Blue Hat and go through the motions without reaching useful conclusions. They may think the model doesn’t work well, when in fact they haven’t used it well.
Key point 3: The order of the hats isn’t fixed; it should be adjusted to suit the topic. For a meeting where the goal is to reach a conclusion, the steps might be: use the Blue Hat to set the meeting topic and the desired outcome; the White Hat to lay out the facts about the issue; the Green Hat to suggest solutions; the Red Hat to intuitively screen those solutions; the Yellow Hat to list their benefits; the Black Hat to identify their problems; and the Green Hat to address those problems further. Then use the Red Hat to share feelings again and the Blue Hat to summarize the conclusion. For a meeting discussing an existing proposal, the steps might be: start with the Red Hat to say whether you like it or not; use the Yellow Hat to identify its strengths; the Black Hat to point out its shortcomings; the White Hat to add information about those shortcomings; the Green Hat to suggest improvements; the Black Hat to screen the proposal again; then use the Red Hat to share feelings again and the Blue Hat to reach a conclusion. So although each hat has a fixed function, the hats aren’t independent: the order in which they’re used changes their effects. Learning about the Six Thinking Hats is just the beginning of understanding the sequence. Further study may be needed, but at least now we know that when making major decisions, switching among these six modes of thinking to look at things from different perspectives can be very useful.