How to Use Six Thinking Hats in Problem Solving

In his book “Six Thinking Hats” Edward De Bono described six different methods of parallel thinking done in group or individually to address any problem effectively and look at decision from a number of important perspective. This forces you to move outside your habitual thinking style, and helps you to get a more rounded view of a situation.

Human brains have mental blocks which compel them to think in a certain pattern and resist any deviation from that. We often call them bias thinking. This pattern of thinking can be challenged and hence planned for use in a structured way allowing one to develop tactics to think laterally and see the problem from different perspective. De Bono identifies six distinct directions in which the brain can be challenged. In each of these directions the brain will identify and bring into conscious thought certain aspects of issues being considered (e.g. gut instinct, pessimistic judgments, neutral facts). None of these directions are completely natural ways of thinking, but rather how some of us already represent the results of our thinking.


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The White Hat

The white hat calls for information known or needed. The white hat approach is an analytical approach where you keep all your assumptions aside and only consider what data says. This is where you look into numbers, trends, and facts and figures.

At this stage we usually ask the following questions:-

What information is available?
What information would we like to have?
What information do we need?
What information is missing?
How can we obtain the missing information?

The Red Hat

Now that we have done our data analysis the next thing to do is see how we feel about the issue. Red hat is all about emotional feelings, hunches and intuition - the place where emotions are placed without explanation. We think about how we feel on the issue and resolution proposed. We also try to perceive how other people will react emotionally to it. All logical reasoning is kept aside and we solely focus on feeling at this stage. Try to understand the responses of people who do not fully know your reasoning.

The questions we asked at this stage are:-

How do people genuinely feel about it?
Why do people feel so?
Do people have permission to express their feeling?
How can this impact my decision?

The Black Hat

The Black Hat signifies caution and critical thinking. Black hat focuses on risks and failure modes. Try to see why it might not work. This is important because it highlights the weak aspects of a plan. It allows you to eliminate them, alter them, or prepare contingency plans to counter them. Many people are biased to positive thinking. Optimism, though good, but too much of if often leads you to ignore the risk associated to your action. Black Hat thinking helps to make your plans 'tougher' and more resilient. Using this hat you can make your plan strong and full proof. It helps you to spot fatal flaws before you embark on a course of action. Black hat though considered the most powerful and useful of all, yet should not be overused, as it could block your thinking into a defensive mode

The questions we asked at this stage are:-

What are the risks and how could we mitigate?
What are the existing faults in the process?
How could I pinpoint weakness and impracticalities?
Are the negatives logical?

The Yellow Hat

This is the favorite hat for all who are optimists. The yellow hat helps you to think positively. Under this hat you look into the value and benefit that could be derived. It is the optimistic viewpoint that helps you to see all the positive aspects of the decision. This hat is very useful when everything around you looks hopeless. During hard times, pessimism creeps in, and we feel inferior and depressed. That is when this hat comes to rescue.

The questions we asked at this stage are:-

Why this idea may work
Who might benefit & how?
Who is interested in this idea?
What are my strengths, and how can I make maximum use of them?

The Green Hat

The Green Hat stands for creativity. On wearing this hat let your thoughts flow freely without any restrictions. Think out of box. Do some lateral thinking to the problem. Come up with as many ideas as possible. Never mind if the idea sounds silly. Jot them down. It is a freewheeling way of thinking, in which there is little criticism of ideas. Challenge your current thinking. Consider new possibilities. Look for alternatives.

The questions we asked at this stage are:-

How to think about this problem from a new perspective
Have I explored all the opportunities even the weirdest one?
Am I ignoring any idea just because I think it is not feasible?
Is the idea really not feasible?
Do I have any mental block that is stopping me from thinking differently?
What different can I do from the crowd?

The Blue Hat

The Blue Hat is used to manage the thinking process. This is the hat worn by people chairing meetings. It's the control mechanism that ensures the Six Thinking Hats guidelines are observed. It is different from the other hats because it is involved with directing the thinking process itself.

The questions we asked at this stage are:-

What is the first hat to start with and what sequence to follow?
Are we really tackling the problem effectively or getting deviated
Is our discussion delivering results?
Are we giving everyone equal importance or just biased over few?
Are we overusing any particular thinking hat?
How do we measure our results?
Application

Now that we know what six thinking hats represent lets go and see how we can apply them to any problem solving.

Say a company has funds available in good amount for investment. The management is now considering how to utilize the funds available to the best use. The economy is doing well and there are ample opportunities available in the market. They decide to use six thinking hats technique during a planning meeting

Looking at the problem with the White Hat, they analyze the data. They list down the possible industries and the companies which could be considered for investment. Post that, they looked in to fundamental details such as profit trends, cash flow, balance sheet, company management and brand reputation. They also looked into the macro condition like, economy, government policy, interest and inflation, rate of employment etc. They determine the time period and expected return on investment.

On wearing red hat they try to feel how shareholders would feel about the investment. How would employees react to it? How the company would be perceived in the market through this investment? How all those companies on which they are planning to invest, would feel about their decision?


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When they think with the Black Hat, they think of all the possible risks. They worry that government projections may be wrong. The economy may face a downturn and what if the market crashes? What if the companies they are investing on, go bankrupt? What if there is a world war? Would it be a wise idea to invest all the funds? What if their own company needs funds in future?

With the yellow hat, they gather all the positive reasons for investment. They can see the advanced economy and their money growing at a steady pace over the next few years. Maybe they can double their money within a year and reinvest a portion of it for business growth. They visualize their stock price to reach its all time high due to heavy buying by the investors.

With Green Hat thinking they explore the different creative ideas of using the fund. They may only invest a portion of the fund and the can keep the rest for business growth. May be they can donate a portion of the amount to charity which would give them tax benefit, or can give the money to the employees in terms of bonus which would increase their morale thus increasing their productivity May be they can convert the cash to property and gold, or can utilize the funds to insure their business.

The Blue Hat has been used by the meeting's Chair to move among the different thinking styles. With blue hat, he or she may see that discipline is maintained and everyone’s idea is viewed with due respect. The chair would also keep a track of the time, and would decide the sequence to follow while thinking.

Six Thinking Hats is a mind-blowing tool described by Edward de Bono that can be applied into any problem effectively with amazing results.