Thinking hats provide a safe environment for everyone in a meeting to brainstorm, express positives/negatives, and share emotions. The concept of wearing six different hats was developed by Edward DeBono as a way to get people to think creatively and logically about generating and evaluating ideas. Below is a suggested process sequence for using hats in a creative session.
- Blue hat worn by the meeting facilitator to ensure an effective “Six Thinking Hats” process is followed. Open the meeting with a statement of the purpose of the meeting. Then define each hat and the best order to progress through them.
- White hat reviews any data that is available on the topic being discussed. Everyone with real data to contribute, whether good or bad related to the topic, should present the data without any bias or interpretation.
- Green hat begins to generate workable, ready-to-use ideas. Use creative idea generation methods like brainstorming or creative thinking methods like random words to start the process. Remind everyone to only provide ideas and not express any opinion on the ideas until the appropriate hats that follow.
- Yellow The hat review requires everyone to see the positive in the elements of the green hat process. Be constructive when discussing the benefits and opportunities each idea could present.
- Black The review allows each person to express their negative evaluation of an idea in a non-argumentative way. Discuss failures, errors, or risks related to the items being discussed. Feel free to ask questions to clarify ideas or potential processes that can be followed.
- Green hat follows to determine the best yellow hat follow-up ideas and creative solutions to problems identified in the black review.
- Red This provides an opportunity to express feelings or emotions linked to the best option(s) selected. This emotional discussion of what each person in the room is feeling or the reactions they think others may have helps to solve problems. This can result in good plans for various contingencies.
- Blue This reassures the group that progress has been made in reaffirming the purpose of the session. The meeting process and final results should be summarized. The facilitator then gets assigned actions or tells the group what happens next with their results.
Using this sequence of hats in a creative session will allow everyone in the meeting to feel comfortable sharing. It can prevent someone from feeling like you are messing with him or his ideas. Use DeBono’s six thinking hats when conducting a brainstorming session where you will also need to analyze ideas for both positive and negative potential.