The 6 Thinking Hats

More Thinking Tools

In the series of videos below, we get a good idea of how & why Edward de Bono is so interested in thinking tools, & how & why he has developed these thinking tools, as well as hearing the hats described straight 'from the horses' mouth'.

The 6 Thinking Hats is one of the better known of Edward de Bono's Thinking Tools, and here below you can see them explained: it is a powerful way of making thinking on any subject a lot more effective.

Also see

the Edward de Bono page

in this e-book

You can copy and use

this worksheet

to explore any idea / design / proposal with the hats

There's a dialogue in our FB group about the Thinking Hats (click icon to go there)

White Hat

White suggests paper, this hat is about information. When we use the white hat, we ask this type of questions: What information do we have? What information do we need ? What questions should I be making? The white hat is used to bring attention to the information we have or are lacking.

Red Hat

Red suggests heat & fire. The red hat has to do with feelings, intuitions & emotions. You might not know why you like or dislike something. When we use the red hat you have the chance to express your feelings without giving any explanation. Your feelings exist & the red hat permits you to have them known.

Black Hat

The black hat is without question the one we tend to use the most. Black reminds us of the judges' robes. The black hat is about precaution, it stops us from doing things that could be harmful. The black hats signals risks & the causes for which something might not work. Without the black hat we'd always be in trouble. However we must not make too much use of this hat because it can be dangerous.

Yellow Hat

Yellow suggests bright sun & optimism. Using the yellow hat we make an effort to find the valuable & beneficial of a suggestion: What is good about this?

Even if we don't like an idea, the yellow hat asks us to find the positive points. Which are the benefits? Who will benefit?, How will the benefits be made effective? What are its different values?

Green Hat

The colour green suggests vegetation, which relates to energy & life. The green hat is the hat of new energy. Using the green hat we make proposals & we put out new ideas & alternatives. Using this hat you suggest variations & modifications to the proposed ideas. The green hat permits us to express possibilities. When the green hat is in use, everyone makes an effort to be creative.

cute eh?

Blue Hat

The blue hat is for looking at the thought process in itself. What is the next action? What have we achieved till now? We use the blue hat at the beginning of a discussion in order to define what we are thinking & to decide what we need to achieve at the end of the thinking process. The blue hat can be used to organize the sequence of hats that we use, as well as to summarize what we have achieved.

The Green hat

is all about

imagination ...

...

this is an image that our first group of students of the PDC+++

found & used

in a presentation of a

group design they did

General Thinking Skills Course

At last! A distributed on-line learning course designed by Edward de Bono. The course is divided into three parts or modules and developed from the most powerful and effective CoRT Thinking Tools.

This course consists of three parts and is itself part of a series on on-line courses covering Communication and Creativity which will be published shortly. These new courses should be taken in sequence.

The aim of this course is to train people in thinking and to give them 'self esteem' in their ability to think. This leads to self confidence. This type of thinking is important to the entrepreneur and the emphasis is on this approach.

Videos

Edward de Bono is regarded as the global leading authority in the field of creative and conceptual thinking.

An MD, PHD and Rhodes Scholar, he has authored 72 books in 41 languages.

His work is in use in thousands of schools worldwide, and mandatory on the curriculum in some countries.

He is the originator of the term 'Lateral Thinking' and the very popular "Six Thinking Hats" framework.

A Series of Videos on Thinking in General & the Hats in Particular

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

& the Orange Hat?

this isn't something DeBono came up with .. but an invention of our students (getting a bit dizzy with the green hat ..)

.. still haven't fully explained it to us .. pending!