55 pages • 1 hour read
Six Thinking Hats
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Part 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 4: “The Yellow Hat”
Part 4, Introduction Summary
The yellow hat calls to mind sunshine and optimism. Under this hat, a thinker looks for the benefits in a situation. It is harder to wear than the black hat, because while the brain naturally tries to avoid dangers, it doesn’t automatically look for positives. For this reason, people need to develop “value sensitivity”—being as sensitive to value as they are to danger.
The yellow hat has a high value simply because it forces people to look for value. It should be based in logic, not fantasy. It asks questions such as, “What are the values, for whom, and what circumstances apply?”
Part 4, Chapter 22 Summary: “The Yellow Hat: Speculative-Positive”
We can choose to look at things in a positive way. Positive thinking must combine curiosity, pleasure, greed, and the wish to make things happen. This wish is a trait of successful people.
De Bono calls the yellow hat “speculative-positive” because any plan or action requires looking to the future. Since people can’t be as sure about the future as they can about the past, the deliberate search for the positive is speculative. This search can be futile, but it can also involve overlooking positive aspects, since value and benefit aren’t always obvious. Entrepreneurs look for value that hasn’t yet been spotted.
Part 4, Chapter 23 Summary: “Yellow Hat Thinking: The Positive Spectrum”
Since extreme optimism can be foolish, de Bono asks at what point optimism and yellow hat thinking become foolish. He sees a spectrum, with extreme optimism at one end and the “logical-practical” at the other. Yellow hat thinking must look at the action following the optimism. If the action is unrealistic, like the example of buying a lottery ticket in the hope of winning, then it is misplaced.
However, sometimes there is a chance that an overly optimistic idea can succeed. It is another reason to exercise parallel thinking in the Six Hats method. Optimistic suggestions must be “noted and put on the map” (96) with a rough estimation of their likelihood.
Part 4, Chapter 24 Summary: “Yellow Hat Thinking: Reasons and Logical Support”
A positive assessment can be based on a variety of factors, including experience, information, trends, and guesses. As yellow hat thinking needs to go further than red hat thinking, the ideas put forth should have as much support as possible.
Yellow hat thinking is not limited to ideas that can be fully justified. At the same time, if support for positive ideas is to be found, this is the stage at which that support should be provided.
Part 4, Chapter 25 Summary: “Yellow Hat Thinking: Constructive Thinking”
Critical thinking is important but not sufficient. De Bono objects to the idea that it is enough to train critical minds, which he attributes to the tradition of Western thought. Only black hat thinking is solely critical. Yellow hat thinking propels constructive ideas, suggestions, and proposals.
All constructive thinking is positive. Proposals improve situations by problem-solving or using an opportunity. Reactive thinking, or the positive assessment aspect, is the opposite of the black hat negative assessment. Furthermore, non-experts should feel free to make suggestions, which don’t have to be especially clever. They might include putting together known effects to construct a solution.
Yellow hat thinking has three aspects: Generating proposals, assessing them positively, and developing or building up a proposal. This process is a further construction, which may involve correcting the faults generated by black hat thinking.
Part 4, Chapter 26 Summary: “Yellow Hat Thinking: Speculation”
Speculation involves conjecture and hope. Yellow hat thinking involves speculation as it sets out to explore possible benefits and values. De Bono calls the speculative aspect of yellow hat thinking “opportunity thinking.” It first looks at the best possible scenario, or outcome, from an idea. It then assesses the likelihood of the scenario.
Assessment involves exploring “if” changes—outcomes based on certain events taking place. Where the black hat looked at “if” conditions to assess risks and dangers, the yellow hat explores opportunities.
The speculative aspect of yellow hat thinking also involves vision. The vision comes first, and then details follow. It sets a direction for action.
Part 4, Chapter 27 Summary: “Yellow Hat Thinking: Relation to Creativity”
Yellow hat thinking, unlike green hat thinking, isn’t specifically concerned with creativity. A person can be a good yellow hat thinker but not be a creative person. Creativity treats change, innovation, and new ideas and ways. Yellow hat thinking, in contrast, looks more at effectively applying old ideas with a positive attitude. It deals with effectiveness as opposed to novelty.
De Bono points out that creative has two distinct meanings: Bringing something about, and newness. Yellow hat thinking is concerned with bringing things about, not changing concepts or perceptions.
Part 4, Chapter 28 Summary: “Summary of Yellow Hat Thinking”
In summary, yellow hat thinking is concerned with positive assessment and covers a spectrum from the logical and practical on one end to dreams, hopes, and visions at the other. It searches for values and benefits and then tries to find logical support for those things.
This mode of thinking is both constructive and generative. It produces concrete proposals and suggestions. It is concerned with operacy, the “action element” that considers risk assessment, in the light of making things happen.
Part 4 Analysis
The idea of value comes into prominence in the discussion of the yellow hat and will continue to be important in Part 5, where de Bono moves on to discuss the green hat. Since de Bono believes that people are not naturally inclined to look for benefits in a situation—in a contrast to the way they typically look for drawbacks—the artificial, game-playing nature of the Six Hats idiom is beneficial in prompting value sensitivity. As de Bono says, the yellow hat is a “deliberate device which the thinker chooses to adopt” (92). It virtually forces the thinker to be positive regardless of their natural inclination.
As with the other hats, the yellow hat offers Flexibility Within a Structured Thinking Session. Its positivity exists on a spectrum ranging from extreme optimism to “logical-practical.” To avoid impractical, misplaced optimism, de Bono effectively puts a system of checks and balances into place with yellow hat thinking to keep it focused on this idea of finding value. Under the yellow hat, people search for values and benefits to an idea, but they also looks for support for those values and benefits.
At the same time, de Bono acknowledges that over-optimism doesn’t always lead to failure. For this reason, he assigns a labeling task to the parallel notation of yellow hat suggestions. Thinkers put forward the best possible outcome of an idea, but they also assess the likelihood of that outcome. They may use a scale ranging from “Proven” and “Likely” at one end to “Remote or Long Shot” at the other. They may also qualify suggestions in the form of “if” statements, such as “bond prices will rise if interest rates fall” (107).
Yellow hat thinking is speculative in nature. It requires intangible factors, such as hope and vision. In de Bono’s words, “In any design there is some sort of vision that comes first” (107). His pairing of design and vision meshes with those of positivity experts such as Jon Gordon, author of The Energy Bus and The Power of Positive Leadership. Both authors base their concepts of design on their experience working with businesses and business leaders. Proceeding from this experience, Gordon stresses that to achieve positive goals, one must first envision them. Similarly, de Bono states that the vision sets the direction for action.
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