55 pages • 1 hour read
Six Thinking Hats
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Themes
The Importance of Parallel Thinking
Parallel thinking, the basis of the Six Thinking Hats method, requires looking at a situation or question from different viewpoints and accepting all of them, no matter how contradictory they may seem. After the matter at hand has been thoroughly reviewed through a series of thinking “hats,” or modes, then the decision-makers can either choose the best one or create a design that covers the best possibilities. Thus, throughout the book, de Bono emphasizes the importance of parallel thinking.
De Bono contrasts parallel thinking with what he regards as traditional Western or argumentative-style thought, which has come down through the centuries from the ancient Greek philosophers Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. The author finds several dangers in an argumentative approach to an issue. It can be confusing, because the thinkers don’t sort out factors such as emotions, information, logic, hope, and creativity that affect their thought. It can also be ineffective for people who are only able to think in one dominant mode, particularly when it is far easier to be negative about an issue than to be positive. Furthermore, it can lead to demonstrations and clashes of ego, which many cultures consider to be aggressive and nonconstructive.
De Bono offers the Six Thinking Hats method as a way of considering an issue because he believes that it eliminates the shortcomings of argumentative-style thinking. In his words, a discussion is no longer a matter of arguing from one point to another but of “filling the field with possibilities” (78). Ego is removed from the discussion because everyone is thinking in the same “direction.”
In addition, parallel thinking disrupts the natural tendency of the brain to judge new situations against standard patterns of past experiences. The brain is “presensitized” to react in certain ways, but this system of judgment is only valid in a stable world. In a changing world, the reactions may no longer apply. Parallel thinking via the Six Hats method is a deliberate effort to think in varied modes, opening new ideas and possibilities that the usual way of thinking could never reveal.
At various points, the author compares the process of parallel thinking to making a map. One does not choose a route first, then make a map, as he thinks argumentative-style thinking would do. Instead, parallel thinking involves making the map first by exploring the terrain and then choosing the route. The map grows increasingly detailed until the way to proceed becomes obvious. De Bono thus regards parallel thinking as helping to facilitate more creative and varied forms of thought and decision-making.
The Benefits of Game-Playing
De Bono compares the Six Hats to game-playing. He argues that the very artificiality of the metaphor of modes of thinking as hats is a great benefit when the method is used, because he believes that game-playing facilitates new modes of thinking and can help participants interact more effectively with one another.
First, playing a game ensures that everyone follows the rules, so that they are not perceived as being uncooperative. De Bono cites the Confucian method of thinking as his model. Instead of focusing on analysis, Confucian-style thought lays out the rules for behavior, which everyone then follows. He says the “game” aspect of the Six Hats is very important because getting people to follow rules is a powerful way to change behavior.
Artificiality also helps to take ego out of thinking sessions, especially with regard to emotions. As de Bono says, artificiality is “the real value of the red hat” (61), the mode that allows participants to express emotions and feelings. People can switch in and out of the emotion mode quickly, with no time for lingering resentment. Views expressed under this mode are less personal because it is a “formal idiom,” and emotions that bubble up during other focused modes come to seem out of place.
The artifice inherent in the thinking styles also helps to force people out of their usual ways of thinking. He posits that this is especially true with regard to the yellow hat. It is a “deliberate device which the thinker chooses to adopt” (92), forcing the thinker to develop what de Bono calls “value sensitivity,” or being as sensitive to value as people typically are to danger.
The concept of using the hats as game-playing is also important to green hat thinking, in which thinkers put forward new ideas. People who don’t think of themselves as naturally creative also want to do what is expected of them. De Bono says people are “very good at playing the game that they perceive to be in progress” (115), forcing them to become more creative in a green hat session.
In his Conclusion, de Bono stresses the role of artificiality in the Six Thinking Hats concept in facilitating a switch in thinking. If someone has been consistently negative in a meeting, for example, a leader or participant can ask them to take off the black thinking hat. In the author’s words, by “turning it into role-playing or even a game” (172), the Six Hats concept makes it possible to request certain types of thought without causing any offense or threatening ego. All that is needed is for everyone to be aware of the rules of the game.
Flexibility Within a Structured Thinking Session
While de Bono cautions against misusing the Six Thinking Hats method in ways that include assigning individuals in a group different hats, he also offers a great deal of flexibility within the method, making it applicable to a variety of situations and personalities. In these ways, he emphasizes maintaining flexibility within a structured thinking session.
First, the method can be used singly, to request a particular type of thinking within a discussion. As an example, a group may slip into “black hat” thinking because, de Bono believes, it is naturally easier to be negative about an idea than positive. This is how the brain operates; it looks for inconsistencies between a new concept and past experience in order to avoid costly mistakes, a process de Bono calls the “mismatch mechanism” (71). The leader or facilitator can intervene to point this direction out and request a different style of thinking, such as the objective “white hat” mode that looks only at facts and figures.
The method can also be used in a sequence. While de Bono offers several typical scenarios, the process can be tailored by the designated “blue hat” thinker who sets the sequence. Furthermore, the hats themselves have a fair amount of flexibility in terms of usage. For example, the blue “control” hat and the red “emotions” hat are useful modes to use at both the beginning or “discovery” part of a thinking session and the end, in which the thinkers plan the road forward. Similarly, the black hat is useful in both designing and assessing an idea. A final decision typically combines white, yellow, black, and red hat thinking.
De Bono points out that it would be disruptive to switch hats “with every remark one makes” (165). He cautions against being pedantic when using the method. Instead, it is important for people to make the effort to think in a certain direction of the mode that has been established. The author maintains, however, that it is also important to formally identify the hats from time to time. He says it is “precisely the discipline of trying to follow a thinking mode” (166) that provides value.
In his closing chapter, de Bono acknowledges that there will be times when a final decision can be difficult to make. It may depend on speculation about the future, for instance, which is impossible to predict. Here, too, the Six Thinking Hats provides flexibility, offering the option of a final red hat decision. As he says, in the end, all decisions are really red hat—people provide and assess the ideas and information, but “the final decision is emotional” (171).
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