How to Make Difficult Decisions Easier with the Six Thinking Hats

Do we want to buy this house?

My wife faced this question over and over again on our house hunt last year. No surprise there, exactly. What was surprising was how quickly we needed to answer that question. 

The speedy Denver market allowed little, if any, time for reflection. A desirable house would appear on Redfin in the morning and be gone by late afternoon! 

Not many decisions command the attention like whether or not to put an offer on a house. There are so many factors to consider. So, at the start of our hunt, we would see a house, return to our car, and look at each other. How do we make this decision? And how do we make it quickly and confidently?

Our first instinct was to consider pros and cons. But, applied to the home-buying decision, pros and cons felt insufficient. Our second instinct was to evaluate the house against our matrix of “must-haves” and “nice-to-haves.” But our matrix, while it helped us zero in on interesting listings, was unwieldy when it came to evaluating a house. We needed something a little more structured to help us think through the decision. 

A few houses into the hunt, I suggested that we try a decision-making strategy I’d recently read up on: the “Six Thinking Hats.” 

Developed by psychologist Dr. Edward de Bono, the Six Thinking Hats method is an unconventional problem-solving methodology, which suggests that we can reduce thinking down to six essential “thinking styles,” organized into six different color hats. De Bono outlines a structure for solving problems (or making decisions) based around the “wearing” of these six “thinking hats.” (The hat concept is merely a “mental hook”—no need to raid your closet for headgear.) 

While there’s plenty going on in de Bono’s book about the method (Six Thinking Hats—highly recommended!), exploring his related concept of “lateral thinking” and a whole lot else, my main takeaway was this: 

Thinking is hard. And when we think about a problem or a decision, we do it messily. And that mess only gets messier when multiple people are involved. 

Often, thinking about something—say, about whether or not to buy a house!—is hard because we go into it with no strategy. We do our thinking freestyle, which leads to an incomplete understanding and, occasionally, poor decisions. One remedy is to introduce some structure, scaffolding for our thoughts. That’s where the Six Thinking Hats come in.

Using those six essential thinking styles, de Bono lays out an alternative method for thinking. He suggests that a person or a group of people discuss a topic—a problem or decision—by wearing a series of those colored “thinking hats.” 

In proceeding through each hat (there are several suggested orders), not only does each person get a good long look at the topic from several different perspectives, but they also have the benefit of a structured decision-making process. Here’s a quick tour of each of the “hats.”

The Blue Hat

The blue hat is the organizing hat. It’s the “meta” hat—the hat worn when discussing the other hats and looking at the problem. It’s the management hat, which lays out procedure and process. Let’s start with white hat, then do red hat for 30 seconds, and then move on through black, yellow, and green hats. (This will make more sense in a moment.)

The White Hat

The white hat is the information hat. You might think of it as the hat an investigative journalist would wear, asking the “Five Ws”—who, what, when, where, and why (and, sometimes, how). 

For example, the white hat discussion about whether or not to put an offer in on a house would be about the knowns and unknowns of the property. This would include the stuff you know, such as the specs of the house, as well as the stuff you don’t, such as the future use of the empty lot next door or how busy the adjacent street gets when school is in session. 

The Red Hat

The red hat is for feelings and emotions. The red hat allows us to express and acknowledge our emotions as part of the decision-making process. Most of the time, we pretend that emotions have nothing to do with our decisions—humans are completely rational beings, right?!

Well...no. We like to think we are, but we’re not. We base many of our decisions—more than we’re comfortable admitting—on emotions. Being open about our emotions means that we won’t let them lead us astray.

Red hat also allows us to voice related contextual thoughts—I’m having a hard time seeing past the long commute or I’m annoyed at how long this is taking. Note that red hat thoughts are non-judgmental, meaning that they aren’t the product of opinions. They are feelings, unadorned by supporting logic.

The Black Hat

The black hat is the devil’s advocate hat. Poke holes, criticize, seek the weakest link. Many of us have no trouble putting this hat on; some of us have trouble taking it off. 

The black hat allows us to corral our negative thoughts—pessimism, uncertainty, doubt, anxiety, annoyance, discomfort—into a single discussion space. 

So, rather than bubbling up elsewhere, say, after an observation about the awesome potential of the backyard—The backyard looks so awful—the black hat gives that sort of critical comment a dedicated space. They aren’t offered in response to others’ comments.

The Yellow Hat

The yellow hat is the sunny counterpoint to the black hat. The yellow hat balances the black hat’s negativity, often elucidating how certain details—say, the unfinished state of the backyard—are neither wholly positive nor negative. The unfinished backyard means that we can make the patio exactly how we want it. 

The Green Hat

The green hat is the trickiest hat of all, because it asks us to really think. Be creative! It’s the dreaded, Let’s think outside the box. The green hat is about new ideas and ways of seeing the topic. What are some side effects of this idea? How would someone else think about this? 

So should you start using the Six Thinking Hats today?

Despite my enthusiasm for the method, I wouldn’t suggest trotting out the Six Thinking Hats for any old decision. For example, using the Six Thinking Hats to decide what to have for dinner would be absurd and paralyzing. However, for those big, massive decisions with a thousand moving parts and a dizzying array of variables (like buying a house!), the methodology can be extremely clarifying. 

So, while I won’t break out the “hats” for any old conundrum, there are two clear lessons learned here that going forward I will always attempt to heed when you need to think about something.  

1. Create a defined space to be negative. 

The best brainstorming sessions abide by the rule of no idea is a bad idea. But how often have you actually been in such a brainstorm? Ideally, a brainstorm is a nonjudgmental affair, but it often descends into debate, with new ideas immediately rebutted by other participants, leaving everyone wary of contributing. The “black hat” can reduce conflict and provide some breathing room for new ideas. 

2. Get your emotions out in the open.

Part of my role is leading “go/no-go” meetings, where the team decides whether or not to pursue a new business lead or opportunity. Sometimes, the reason for a “no-go” boils down to I really don’t like working with that client, but not everyone is always comfortable expressing that. 

But it’s far better to get those emotions out in the open, even if they’re irrelevant to the topic at hand. That way, we can avoid letting our emotions dictate our decisions behind the scenes. Plus, we avoid the groupthink of the dreaded Abilene paradox—where we “go” a project that no one wants to chase because no one wants to “rock the boat.”