Six Thinking Hats - Use New Perspectives

In reading Limitless by Jim Kwik, he revered Edward De Bono's Six Hats of Intelligence framework.

Jim does a great job of working through the hats with Stephen Bartlett , but here is a quick rundown of the hat colors and purpose.

I am providing my take on some of these hats based on what I have read so far. If you know about them or are just now hearing about them, I would love to hear your take on them.

The White Hat

The white hat is the researcher.

When wearing it, you gather information and look for facts and data to help you make decisions during problem-solving. I enjoy researching a lot, but I tend to want to put data into action before I am done researching and organizing it. I need to keep my white hat on a little longer at times.

The Yellow Hat

This is all that “Could be” with a successful outcome.

How will solving your problem change you? How might it change the world? What are all the positives that could be? I love the Yellow Hat and wear this one often. When I am looking at an idea, I look at where we are at right now and already have the next 10 phases thought out in my head.

The Black Hat

Risks, difficulties, Problems—the realm of the Black Hat.

This is my least favorite hat, but it is one that is extremely necessary and that I personally need to wear a bit more. These are all the things that could go wrong. The pessimist's view of the challenge is helpful because it allows you to see and prepare for friction before it's actually encountered. If this hat is TOO powerful, it can be demotivating and cause momentum paralysis. I surrender.

The Red Hat

The Red Hat signifies feelings, hunches, and intuition.

For me, this hat is really hard to separate from other hats unless I am very deliberate about it. It's not like I turn into an emotionless Vulcan (Star Trek, if you don’t get the reference) when I have my Black hat on. So I see this mainly as a companion hat to the others, and you may need to control the intensity/influence of the red hat at any given time.

The Green Hat

The Green Hat focuses on creativity, possibilities, alternatives, and new ideas.

This hat never really leaves my head.

For me, “It won’t work that way” means we have eliminated one possible outcome, bringing us closer to a solution.

A NO means “Next opportunity.” I love finding my way through the maze.

The Blue Hat

The Blue Hat is used to manage the thinking process.

It's the project manager of the Hats. When you are planning a challenge, put this hat on first so you deliberately consider the perspective of the other hats.

Put it on at the end to manage the execution of the project you are working on.

Wrapping up

I love the idea of the six hats and am looking forward to better incorporating those various perspectives into my daily routines.

Next time I order a coffee at Barnes & Noble, I will try on my Black Hat before I knee-jerk order my usual house brew. Maybe a Red Hat perspective of a hot Late will put me over the edge and convince me to order something other than Pike Place.