Intro

A client of mine asked how I might approach improving the overall strategic thinking on their team. In their description of the problem, I was noticing the business owner was happy with the quality of the creative thinking that came out of their brainstorming sessions. I was also hearing their plans often failed due to being overly optimistic and lacking execution.

I offered my two cents: The teams thinking was too narrow. They needed to get into the habit of seeing multiple perspectives to better consider the total possibilities available. They also needed to quickly determine the best path for the organization to take in that moment.

I suggested a simple fix, the 6 thinking hats I am going to go over with you in this article. In the case of this customer, it quickly improved the teams planning and execution, allowed them to see their biases and did so without a leadership retreat, an expensive consultant or new hires.

Parallel Thinking: The 6 Thinking Hats

There is a method designed to expand the effectiveness of your thinking called 6 Thinking Hats. This protocol, developed by Dr. Edward De Bono (he calls this concept Parallel Thinking) improves meetings, brainstorming and problem solving by ensuring all aspects of a situation are fully considered. The 6 thinking hats are easy to introduce to a group and this alone makes them valuable to an organization. However, what I like most about the 6 thinking hats is how effectively they improve communication and speed up the process of getting to a positive outcome within a group meeting.

Brainstorming sessions biggest pitfalls remain their tendency to lean towards dreamer, blue ocean, challenge the assumptions kind of thinking. This is good to a degree but more perspectives need considered and plans need made. What will the cost be to the company? How will the team react? What could go wrong? There is a myriad of questions we can ask ourselves to broaden the thinking but how does someone do this fast, within the context of a work team. Afterall, time is money.

That is where the hats come into help. It’s a simple tool to guide you through multiple points of views quickly. Each hat represents a different way of thinking. We invite ourselves to take on these personalities by “wearing” each of the hats to get a complete view of the situation.

Blue Hat | Director
Overview, summary, process, control, order, form, action plans.
Think: conductor

How to Implement

What I enjoy about protocols such as this, is the practicality of their ability to improve a situation. The 6 hats are extremely easy to implement. If you often facilitate meetings, introduce the hats. Announce this tool will be a part of future meetings and is a resource for anyone in the group. Paint a picture of the benefits you believe in and clarity they will bring to the team. Create a resource, a ledger defining each hat to have on reference during team discussions (or just download mine). Then lead by example.

Particularly, I’ve noticed 3 ways you can utilize the hats within a team:

1) Parallel Thinking
Using this method, the leader walks participants through each style of thinking, inviting everyone to take turns all collectively wearing one hat at a time through the course of a session. To best do this, the leader should start with the blue hat, and announce that they will be taking the role of the director. A great fit for the chair of the meeting anyway. Then go through the hats in order. Everyone in the group should be thinking in parallel, viewing the situation through the lens the hat provides. I think the most productive order is white (facts), red (emotions), black (judgement), yellow (optimism), green (creativity). Go back to blue (process) as often as needed to maintain structure and progress toward the goal of the meeting. Be sure to close with blue as well , the hat worn for action items, next steps and summaries.

2) A Reminder
The hats provide a good checklists of perspectives to consider. They can quickly be used to ensure you have come up with a solid plan. If you find you are moving forward with a plan and want to be sure all avenues have been considered, quickly put each hat on. Ask yourself how that perspective would consider the plan. It might reveal an area that needs more consideration or it could give you the validation to move forward with action.

3) Diffusion
Naturally the 6 hats won’t be used in every planning scenario or group discussion. Yet still you many notice the group is leaning too heavy in one direction, wearing only one hat. Maybe everyone is fooling themselves thinking of only perfect case scenarios, overly committed to wearing the yellow hat. Perhaps someone on the group has invested considerable hours on a project and their emotion is starting to show, influencing the thoughts shared. Maybe the team is being creative but what is needed in that moment is more order and function. The 6 hats can be called on the make the group aware of their current thinking. Any participant can reference a hat, and this makes their next words more professional. In the example below, the critical feedback of the team member is much easier to swallow with a thinking hat aid.

Without a thinking hat:
”This plan won’t work. I just know it. Customers won’t buy it. My gut says so.”

With a thinking hat:
”I have to be honest, I don’t love this plan, I know I am being a bit red hat here. Is it possible we can consider the white hat details and look at the customer feedback that supports our positive feeling?”

You can see that the simple reference to the thinking hat provides a way to communicate in a more professional, results oriented fashion. Sure it’s a little odd referencing a hat, but it separates the person from the thought, and allows the group to understand the point of view of the speaker.

Summary

Overall, I find the 6 thinking hats to be an effective tool for leading teams. I’ve noticed the following benefits:

• Easy to implement and begin using right away

• Modular for all types of brain storming session

• Improved plans with less time spent planning

• Depersonalized and deeper sharing from all team members

• Less ego, more sense of team

• Restrains perspectives from taking to much control

• Increased self awareness from team members

Want to talk more about the 6 thinking hats and how they could help you? Get in touch with me. If you like these types of tools, be sure to sign up to my newsletter for quarterly summaries of articles and helpful insights for business leaders.

Additional Resources