Six Thinking Hats

Your weekly team meetings can be quite predictable: your manager starts with an agenda—but soon enough, the same coworker dominates the conversation with a negative tone, rehashing old ideas. While your manager is a good leader, the discussion feels stuck. For a fresh discussion, maybe it’s time to put on a different thinking cap—one of the six thinking hats.

Six thinking hats is a brainstorming theory that allows a person, group, or organization to approach a decision from different perspectives.¹ The intent behind this theory is to make the best choice possible by adopting various thinking styles or “trying on different hats” so nothing is overlooked. Created by psychologist Edward de Bono in 1985, this tool may be applied to one’s own thinking or to a group setting—just like your work meeting, where each person may present a different point of view. 

Conveniently organized by color, these six “hats” or thinking styles have the potential to designate clear and distinct functions in a work setting. Hats can be mentally worn, taken “on and off,” and applied to redirect meetings, ideas, and discussions. You’re probably already wondering: how do these hats help me make decisions? And do they come in my favorite color? The six thinking hats, along with their corresponding colors and thinking styles, are as follows:¹

White Hat: Thinking in terms of facts and logic. This approach may be useful when objectivity is a priority, where empirically backed information-seeking is key for ensuing advice. An example of a job that primarily applies the white hat is a data analyst or research assistant. 

“I’m all facts. Let’s do some more research.”

Yellow Hat: Thinking in terms of optimism, positive outcomes, and potential gains—making this style the opposite of the black hat. Someone wearing the yellow hat sees the glass half full while trying to add further value to their ideas. Often, a leader may be an instance of someone applying yellow-hat thinking. 

“Let’s look on the bright side and what value we have.”

Black Hat: Thinking oriented toward caution and risk management, in stark contrast to the yellow hat. Those possessing the black hat are more pessimistic but helpful when identifying areas where things may not work or go wrong. An example may be a politician, who has a negative and critical outlook on given issues.

“I’m dialed in on our risk management. Let’s be cautious here.” 

Red Hat: Thinking that is focused on humanity, intuitions, and emotions. By wearing the red hat, someone would embrace an ethical outlook by putting values and feelings first. This may be useful when sensitive topics or vulnerable groups are involved. A couple of examples of this perspective being applied may be a religious leader or a counselor. 

“I’ve got an anxious feeling about this idea.” 

Green Hat: Thinking with a focus on creativity, innovation, and alternative solutions. Green hat wearers inherently engage in lateral thinking, where alternative ways of solving a problem are always examined. This can be useful when a scientist is trying to find a solution to a complex research issue. 

“Let’s try doing this another way than we originally thought.”

Blue Hat: What Bono considers to be the most “powerful hat” that acts as the control hub of all other hats. For a blue hat in action, there is a large amount of planning and organization needed. A key instance of a blue hat thinker would be a manager or executive at a company, making sure that all other colored hats are acting accordingly.

“As the leader of this company, I want to stay on track and work together.” 

As you put your thinking hat on—whatever color it may be—it’s important to know that no hat is necessarily “right” or “wrong.” Rather than a one-sided view, all six hats can be worn to approach a problem from each style prior to committing which hat, or multiple hats, may be most applicable to an issue. This well-rounded approach can improve decision-making by reducing bias, boosting creativity, balancing how much emotions versus logic are applied to an issue, and being able to recognize risks and benefits. 

Although this approach is often applied to team settings, individuals can also try on different hats to broaden their perspective. Switching back and forth can encourage self-reflection, organize thinking, and even encourage us to take approaches we originally neglected. We may envision the six thinking hats worn by individuals at work or in other settings, too. An intuitive example may be an elementary school teacher organically switching from hat to hat: perhaps white for math class, green for science experiments, and blue when overseeing the classroom.

As simple as it sounds, it’s not always easy to wear just any thinking hat as you please; some of us might have our own natural predispositions to wear one hat over others. Naturally, the cautious black hat wearer may have a challenge seeing eye-to-eye with the brightside yellow hat wearer. Similar dichotomies are seen with the factual white hat and emotional red hat, as well as the creative green hat and control-oriented blue hat. For these mismatches between fellow hat-wearers, here are some practical questions and tips to help you get adjusted to each new style:²