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1-Page Summary of Six Thinking Hats

Overview

Many people feel like their thoughts are jumbled and it’s hard to make decisions. This book presents a system for untangling your thoughts so you can think more clearly when making decisions. The Six Hats method aims to compartmentalize these different kinds of thoughts in a way that allows each of them the time they deserve without letting them disrupt your thinking process.

After reading this article, you’ll learn why it’s important to not eat certain berries and how one company came up with a solution for an expensive problem in only 12 minutes.

Big Idea #1: The six hats are tools that help us to conceive new ideas and improve thinking.

The main obstacle to clear thinking is confusion. When we process information, we have a lot of thoughts at once: some emotional, others informational and so on. Trying to juggle all these thoughts at once makes it hard to think clearly.

The solution of the problem? The Six Hats method.

The author of this book identifies the different types of thinking by assigning a color to each one.

The Power of Affirmation

Let’s say you are a manager and want to know what your team thinks about something. However, they may not be honest with you because of their fear of being judged for expressing their emotions directly.

So, the Six Hats method helps a team to think in different ways and ensures that everyone is on the same page. For example, if you’re at a big house party with your friends and family members are scattered throughout the yard and inside of it. You can’t see them all at once from one place so depending on where you are standing or sitting, your view of the house will be different than someone else’s view.

Now, think about each perspective as a different hat. If you want to view a topic from the same vantage point, you’ll all need to be wearing the same hat. The six hats enable your team in order for everyone to see things from the same perspective.

Big Idea #2: When using the six hats, keep some rules in mind.

There are two ways to use these hats. In single-use mode, they function as symbols that indicate you want to concentrate on a particular type of thinking. When you reach a point in the conversation where you need some new ideas, saying something like “I think we need some green-hat thinking here” helps convey this.

Once people have been trained in the vocabulary and usage of hats, they’ll know exactly how to respond to your request. Ask for green-hat thinking, and they’ll think of alternative options. Use any hat you like as often as you like and in any order depending on what your group wants to accomplish.

Regardless of how you use the hats, they must be used in a timely fashion. Only one hat can be worn at once and only the person who wears that hat has power.

You can become better at putting on your hat. You should practice doing it whenever you have a chance, so that it becomes easier and eventually second nature. It’s important to focus when you put on your hat, because otherwise the group won’t be able to concentrate or stop talking.

This is why it’s recommended that your group spends one minute for each member of the meeting. For example, if there are four people in the meeting, you’d spend four minutes wearing each hat.

Now that you understand the importance of this, let’s examine each element individually.

Big Idea #3: The white hat involves thinking like a computer: look for data and information.

If you were a computer, you would be able to compute numbers and facts in a neutral way. You wouldn’t care about interpretation, but instead just focus on the facts.