Six Thinking Hats Essay

A summary of each hat is outlined in the figure 1 below:
(1) White Neutral hat : White Neutral hat whose role is to collect facts, data, stats and concrete information that lay the groundwork and foundations for your thinking.
(2) Red Intuitive hat : Red Intuitive hat who will use its feelings of intuition to find appropriate solutions to the problems you face.
(3) Yellow Optimistic hat : This hat’s role is to logically present positive plans of action that will help you overcome the problems confronting your reality.
(4) Black Pessimistic hat : The black hat is frowned upon because of it’s negative approach. However, it is one of the most important hats as it will help you to better understand the pitfalls of your thinking.
(5) Green Creative

1 : Block diagram connecting six thinking hats to individual thinking process.

This interpretation of the Six Thinking Hat system may be specifically targeted towards the personal problem solver who struggles with life’s daily challenges or in group decision making context related to academics, life, career and business. Six Thinking Hats technique [26], suggests different types of thinking corresponding to six thinking roles for the analyst, associated with hats of six different colors. Through practice and a systematic implementation of this process, one will never feel the need to give up searching for an ideal solution to the problems or circumstances.

3. Six Thinking Hats in Group Decision Making :

When we take certain decision about important things in our life, it does not become easy to come to final and constructive conclusion. If we look into our usual (Indian) approach of communication and thinking, it is usually not lateral but opposing and does not involve co-operation. Especially when an individual or team decision needs to be taken- it should be collaborative, supportive, 360 degree thinking, understanding from all angles and then taking decision. In group, members assume different hats of thinking and put forward such kind of views which would be integrated into an effective

When considering a specific problem or topic it is best to start with the WHITE hat as this allows all the background information to be presented and documented. Once the problem or topic is fully defined then the RED hat is used to ask participants how they feel about the problem or situation. Participants’ feelings are documented. The general tendency for a proportion of people in a meeting, at this stage, is to present the negative aspects of the problem or situation, however in this process the next step is to use the YELLOW hat to capture the positive aspects of the problem or situation from all participants. This step is then followed with the BLACK hat when everyone considers the negative aspects of the problem or situation. The BLACK hat is then followed by the GREEN hat where everyone is encouraged to use creative thinking to overcome the negative issues but also develop new alternatives to solving the problems or resolving the situation. The RED hat is used again at this stage to gauge the feelings of participants. Generally, most participants who were previously concerned about the problem or situation would now be feeling more positive after having gone through the process of using the different hats. Finally, it is always appropriate to use the BLUE hat as this allows participants to evaluate