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170 Power Up Your Mind

Wearing six hats

This classic De Bono approach is an excellent way of getting the
most out of creative teams and is a gentle play on the saying
“putting on your thinking cap.” It recognizes that there are many
different roles in the creative process and that it is sometimes help-
ful to be more explicit about this.
De Bono assumes that when a team is grappling with a prob-
lem, it may be helpful to be really clear about the different roles you
can play. So, he suggests that you wear six differently colored hats
and act according to the role that each one suggests.

White = You introduce neutral facts, figures and information.
Red = You put forward hunches, feeling and intuitions.
Black = You are logical and negative.
Yellow = You are logical and positive.
Green = You constantly come up with creative ideas for taking
things forward.
Blue = You act as the conductor of the orchestra, concentrating
on managing the process of coming up with ideas
successfully.

There are all sorts of ways in which this can be used, but the sim-
plest is just to play the roles that each hat suggests. You could add
other colors and other roles. This technique could be used in a
social setting or as a warm-up item to a more serious meeting.

Find a way of applying this approach in your own life. If you like the idea, you can read more
about this in De Bono’s classic book, Six Thinking Hats. Make sure you don’t always wear the
same hat!

Fuzzy thinking

At the start of this section I was speculating about what Archimedes
had been doing before he slipped gratefully into his warm bath. Did