Creativity & Innovation Toolkit

Some teaching and learning strategies to develop creativity

1. Brainstorming
2. Fishbone Diagram
3. Free Association
4. Mind Mapping
5. Other People's Viewpoint
6. Six Thinking Hats
7. Visual Brainstorming
8. Synectic Strategies

Six Thinking Hats

Early in the 1980s, de Bono invented the Six Thinking Hats method. The method is a framework for thinking and can incorporate lateral thinking. Valuable judgmental thinking has its place in the system but is not allowed to dominate as in normal thinking. The six hats represent six modes of thinking and are directions to think rather than labels for thinking, i.e., the hats are used proactively rather than reactively.

Everyone is able to contribute to the exploration without denting egos as they are just using the yellow hat, or whatever hat. The six hats system encourages performance rather than ego defence. People can contribute under any hat even though they initially support the opposite view. The key point to remember is that a hat is a direction to think rather than a label for thinking. The key theoretical reasons to use the Six Thinking Hats are to:

• encourage parallel thinking;
• encourage full-spectrum thinking;
• separate ego from performance.

There are six metaphorical hats and the thinker can put on or take off one of these hats to indicate the type of thinking being used. This putting on and taking off is essential. The hats must never be used to categorise individuals, even though their behaviour may seem to invite this. When done in groups, everybody wears the same hat at the same time.

de Bono’s Six Hats
White Thinking Hat		This covers facts, figures, information needs and gaps. "I think we need some white hat thinking at this point..." means “Let's drop the arguments and proposals, and look at the data base."
Red Thinking Hat		This covers intuition, feelings and emotions. The red hat allows the thinker to put forward an intuition without any need to justify it, e.g.: "Putting on my red hat, I think this is a terrible proposal." Usually, feelings and intuition can only be introduced into a discussion if they are supported by logic. Usually the feeling is genuine but the logic is spurious. The red hat allows a thinker to put forward his or her feelings on the subject at the moment.
Black Thinking Hat		This is the hat of judgment and caution. It is a most valuable hat. It is not in any sense an inferior or negative hat. The black hat is used to point out why a suggestion does not fit the facts, the available experience, the system in use, or the policy that is being followed. The black hat must always be logical.
Yellow Thinking Hat		This is the logical positive, giving advice on why something will work and why it will offer benefits. It can be used in looking forward to the results of some proposed action, but can also be used to find something of value in what has already happened.
Green Thinking Hat		This is the hat of creativity, alternatives, proposals, what is interesting, provocations and changes.
Blue Thinking Hat		This is the overview or process control hat. It looks not at the subject itself but at the “thinking” about the subject. "Putting on my blue hat, I feel we should do some more green hat thinking at this point." In technical terms, the blue hat is concerned with meta-cognition.

Creativity Techniques
Retrieved from the World Wide Web on 23 October, 2006.
http://www.mycoted.com/Six-Thinking_Hats

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