Today, we're going to explore together the six thinking styles you need for innovation.
This is one of the most powerful brainstorming techniques and it's the most thorough way
that I know of to think about any problem.
You're literally going to think about the problem with six different thinking styles.
This is a very, very powerful concept.
I've used it in non-profits and I've used it also in business.
So let's get right into it.
This works in every single industry and the concept of the six hats was originally created
by Edward de Bono.
Now this was an English philosopher and has been used all over the world.
And what he proposed is if each of us imagine that we're putting on six different color
hats and each hat color represents a different thinking style.
Let me get right into it and explain.
So we're going to frame up a topic.
Let's say we're brainstorming a solution to a particular problem in the business.
So what's so powerful about this tool is you can explain it in five minutes to somebody.
Everybody can jump in and do it immediately.
This is a very straightforward way to understand.
So the first colored hat we're going to do is the white hat.
So think of a scientist's lab coat.
Think about what are the facts, the figures, the actual objective information that we need.
So this white hat is called the information hat.
So let's say we have a chart on the board or maybe you're taking notes online together
and we all together brainstorm all the information.
What are the key questions here?
They're like what facts do we know?
What do we not know?
What trends do we observe?
So this is a very factual hat in which we're trying to get everything we know about the
topic up on the board.
The next is the black hat.
Think of a judge's robe.
This is the caution hat.
This is the logical negative hat.
Now many of us, the minute we put up an idea, all the black hat thinkers normally want to
jump right in.
So here now we're all going to be black hat.
We're all going to say now this is the hat in which we're looking at the logical negative
things.
What may be illegal, immoral, unrealistic, may not work.
What are the key questions?
The key questions are like what are the downside risks of doing this?
You know, what's the worst case scenario?
What are the implications of getting this wrong?
You know, we could really just screw up all our customers with this.
We could destroy the or lose the momentum of what we've already got going on if we implement
this new hat.
So this is the hat in which we get all the negative stuff out on the board.
So we all wear the black hat and we get the negative stuff done.
The next one is the red hat.
Now this is not a logical hat.
Think of a heart.
This represents intuition.
It covers the feelings and emotions we have.
Often this is informed by our experience, our gut feel, just what we think.
Now the cool thing about this, when you make these proposals, nobody can cause you to justify.
You do not need to justify why.
You could say something like, I think we should charge, you know, no more than $20 a month
for that without any reason or logic, just your intuition, your gut feel.
Nobody's going to pay more than $20, whether you're right or wrong about it.
It's not about logic.
It's just about your experience.
So key questions here are things like, what does experience teach about this?
You know, how do we really feel?
What's our intuition about this from?
So this is just the heart, you speaking about what you think will and won't work.
Then we move to the yellow hat.
Now this is, think of sunshine and happiness.
This is the possibility hat.
You know, what if we pull this off?
This is the logical, positive hat.
What if this new possibility could not only work, what would be the amazing benefits?
So some of the key questions we're asking ourselves are things like, you know, what
if this possibility actually worked?
What if we pulled this off?
What would that do for our business?
What are the advantages?
What could be the best possible outcome?
So everybody puts on yellow hat.
Everybody shares the information.
Then we move to green hat.
Now the green hat is not a logical hat.
It's a creative hat and we call it the creativity hat.
Think of green grass and it's all growing sort of sideways.
This is the lateral thinking hat.
You know, the out of the box or maybe there is no box hat.
This is the hat in which we, you know, we think what crazy, off the wall, provocative
idea have we not tried yet?
So here's what we're really trying to do.
You know, what, what would be a complete.
a new, fresh, innovative way.
What crazy idea have we not even put on the board yet?
And so this hat could literally be,
you're sitting there thinking,
you look, you see it's 10 o'clock,
you're thinking of, oh, 10 Downing Street,
oh, we should invite the English prime minister
to our conference, you know.
It's that kind of loosely connected, very creative hat.
Now what's amazing is somebody's throwing on these hats,
we do not need to justify any how crazy the idea is.
Like, well, the English prime minister
would never come and speak at our event.
That's got nothing to do with the reality
or the realisticness of the particular idea.
Here's where we just get all the creative ideas out.
And finally, the blue hat.
This is the management hat.
Think of a blue sky, an overview,
this is where we land the plane.
This is the process hat, the control hat.
Now typically, this is us thinking about our thinking.
So now we have to prioritize ideas,
we have to summarize this,
we have to put this down to a plan.
What we do in our company is we now have
all the different ideas from all the different hats
up on the board, we're seeing it all at the same time,
and everybody gets to pick two.
If it's a very complex issue, we may say pick three.
And we literally add up everybody's scores,
everybody gets a vote, and then with the top two items,
or the top three items, if it's a big topic,
are the ones we prioritize to go and execute on.
So think of this as the management or the execution hat.
How many of you have been
in a particular brainstorming session,
you came up with all these great ideas,
somebody sent out some notes of the meeting,
and nothing ever happened?
Well, the blue hat stops that from happening.
So going back to the blue hat,
here's what we're looking for in a summary of them all.
So you really could categorize these hats
into three main compartments,
critical thinking, creative thinking, and metacognition.
That just means thinking about your thinking, right?
So critical, creative, metacognition.
And so the white hat and the black hat
are our critical thinking hats.
They're what are the information, what are the facts,
what could go wrong?
The creative ones are that intuition red hat
that's not necessarily logical,
it's a hat which lays out very specifically and says,
this is what my experience tells me.
The yellow hat is the logical positive,
the sunshine hat, what if we pull it off?
And of course, the metacognition hats
are the completely off the wall green hat,
lateral thinking, and then we land the plane.
We think about our thinking,
we think about which ones we're gonna execute on,
we pick two and we go and execute.
Now that's just a really fun way to think.
Now, if you're leading a Six Hats,
you say, well, I'm not a leader.
Well, remember, we're a team of leaders.
So you can literally do this with your family
for a vacation, you can pull one or two team members
together and do this.
If you lead a Six Hats session,
here are some practical tips for a Six Hats session.
You know, these Six Hats works best
for people who are natural blue hat thinkers,
people who are naturally good at the overview,
but anybody could lead one, but just be aware.
Number two, frame up your session.
Say, hey, today we're gonna do a Six Hats session
on, and give it a topic, just frame up the problem.
Next, capture each hat on a separate page,
whether you're doing this electronically,
on a whiteboard, or some sort of flip chart,
or something you stick up on the wall,
whatever it is, make sure that each hat
gets its own space so that people can look
at those things and participate.
Then participation for each hat has to come from everyone.
In other words, everybody puts on white hat,
everybody contributes, everybody puts on black hat,
everybody contributes.
So that's really, really important.
Now, if you're leading it, there may be a temptation
to go too quickly through the hats.
Here's what I have found, is that typically
the ideas come in waves, right?
So the first wave would be all the sort of obvious,
natural things one might think of,
and often there's this moment of silence,
and if you will let that awkward silence
linger for a bit, then usually in the second,
or even the third wave, is where the really good ideas come.
So we wanna allow for free thinking.
If you're leading a session, be careful
that we don't make comments, or don't allow comments
on each other's thoughts.
In other words, if somebody says something,
somebody else can't say, well, that's impractical.
we'll never do that. We don't start to interact and start to feel like we have
to justify. Nobody needs to justify their ideas and nobody else gets to comment on
anyone's ideas. But we can use each other's ideas to spark new ideas. So you
want to allow this free thinking. Now what you're going to find, that when you
do a six hat session the first time around, you're going to have to walk
through, maybe play this video to all the participants. But once you get into it
you're going to become addicted to this way of thinking. Because most of us
typically spend most of our thinking time in one or two hats. We might call
these sort of our primary and our secondary hats. So as a fun extra
exercise, so this is completely extra, you might want to do a simple little view. So
think about the hats, right, and ask yourself what do you think is your
primary and your secondary hat. That's really fun. Go around the room, share with
each other and say well you know I am a blue green hat thinker. I'm blue
hat first, my primary, I'm always looking at the overview, what are the practical
plans, how do we execute this. And then green hat, I'm very creative, I like to
think outside the box. Or maybe you're a black white thinker, right. Your first
thought is to say, think of the negative things that can go wrong. These are not
bad, these are just different thinking styles. So why don't you take a
minute, go around the room and share with each other about what you feel is your
primary and secondary hat. A quick word of caution about that is, you know, other
people may see you one way, you may see yourself differently. Because people only
know you in a work context. So while you in your personal life may be a
a white black thinker, someone else might see you as a yellow black hat or
whatever it is. So I just bring that up because a lot of times people say well
that's not how I see myself. Because you see yourself in your whole life,
your team only sees you in the context of your own team. So as you're going
through that together, it is fun exercise. Now if you want to take that fun
exercise to the next level, what you could do is create this simple sheet
which we'll provide. And what you do is, on the left column, you check
your own primary and secondary hat. And then everybody in your team fills out
that same sheet for you. So that means everybody goes around and says, well I
thought you were, you know, a yellow blue or a blue yellow or blue whatever. And
everybody goes around and it's amazing feedback to see how your team sees you.
Again, this is not a scientific test. This is just a fun conversation on how
we see ourselves. Obviously a very subjective process. But it is very useful
to see how you're perceived by your team versus how you perceive yourself. So I
hope that you found the six hats not only useful but a lot of fun to do. By
the way, this is the quickest way, not just the most thorough way, of thinking
through any problem. You should be able to, in 20 or 40 minutes, get through all
six hats and land the plane, pick two things and execute. Enjoy!