Use The 6 Thinking Hats to Think Like a Pro And Make Better Decisions
A simple model to bring more structure to your thought process.
A very high percentage of us have muddled thought processes. We’re inefficient decision-makers. Our emotions mix with our reason. Our hopes mix with our fears. What we have then, is a tangled web of thoughts that we find ourselves stuck in, leaving us utterly incapable of making the right decision.
Therefore, if we want to learn how to make better decisions — which directly affect the life we live — we need to figure out how to untangle ourselves of the web we’ve woven. We need to learn how to structure our thoughts and make decisions with clarity.
This is where ‘The Six Hats Model’ by Dr Edward de Bono comes in. As we all know, thinking is a complex process. However, The Six Hat Model aims at compartmentalizing the various fronts of our thought process, so that they function independently of each other. This effectively converts our muddled and haphazard thought process, into a more structured and controlled one. Excited? Let’s dive in!
The White Hat
The colour white stands for neutrality — and so does this hat. While you’re wearing this hat, your job is to stay objective, look at the data and figures, and think like a computer. Your emotions don’t have a say just yet.
In his book Thinking Fast And Slow, Daniel Kahneman says that often — owing to the laziness of our minds — we swap the difficult question for an easier one. For instance — when we have to vote for a politician, most of us don’t ask ourselves if he’s the right man for the job (a hard question). No, instead we answer an easier question — “Do I like him?” and we vote for the more likeable politician.
This hat requires you to pause that kind of subjective thinking, and stay objective. It’s to resist letting your beliefs dominate the thought process and let the facts and figures run the show.
The Red Hat
From white hat to red hat, we take a giant leap from neutrality to subjectivity. Red stands for emotion and hence, while under this hat, you let your emotions take control. Ask yourself — What do you feel about the decision? What does your gut say?
Is it a hell-yes? A hell-no? Perhaps it’s a shy maybe. Whatever it may be, use this hat to figure out where you stand emotionally; what your inner voice says. After all, intuition can help you make the most authentic and life-changing decisions of your life. Perhaps, that is why Steve Jobs and Einstein both attributed a lot of their success to intuition.
On the other hand, a lot of us are intuitive self-sabotagers. We don’t listen to our inner voice; we haven’t given it a seat at the table. Wearing the red hat is an opportunity to do just that.
The Black Hat
The black hat is the hat of caution. This hat wants you to think about all the possible negative consequences of your decision. It prevents you from making illegal, unethical and unprofitable decisions. Its job is to protect you from slipping. It helps make sure that you don’t end up in a worse place than you are right now. It’s a process similar to negative visualisation of stoicism.
However, while the black hat has its place in decision making, it’s important to not over-abuse it. Any decision you make will always be a tradeoff. Some risks will always be involved. Having the black hat on for too long might mean that you never take-off and remain stuck your entire life.
The Yellow Hat
The yellow hat is the hat of optimism. Wearing the black hat was to contemplate what could go wrong, but the yellow hat is to think of all that could go right. As the famous Rumi quote goes —
What if I fall?
Oh, but my darling, what if you fly?
Being optimistic can give you the courage to make decisions that are scary, but still, need to be taken. Optimism makes you feel better, and hence, fear is not that powerful anymore. If you’re someone who’s worn out his black hat of caution, perhaps it time to put on the yellow hat and open your wings.
The Green Hat
The green hat is the hat of creativity. Creativity is a powerful tool to help enhance critical thinking. This hat implores you to think about new ideas, concepts, alternatives and alternative to alternatives. In this model, the green hat plays an important role to overcome the issues we might discover while we have our black hats on.
For instance — if black hat thinking reveals some serious future problems, we might decide to go against the decision even if it also shows great promise for a better future. However, by thinking of creative solutions, the green hat can help us dissolve the issues that popped out of the black hat, while at the same time preserving the promises that popped out of the yellow hat.
The Blue Hat
Out of all the hats, the blue hat is perhaps the most important one. As you may have realised, the hats of this model denoted opposite forces —
- White hat (Objectivity) x Red Hat (Subjectivity)
- Yellow Hat (Optimism), Green Hat (Creativity) x Black Hat (Caution)
Contemplating only under the five hats will induce several mental tugs-of-war in your head, leaving you more confused than before you started this process. To prevent that from happening, Dr Edward was smart enough to invent the blue hat. The blue hat requires you to overview other hats and decide which ones to listen to. It’s thinking about how you think.
Let’s take an example — let’s say you are contemplating a decision to quit your job to focus on your startup. While that’s a wonderful decision, such a decision may need some serious contemplation about the risks involved. Hence, while the yellow hat is still relevant, the black hat assumes an important role in this case. And after weighing the risks, if you do decide to go through with it, it also makes way for some green hat thinking. For instance, you may find ways to generate some passive income to help with the bills.
Final Thoughts
Life is a direct manifestation of what goes on in your head. Hence, if you bring more structure to your thought process, you bring more structure to your life. The six thinking hats enable you to do just that. Here’s a recap of the six thinking hat model.
- The white hat enables you to stay objective and think about the facts and figures.
- The red hat needs you to let your emotions and intuition run the show.
- The black hat wants you to think about the risks involved.
- The yellow hat lets optimism motivate you to be fearless.
- The green hat implores you to find creative solutions to black hat issues.
- The blue hat requires you to develop the skill to understand which hats need more weightage in which situations.
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