The six thinking hats – Which hat do you wear?

White hat thinking is a discipline and a direction. The thinker strives to be more neutral and more objective in the presentation of information.

The red hat covers two broad types of feeling. First, there is the ordinary emotions such as fear and dislike to more settle ones such as suspicion, secondly, there are the complex judgments that go into such type of ‘feeling’  as hunch, intuition, taste, aesthetic feeling etc.

Black hat thinking is especially concerned with negative assessment. The black hat thinker points out what is wrong, incorrect and in error. He explains how something does not fit through experience or accepted knowledge and why something will not work finding out the risks and dangers are the hallmarks of a black hat thinker.

Yellow hat thinker is positive and constructive in nature. The yellow color symbolizes sunshine, brightness and optimism. Yellow hat thinking is concerned with negative assessment. Yellow hat thinking covers a positive spectrum that ranges from the logical and practical to dreams, visions and hopes at the other end.

The green hat is for creative thinking. The person puts on the green hat is going to use the idioms of creative thinking. Those around are required to treat the output as a creative output. Ideally, both thinker and listen should be wearing green hats.The hat is the control that and sets the focus.

The blue hat thinker organizes the thinking itself and is like the conductor of the orchestra. He calls for the use of the other hats and defines the subjects towards which the thinking is to be directed. Blue hat thinking defines the problems and the solutions thereof.

So which hat do you wear?

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