Six Thinking Hats is the title of a book by Edward De Bono, first published in 1985. According to the author’s opening remarks in the preface to his book, “The Six Thinking Hats method may well be the most important change in human thinking for the past twenty-three hundred years.” De Bono’s own assessment is overblown, to put it politely, but his technique really can spur valuable improvements in both individual and group thinking. We all have a typical and habitual thinking style that can sometimes limit our ability to recognize facts or create solutions. The six thinking hats method structures our thinking so that we look at decisions from a variety of crucial perspectives and arrive at a more complete view.
Leaders may wish they could change the personalities of their people, making them more creative, or less pessimistic or optimistic, or more forthcoming with ideas. Attempts to turn that wish into reality are almost certain to end in frustration. But the six thinking hats (STH) method and related techniques can encourage those same people to make their thinking more effective, at least some of the time. By making six important but differing thinking styles highly visible, STH helps users to overcome excessive reliance on their typical style. By structuring thinking, the method encourages more people to contribute richer input and, in de Bono’s words, “separates ego from performance.”
Click the View button above to download a three-page summary of the model (PDF format), complete with a ManyWorlds commentary that discusses the effectiveness of the model.