I picked up Edward De Bono’s book Six Thinking Hats a few years ago.

His book presents the idea of categorizing thinking into six categories or Hats.

Categorizing Thinking: The Six Thinking Hats Approach

Black Hat: Focuses on identifying potential problems, risks, and cautious aspects of an idea or solution.

White Hat: Gathering data, information, and facts to understand a situation or problem better.

Yellow Hat: Considers an idea or solution’s benefits, opportunities, and positive aspects.

Red Hat: Emphasizes intuition, emotions, and feelings in evaluating a situation or problem.

Green Hat: Encourages creative and innovative thinking to generate new ideas and solutions.

Blue Hat: Facilitates and manages the thinking process, ensuring that all aspects are considered and discussed.

The summary above oversimplifies the book, but you get the idea.

Beyond Black Hat-Thinking: Challenging Our Initial Biases

When people encounter new revolutionary products and ideas, they tend to default to black hat-thinking. At least according to what I have observed. Usually, you hear comments or phrases such as these;

“This will never work,” “This product is not ready,” “This is impractical,” and “We’ve tried something similar before, and it didn’t work.” “It’s too risky,” “It’s too disruptive to our current operations.” ETC.

This realization of categorizing thinking helped me recognize which hat I was wearing when I was thinking about anything. With this realization, I would then make sure I took the product, solution, demo, presentation, or whatever was on my mind through a few of the other hats to ensure I gave whatever was taking my time a well-thought-out approach. “What am I cautious about?” (black hat), “What are the challenges with this product” (black hat), but then also “What are potential use cases” (yellow hat), and “Where is this idea excelling” (yellow hat)? “What are they doing well vs. competitors (White Hat), how do I feel about GUI and workflow (Red hat), and do I need more data (white hat)? What is missing from the facts (white hat)? Where else can we use this product (green hat)?

Applying the Six Thinking Hats Approach

Sometimes cycling through the hats, with practice, can take a few minutes. But I now find my responses do not always have to be cautious or critical every time. Sometimes I can provide another perspective. For example, instead of responding, I think your product needs to do ABC, or This idea doesn’t work because of … I can ask, have you thought of how you might deal with … or How would your solutions handle this challenge? Do you think you’d be able to…?  Using the hats to change how I engage not only keeps the door open for dialogue but also demonstrates to the other party that while you have identified some issues or have some reason to be cautious, they now have a chance to ease my caution and all of a sudden you have given them somewhat of a road map on how to proceed.

Unlocking New Possibilities with the Six Thinking Hats

Think back to when companies like Tesla, Apple, Samsung, and Carvana introduced innovative new products or ideas, such as electric cars, larger phone screens, or online vending. You may have heard many cautious thoughts about these concepts at the time. But by using the Six Thinking Hats approach, you can challenge yourself to think beyond the black hat and consider other perspectives, such as the benefits, challenges, or creative solutions these ideas might bring. Now think about GPT, Metaverse, Self Driving Cars, You name it.

Innovation demands flexibility and adaptability but also requires careful consideration and analysis. Using the Six Thinking Hats, I find, we can balance our optimism and caution and make informed decisions about new ideas and products. The Six Thinking Hats approach offers a valuable tool for evaluating new ideas and solutions in a world where innovation is constant. We can unlock new possibilities and find creative solutions to complex problems by challenging ourselves to think beyond our initial biases and assumptions. As we move forward into a future of unprecedented change, let us remember to use all of our thinking hats to consider the benefits, risks, and opportunities of each new idea that comes our way. Who knows what breakthroughs and innovations we might uncover if we approach them with a balanced and thoughtful perspective?

In Conclusion, the next time you see a revolutionary idea on LinkedIn, sit in on a vendor demo or listen to an idea from your peers or direct reports. Remember to hold back your black hat, try on one of the other hats first, and see what ideas or thoughts you can come up with; you’ll be amazed at what opportunities you unlock. All in all, using the Six Thinking hats has helped me approach new ideas in a more balanced and thoughtful way and has not only encouraged me but has sometimes led me to consider a range of perspectives I wouldn’t otherwise have come up with. It can do the same for you.