Six Thinking Hats
Six perspectives, taken one at a time, so the critics can't drown out the optimists.
Everyone wears the same hat at the same time, so the room only works one angle at a time. The optimist and the sceptic each get a turn instead of talking over each other for an hour.
Reach for it when
- Get a team out of its usual groove, whether that's scepticism or blue-sky thinking
- Look at a big decision from angles nobody in the room would pick on their own
- Run an ideation session where the criticism has its own slot instead of interrupting
Pick something else when
- You have half an hour. Six hats needs an hour or more
- Nobody has met de Bono's method before and there's no time to explain it
- It's an ordinary sprint retro and this is a lot of scaffolding for one
What you'll work through
This format runs in passes, not on one board. Each part has the room's full attention before the next one opens.
Frame the question
Work through the perspectives
Bring it together
How the session runs
The facilitator moves the room from one part to the next, so nobody has to remember what comes after what.
Frame the question
The facilitator states the decision in one sentence. Everything after this is the same question looked at from a different angle.
Work through the perspectives
Everyone wears the same hat at the same time — facts, then feelings, then risks, then benefits, then ideas. Each round is written alone and discussed together before the room moves on.
Bring it together
The Blue hat is the process hat: it steps back over what the other five produced, lands the decision, and turns it into actions with owners.
Prompts that open it up
The facilitator can drop any of these into the room when it goes quiet.
Run Six Thinking Hats with your team
Share a six-digit session code. Everyone joins from their own screen, and nobody needs an account to take part.