Sheet 1
Six Thinking Hats
  Focus
    Purpose
    Goals
  Negative
    Risks?
    Distractions?
    How to make worse?
  Objective
    Information we have?
    Information we need?
    Information sources?
  Positive
    Opportunities?
    Benefits?
  Creative
    What if...?
    Help from others?
  Intuitive
    Makes me feel...
    Makes others feel...
    Gut feeling tells me...
  INSTRUCTIONS
The blue hat is focused on the thinking process itself, and on objectives, goals, outcomes and next steps. It's the control mechanism that ensures the Six Thinking Hats® guidelines are observed.
In the black hat stage, your goal is to look at potential negative aspects of your ideal solution. Why won't it work? What are the potential problems with it? What risks might it entail? What weaknesses does it have? The black hat is a cautious mindset, where you play the devil's advocate.
The white hat is all about information gathering. It's focused on known facts and what you can learn from them. It also encourages you to identify gaps in your information, which you can note in your mind map. The white hat is neutral and objective.
The yellow hat focuses on the benefits and values of the potential solution. What are its advantages or positives? Why would it potentially work or solve the problem? The yellow hat is optimistic.
The green hat is creative. This is where you take the ideas you've generated in the other stages and use them as stepping stones or triggers to generate some truly creative ideas. It's an opportunity to express new concepts and new perceptions.
The red hat is a perspective that is focused on your gut instinct, feelings and intuition. When using this hat you can express emotions and feelings and share fears, likes, dislikes, loves, and hates.
Six thinking hats is a valuable technique for looking at your creative challenge from different perspectives. It's a great way to whack your thinking out of its rutted paths and into fresh, creative territory.
The name of this technique, which was developed by creativity expert Edward de Bono, refers to 6 different styles of thinking that you can employ to solve problems and identify new opportunities.
Placing them in the format of a mind map encourages your mind to make associations and generate a greater number of ideas for each mindset. Having a clear and visual overview of your ideas for a solution means you are also able to spot the gaps in your thinking, and therefore the areas that need more attention.
Try each mindset in turn, using the questions provided and adding your own. Then capture the ideas that come to mind to this map.
The great thing about the Six Thinking Hats technique is that it triggers your mind into action, forcing it to think differently and consider ideas outside of your norm. Combined with the associative nature of Mind Mapping, you’ll generate an abundance of ideas to help you solve your problem.
Chuck Frey
Visual Velocity
(formerly the Mind Mapping Software Blog
https://mindmappingoftwareblog.com
chuck@chuckfrey.com