Six Thinking Hats

Six Thinking Hats Brochure

At one time or another, everyone has felt frustrated by inefficient, wasteful meetings. Oftentimes meetings are plagued by divisive arguments, side conversations, lack of preparation, and inaction.

NEW Virtual Six Thinking Hats Overviews

Imagine what might happen if you, your team, department, or entire organization learned specific thinking tools that would instantly eliminate these issues, opening the door to thorough decisions, better communication, and easier problem resolution . . .

Six Thinking Hats from Edward de Bono teaches parallel thinking as an alternative to argument. Parallel thinking guides thought processes in one direction at a time so we can effectively analyze issues, generate new ideas, and make decisions. Six Thinking Hats helps put our opinions aside so we can focus on a way forward, without argument. 

The Six Thinking Hats Training Course is fast-paced, practical, and interactive. Participants learn how to separate emotion from facts, the positive from the negative and critical thinking from creative thinking. Six Thinking Hats Training Course participants leave with tools they can apply immediately.

Who Needs Six Thinking Hats?

Anyone who wants to think clearly, objectively, and creatively should attend Six Thinking Hats.

HR Professionals Project Managers Meeting Facilitators Engineers New Product Developers

Team Leaders & Members Trainers & Consultants Sales & Marketing Professionals Advertising & PR Professionals Patent Attorneys

Where Might You Use The Six Thinking Hats?

Facilitation of meetings Preparing for discussions Continuous process improvement New products / new designs Conflict resolution

Decision making and problem solving Customer focus groups / interviews Leadership development Presentations Virtual meetings Individual thinking

Six Thinking Hats Training Course Objectives and Outcomes

Six Thinking Hats training participants will show evidence of the following:

• A marked tendency to identify themselves as thinkers
• Confidence that they have the ability to cope with and improve their environments
• Competencies enabling them to solve problems including the ability to:
  • identify a problem
  • propose alternative solutions
  • predict the consequences of each alternative
  • assess the usefulness of each set of consequences
  • select the best alternative
  • implement it
  • evaluate it
• Competencies enabling them to identify and pursue opportunities including the ability to:
  • develop a habit of perceiving events and situations as opportunities
  • identify the benefits/desired outcomes of pursuing each opportunity
  • identify the risks/dangers of pursuing each opportunity
  • design ways to minimize risks and dangers
  • select opportunities based on weighing the benefits against remaining risks
  • design plans for pursuing a selected opportunity
  • assess and reevaluate plans in progress
• Competencies enabling them to think cooperatively including the ability to:
  • understand and take on the facilitator role in a group meeting
  • identify and articulate other people's points of view
  • devise an agenda and demonstrate the necessary discipline to follow it provide for equal participation among group members

The Six Thinking Hats

	The White Hat Data, facts, information known or needed.		The Black Hat Difficulties, potential problems. Why something may not work.
	The Red Hat Feelings, hunches, gut instinct, and intuition.		The Green Hat Creativity: possibilities, alternatives, solutions, new ideas.
	The Yellow Hat Values and benefits. Why something may work.		The Blue Hat Manage the thinking process, focus, next steps, action plans.

Results at Organizations Using Six Thinking Hats

• MDS SCIEX shaved 2–3 years off the product development lead-time, cut material costs by $35,000 per unit, eliminated reliability problems, and fostered a collaborative corporate culture.
• Potawatomi Bingo Casino improved morale, cut meeting time by 88%, and saved $50,000 annually.
• A division of Siemens reduced product development time by 50%.
• ABB was able to reduce a series of multinational project meetings from 30 days to 2 days.

Six Thinking Hats Testimonials

"I was called in to facilitate a major innovation session for one of our business units. We had over 50 participants from all facets of our business (research to commercialization).  I used the Six Thinking Hats process to run this meeting, which was something that most of the participants had not been exposed to.  The result was that we got through as much information and brainstorming in 5 hours that we would have normally accomplished in a year of meetings with tremendous alignment and input from everyone. I've gotten more kudos over that meeting than anything else I've done at Elanco. And as such, our enrollment for our next open enrollment session of Six Thinking Hats has rapidly expanded!  Thanks for enabling mine (and Elanco's) success."

- Global Training & Development Associate, Elanco Animal Health

"A great process to bring about creative thinking in a cooperative environment."

- Emily Fuerst, Kemin

"Six Thinking Hats systematically provides an opportunity for creativity in an environment that's free of the criticism and confrontation we used to see.  This means that everyone can collaborate and build on even the craziest of ideas to come up with creative solutions.  It's true, we had great results using Six Hats with QSTAR (an increase in efficiency of the development process by 40%), but the long-term impact is even greater.  We can repeat our success over and over because of these changed behaviors."

- Suzanne Wolfe, Human Resource Director, MDS SCIEX

"Six Thinking Hats is a powerful tool for managing discussions while minimizing the distraction from egos."

"Great concepts! Barbara was able to demonstrate the utilization of different concepts in scenarios that are very applicable for everyday use."

"The most rewarding training experience I have had in years!!"

How You Can Learn the Six Thinking Hats:

Have de Bono Consulting Trainer Deliver a Six Thinking Hats Seminar

• Bring a Certified Six Thinking Hats Instructor in-house to deliver a one- or two-day training seminar at your organization.
  Click here to learn about our in-house Six Thinking Hats Training Seminars.

Attend a Six Thinking Hats Open Seminar

• Attend a one-day Six Thinking Hats seminar with employees from other organizations.
  View our event schedule for upcoming public Six Thinking Hats Training dates and locations.

Have de Bono Consulting Facilitate Your Next Meeting Using the Six Thinking Hats Framework

• We can facilitate a meeting for you using the Six Thinking Hats framework.
  Click here or call 515.278.1292 for details.

Get Certified in Six Thinking Hats
Completing the Official Six Thinking Hats Certification is required if you wish to teach Six Thinking Hats to others.

• Have us conduct an internal four-day Six Thinking Hats Certification at your organization.
  Click here for in-house Six Thinking Hats certification details.
• Attend a four-day public Six Thinking Hats Certification.
  View our event schedule for upcoming public Six Thinking Hats Certification dates and locations.

Book Us for Your Upcoming Conference or Convention

• Have us present a Six Thinking Hats keynote or general session at your next conference or convention.
  Call 515.278.1292 for details.
• Have us present an interactive 1- to 2-hour breakout session.
  Click here or call 515.278.1292 for details.

Read Six Thinking Hats by Dr. Edward de Bono

Using case studies and real-life examples of his "Six Thinking Hats", Edward de Bono shows how each of us can become a better thinker through deliberate role-playing. This book is an ideal way to prepare before attending our "Six Thinking Hats" seminar. Find out how the "Six Thinking Hats" can change you and your company. $21.99

Read a related article by Barbara Stennes

How to Manage Group Dynamics
Conventional wisdom maintains that a team leader is the “boss,” but this belief is mistaken and shortsighted. Rather, the team leader’s role is to guide the process that the rest of the team follows, removing obstacles and enabling the team to flourish. View as a PDF.