Framework
Six Thinking Hats
A way to pull a group — or your own head — through six modes of thinking one at a time, so a decision gets looked at from every angle instead of the loudest voice or your default lens.
Use this when a decision is going in circles, when one person dominates the room, or when you notice you only ever look at calls through a single lens — usually all risk, or all optimism. The trick is that everyone wears the same hat at the same time: you get the whole group's caution, then the whole group's optimism, rather than the pessimist and the optimist fighting.
The six hats
| Hat | Mode | The question it asks |
|---|---|---|
| White | Facts | What do we actually know, and what's missing? |
| Red | Feelings | What's your gut say? No justification needed. |
| Black | Caution | What could go wrong? (Useful — but don't let it run the whole meeting.) |
| Yellow | Optimism | What's the upside, the best case, why it could work? |
| Green | Creativity | What other options haven't we considered? |
| Blue | Process | How are we running this? Set the agenda, then summarise the call. |
Start and end with the Blue hat: open by framing the decision, close by naming what was actually decided. Most stuck decisions are really a missing Green hat (no real alternatives) or an unchallenged Black hat (fear masquerading as analysis).
Source / credit
Edward de Bono · Six Thinking Hats · Adapted for Outstride OS
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