Six Thinking Hats Brainstorming

By Lon W. Schiffbauer, BA, MBA, PhD, SPHR

Brainstorming is a favorite go-to for teams looking to generate and vet ideas, and for the most part the process is pretty simple: come up with as many ideas as possible in a judgment-free zone, combine and refine these ideas, then see which ones bubble to the top. Like I say; pretty simple.

Thing is, this process doesn’t always come up with the best ideas. There are several pitfalls to brainstorming that can prevent a team from garnering any significant value from the exercise. Just to name just a few:

• Naysayers trashing every idea that’s brought up before it’s given a chance to breathe.
• The same loud voices taking over the conversation, giving no space for others to speak up.
• Social anxiety getting in the way of true participation.
• The same old ideas coming from the same old people.
• Social loafers letting others do all the work while they just show up for the doughnuts.

That’s where Six Thinking Hats Brainstorming comes into play. It’s a systematic twist on the traditional brainstorming model that does it’s best to mitigate for these pitfalls. Here’s how it works:

Divide the brainstorming session into six stages, each focusing on the problem from a different perspective—or “thinking hat”. The idea is that during each stage, everyone puts on the same thinking hat and looks at the problem from a common perspective. (We’ll go over what these hats are in a moment.)

Require everyone to participate during every stage. This brainstorming technique works best when everyone contributes. Participants should not be allowed to just wait for “their hat” to come around. Part of the genius of this system is that everyone wears each hat equally.

Give each thinking hat equal airtime. Don’t skip any of the hats, but also don’t dwell or fixate on any either. You want to spend between 5 and 10 minutes on each hat. Less than 5 minutes and you’re not sufficiently delving into the possibilities; more than 10 and you’re allowing the hat to take over and push the others aside. This means that a good Six Thinking Hats Brainstorming session will take between 45 minutes to an hour, so plan accordingly.

Okay, so with that, here are the six thinking hats:

White Hat: Just the facts

What does the data tell us? We’re talking cold hard quantifiable data here, only that which can be stated empirically. This means discussing that which has been clearly observed and measured. Stick to the data. People often lean into a given idea because it just feels right or sounds cool and exciting. There will be time to give all these factors space to breathe, but right now it’s all about looking at the data.

Red Hat: Emotions, hunches, intuition

What do our Spidey senses tell us? Whereas the White Hat required us to just look at the facts, this is the time to discuss the topic in emotional, even irrational terms. As mentioned before, some people lead heavily into feelings, hunches, and speculation, and in some business environments, these are looked down upon. This hat gives room for these feelings and passions to make their case and contribute to the conversation.

Black Hat: Why is this a bad idea?

Why should we steer clear of this approach altogether? Truth is every possible course of action comes with a given level of risk. Confirmation bias tempts us to look away from the potential downsides. One of the benefits of this stage is that it gives naysayers space and permission to challenge a course of action. Sometimes the energy in the room is clearly pointed toward one solution, and those who challenge this direction are shut down through any number of subtle—and sometimes not so subtle—social mechanisms. This stage requires everyone to get onboard with the negative train and tear the idea apart, reducing the chances of groupthink taking us down the wrong path.

Yellow Hat: Why is this a good idea?

Why is this the direction we should go? Just as in everyone was required to challenge the idea and rain shade upon it, now everyone needs to send the idea love and support. Talk about all the ways this is a phenomenal idea, one that should be supported. This requires the naysayers to think past their own prejudices and biases and think of ways that this might be a good idea.

Green Hat: Where could this idea lead, were we to adopt it?

Where will it lead us? Quite often, when we are trying to decide on the best course of action, we focus on the short-term gains of the decision—what pain will it alleviate now or what benefits will we get right away? However, all decisions have long-term ramifications. The Green Hat forces us to think about what this decision will mean for the organization downstream.

Blue Hat: How would we move forward with this idea, should we decide to implement it?

Some solutions may look fantastic on paper, but then when you look at implementing the decision we realize that it’s not a viable solution. The Blue Hat forces us to think past the problem and even the solution and instead focus on the logistics involved in implementing anything we might decide.

Lon is an Associate Professor of Business Management at Salt Lake Community College and holds an MBA, a PhD, and is a certified Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR). In addition to his academic background, Lon spent close to 30 years working and consulting for such companies as FedEx, Intel, eBay, and PayPal, as well as a variety of small to mid-sized companies around the world.