Making Decisions using the Six Thinking Hats Method

Everyday we make decisions in life —no matter how big or small —we are always asked to make decisions that will determine what happens next. We move forward by taking the next step. It may not be the right one at first, maybe there'll be some rerouting, but surely we all move to a certain direction by making a step.

I haven't been posting lately here in Hive, it's because I've been quite busy reading some books 🤓. It's funny because these book titles came from the online classes I've been taking. These business-related classes have been suggesting some books that people use in running their businesses. One particular method that I got so curious of is The Six Thinking Hats. I never heard of it, when it was discussed casually in the lecture class, I became so fascinated on how it's being used.

When I was reading the introduction part of the book, I realized that our work meetings took so much time because we were most of the time arguing with each other. We were competing for the seat of whose opinion is better, more sounding right. Arguments over a topic would be thrown back and forth and we would all judge everyone's take on that matter. The author of the book Edward de Bono describes this as a Western thinking, people analyzes the 'what is' by judgment and argument.

What if we try to arrive to a decision not by throwing arguments, but by creating and constructing our way to it? The Six Thinking Hats method provides a solution in determining the 'what can be'. The goal of this is for everyone to win. It is like playing a game where every participant aims to get the trophy for everyone's sake. This method is also described as the game of thinking. It's just that, everyone will think simultaneously about the same thing. No one contradicts the other person, it's everyone trying to stack a piece on someone's thought.

The idea of the six hats is that people would think in parallel. Everyone in the room will wear the white hat, take it off, and then wear another of different color. It's an easy method to follow. If your team wants to arrive to a decision, isn't it a good picture of the way you'd want to do it: everyone will just simply wear and take off the hats (of the same color) on their heads.

For a brief description on what the color of these hats represent, here's a bullet list of their functions:

Maybe you have been working with different people for so long to know that some have these functions as their default mode in making decisions. I, for example, make a decision mostly based on facts and figures. I also become very cautious on the steps I'd take, I make sure that there's no loophole —no weak point in my plan.

The strength of The Six Thinking Hats method is for everyone in the team to look at the same direction at the same time. No matter what that person's default mode is, it is required for everyone to think in parallel with each other. Everyone will wear the white hat and focus on the facts that are involved in the problem they're trying to solve. Everyone will wear the red hat and think of what will other people feel about the decision they'll make. This process goes on until everyone reaches a conclusion about the matter of their concern.

This method does not require a specific order on what color of hat they'll wear or how many hats will hey wear through the course. It depends on the problem they're trying to solve. The sequence could evolve as they go on or they could determine the path of colors they'll wear at the start. As much as I want to put so much details in this post, I am too, is still learning about it and I haven't put it into practice yet. This is just to share that there's this other way we could try whenever we want to make decisions, big or small.

As I was going through the pages of the book, I somehow related The Six Thinking Hats method with a roadmap. Here is the map of Asia, but think of a map of any place you know of. Think for a moment that you don't know how that place looks like, that you don't have any idea of what the picture of its map looks like. By using constructive thinking —the essence of The Six Thinking Hats—we try to make a map of that place. One by one, we add a piece or a detail to it. Some details are made out of facts and figures, some are from the things we feel, the new ideas we have, some would be about our cautious looking or maybe our positive thoughts. Little by little, we'll be able to draw a roadmap with different colors, and we'll be able to see the big picture. At the end of the process, I get to see an outcome of 'what can be'.