Book Review: Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono

Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono is a very easy read and provides a good simple approach for exploring ideas and problems through thinking from different perspectives in a structured manner. There are six hats, each of which have different characteristics:

• White Hat: facts, figures, information
• Red Hat: emotions and feelings, hunch and intuition
• Black Hat: devil's advocate, negative judgement
• Yellow Hat: optimism, positivity
• Green Hat: creativity
• Blue Hat: controlling of the hats and thinking, orchestration 

The idea of the hat is that a person will put on or be asked to put on a hat and to express a view from that perspective. This gets people thinking in different ways and since it is play-acting people are more willing to express views from under the security of the hat that otherwise may be left unsaid.