About the Six Thinking Hats

The Six Thinking Hats is a thinking strategy that was developed by Dr. Edward de Bono. Dr. Edward de Bono is regarded as the leading international authority in the field of innovative thinking and the teaching of thinking as a skill. To find out more about Dr. Edward de Bono, you may visit his website at www.deBonoOnline.com.

Each of the six thinking hats is named for a color that allows you to remember the type of thinking associated with that hat. Below you will find descriptions along with questions you may ask while "wearing" each of the six thinking hats.

Thinking Hat	Description	Questions
	Information/Facts Neutral	What information is available?   What information would we like to have?   How are we going to get the missing information?
	Emotions/Feelings	What are my feelings right now?   What does my intuition tell me?   What is my gut reaction?
	Careful/Cautious Negative Thinking  Judgments	What could be the possible problems and difficulties be?   What are the points of caution?   What are the risks?
	Positive Thinking Values/Strengths	What are the values of this idea?   What are the good things about this?
	Creative Thinking New Ideas	Are there other ways to do this?   What else could we do here?   What are the possibilities?   What will overcome our difficulties?
	Thinking about Thinking  Organization	What is our agenda?   What is our next step?   Which hat are we using now?   How can we summarize the discussion so far?   What is our decision?