1. The Six
Thinking Hats

2. What does your
intuition tell
you? What is
your gut
feeling? What
are your simple
feelings on the
matter? Do not
attempt to
explain or
justify your
feelings; just
acknowledge
them at this
moment.
RED HAT:
EMOTIONS &
FEELINGS
Photo: Gianmaria
Verones, Flickr

3. WHITE HAT:
INFORMATION, FACTS & FIGURES
What information is now available to help you think
about this matter? What information would you like
to have? How might you obtain the information that
you feel would be necessary/useful when deciding
about this matter?
Photo: jmtimage, Flickr

4. GREEN HAT:
CREATIVE &
LATERAL THINKING
How can the
idea be modified
to improve it and
to remove
obvious faults?
How can some of
the difficulties
pointed out by
the black hat be
overcome? Are
there alternative
ways to
achieving this
same objective?
Photo: Procsilas Moscas, Flickr

5. YELLOW HAT:
BENEFITS & POSTIVE
SPECULATION
What are the benefits,
values and advantages of
this idea? What are the
logical positive points?
How could this idea be
made workable? What are
the good things about this
suggestion?
Photo: Kevin Cloud, Flickr

6. BLACK HAT:
CAUTION & NEGATIVE
CRITICAL
What are the points of
caution? What are the
disadvantages? Are there
potential problems? What
can go wrong? What are
the negative points? What
are the difficulties
surrounding the question?
Photo: Diana Lee, Flickr

7. How could you summarize/organize the thinking that
has taken place? Can you come to a conclusion? To do
further thinking, steps should be taken - which ones?
What should happen next?
How could you summarize/organize the thinking that
has taken place? Can you come to a conclusion? To do
further thinking, steps should be taken - which ones?
What should happen next?
BLUE HAT: THINKING ABOUT
THINKING/FOCUS
Photo: evoo73, Flickr