The Six Thinking Hats was developed by Edward deBono and is the cornerstone of his Parallel Thinking theory. It requires teams to think on one aspect of a topic individually, ensuring everyone participates. The benefits are reduced confrontation, improved synergies, and extreme efficiency. This tool is a much more effective alternative to traditional brainstorming.

Six Thinking Hats is a simple, effective tool which helps teams be more productive, focused, and mindfully involved. Easy to learn, this tool can be implemented quickly.

Six distinct directions are identified and assigned a color. The six directions are:

Managing Blue - what is the subject? what are we thinking about? what is the goal?
Information White - considering purely what information is available, what are the facts?
Emotions Red - intuitive or instinctive gut reactions or statements of emotional feeling (but not any justification)
Discernment Black - logic applied to identifying reasons to be cautious and conservative
Optimistic response Yellow - logic applied to identifying benefits, seeking harmony
Creativity Green - statements of provocation and investigation, seeing where a thought goes

Colored hats are used as metaphors for each direction. Switching to a direction is symbolized by the act of putting on a colored hat, either literally or metaphorically. These metaphors allow for a more complete and elaborate segregation of the thinking directions. The six thinking hats indicate problems and solutions about an idea the thinker may come up with.

The tool allows teams to separate thinking into six clear functions and roles. Each thinking role is identified with a colored symbolic "thinking hat." By mentally wearing and switching "hats," you can easily focus or redirect thoughts, the conversation, or the meeting.