The seventh thinking hat

Edward de Bono is best known for his work on lateral thinking. In fact, he has become a very influential writer in shaping generations of managers and other professionals. Furthermore, he has the distinction of being famous for more than one approach — that is, as well as being extremely well known for his work on lateral thinking, his six thinking hats framework has also been very well received and proved to be of great benefit to a wide range of organizations.

This approach is based on making sure that decision making is based on six types of thinking:

White hat

This is concerned with objective facts and figures.

Red hat

This involves considering the emotional dimension.

Black hat

This hat offers a note of caution — it looks at weaknesses and limitations.

Yellow hat

Positive thinking and optimism are covered here.

Green hat

This covers innovation and creativity.

Blue hat

The emphasis here is on control and coordination — linking the six hats together.

The success of the approach is indicated by this comment by de Bono in the second edition of the book:

“A major corporation (ABB) used to spend thirty days on their multinational project team discussions. Using the parallel thinking of the Six Hats method, the discussions now take as little as two days. A researcher from a top IBM laboratory told me that the Six Hats method had reduced meeting times to one quarter of what they had been. … In a simple experiment with three hundred senior civil servants, the introduction of the Six Hats method increased thinking productivity by 493 per cent.” (1999, p. ix)

No doubt a significant part of its appeal is the fact that structured frameworks such as this can be very useful in raising confidence, giving a sense of purpose and direction and providing a tool that can be helpful in working through the complexities of management practice. Such tools can be a very helpful bridge between theory and practice.

However, despite the success and usefulness of de Bono’s six thinking hats framework, I would argue that there is a key dimension missing, hence the need for a seventh thinking hat. For me, any approach that fails to put equality and diversity at the heart of its thinking is a flawed one. If respect, fairness and valuing difference are not central themes, then there is a significant danger that the approach will fail to do justice to the complexities of practice in the people professions.

I would therefore want to propose equality and diversity as a seventh thinking hat. In considering any project or set of issues there should be explicit and detailed consideration of the equality and diversity dimensions. I would propose that this hat be referred to as the gold thinking hat. This is because I see it as a gold standard. If people genuinely are an organization’s most important resource, then surely it is important to make sure that people are treated with fairness — and this makes a spirit of valuing diversity crucial. Some people might argue that equality and diversity can easily be incorporated into the existing six hat framework. However, I would not see this as being sufficient, as it is essential to make sure that it is covered and not seen as just an optional extra.

We have learned over the years through the difficult and demanding history of tackling discrimination that problems can arise at a number of levels — often unwittingly — therefore there is a danger that any approach that does not put equality and diversity explicitly on the agenda may allow problems of discrimination to creep in. It is therefore important to think of seven thinking hats, with the addition of the gold hat of equality and diversity, rather than simply try to see equality and diversity as subdivisions of the other six hats.

It is several decades now since Edward de Bono’s work first came to our attention. During that time, he has established himself as a major writer who has emphasized the importance of thinking. I would want to endorse not only his six thinking hats approach in particular (as amended to incorporate the seventh hat) but also more generally in terms of his commitment to the value of thinking as a professional tool. There are significant dangers in uncritical reliance on management fads or any other such trends. To my mind, this is the great strength of de Bono’s work — that he emphasizes the importance of thinking, but also provides tools to assist in that process. If we can now add the seventh dimension of a gold thinking hat for equality and diversity, we can build on the great strengths of de Bono’s work.

Reference

De Bono, E. (1999) Six Thinking Hats, 2nd edn, Harmondsworth, Penguin.

Dr Neil Thompson is an independent writer, educator, a visiting professor at the Open University and an adviser to the Vigoroom workplace wellbeing platform (www.vigoroom.co.uk). His Academy at www.NeilThompson.info offers an annual subscription service giving access to 60 of his online courses. This is available to individuals for less than £2 per course or a corporate subscription for up to 300 staff at just £3,000 +VAT.