🎩 De Bono’s Hats endure!

I met Edward de Bono, and his six thinking hats, at a seminar in Auckland more than 20 years ago. I was an accountant then — with absolutely no sign of my current career on the horizon.

Yesterday, I asked a team I was working with to wear the hats pictured below.

What I like about the approach is how it encourages more balanced, collaborative thinking. It reduces conflict, helps different perspectives be heard, and stops people becoming too personally attached to their own ideas. It can also unlock creativity and more systemic thinking — all things this team is actively working on.

We explored the hats yesterday using a mix of hypothetical and real workplace situations, and talked about ways the team could actively use the approach in BAU conversations and decision-making. I can’t wait to hear what happens next!

Because there were more than six people in the team, I added two extras:

🎩 The Invested Hat — wants to make it happen. Failure is not an option.

🎩 The Wild Hat — can be anything. Completely random..

I suspect there’s room for even more hats in some teams. Some ideas:

🎩 The Pretending Hat — “I’ve already decided but I’m pretending to collaborate.”

🎩 The Delay Hat — “Can we circle back to this later?”

🎩 The Reluctant Hat — “I’m only here because my manager told me to be.”

🎩 The Agnostic Hat — “I really don’t care what we do.”

Like any framework, the hats are not for every situation. But when a team needs to slow down, think differently, hear multiple perspectives, and loosen attachment to fixed positions… they endure!

If you’re curious about the hats - or other approaches that helps teams think, collaborate differently and build psychological safety - get in touch. I’d love to have a chat.