Understanding the different colors of thinking hats and how they can help guide a meeting could help a group. This help can include brainstorming, helping with problem solving, and improving your decision-making and meeting processes. Examples include the blue and green hats that allow the group to focus on a process for their meeting and use creative techniques to build ideas.

Blue = Command

The blue hat represents process control during a problem-solving or decision-making meeting. It is also used to summarize the meeting or can be used as a final step after a decision is made to develop a new process that resolves the issue being discussed. It is most often used by the meeting facilitator or team leader to move the group between all the hats to ensure all possible perspectives are reviewed. Like a facilitation hat, it may require the group to go through all the colors of the hat in a particular order to ensure a set agenda is being followed. Or the blue hat might suggest switching to a different colored hat to prevent the group from getting stuck on an idea that carries a lot of emotion or ownership. Later, the blue hat may choose to have the group return to a hat that was cut (after other hats have been completed) to ensure the perspective is properly covered.

Green = Creative

When the group puts on their green hat, they use creative methods to come up with ideas to follow or possible solutions. This is where innovative thinking occurs during brainstorming or other creative problem-solving techniques. Brainstorming should start with everyone giving an idea in turn and then move to random idea generation after several people have passed by providing a new idea. Do not test ideas during the creative process, as this can cause confusion in the process and limit the number of ideas to pursue. Instead, wait until the appropriate time during the meeting when other hats can be worn or specific types of input can be solicited.

The blue and green colored hats allow a group to follow a meeting process and use various creative methods of generating ideas. Using the different colors of hats as a way to guide a meeting can provide the group with a broader list of ideas, help them solve problems and improve decision making. Groups wearing these hats may want to research more hats to wear in their meetings and find additional techniques for generating ideas, solving relevant problems, and making decisions that they may need to function better as a group in meetings.

NOTE: Edward de Bono, PhD, designed 6 Thinking Hats as one of his many thinking techniques. If readers want more details on 6 Thinking Hats, please refer to his book or search for “thinking hats” on the Internet. Additional online articles may also be available on “problem solving or decision making” explaining the other hat colors: yellow, black, red, and white.