General overview of how to implement it

The Six Thinking Hats dynamic can be developed in two different ways: each student or group of students adopts one colour at a time, discussing with the rest of the students or groups of students (representing the other colours) the problem to be solved or the situation given from each of the six perspectives proposed. It is also possible for all students to adopt the same hat each time, so that they all contribute ideas and opinions from the same perspective at each moment (first the white hat is adopted, then red, black, etc., and finally everyone adopts the blue hat).

Start the session by explaining that the Six Hats technique is designed to encourage everyone to approach a problem or issue from a variety of different perspectives, and don’t forget: the hat is a position and never corresponds to a person. This means that the exercise requires all the team members (teachers or students) )to adopt the same hat (the same position) at the same time. As the discussions progress, the team changes hats until they’ve looked at all aspects that need to be examined.

1. Present a problem/issue to the group. Tell them that they are going to think about it from a variety of perspectives. There will be 6 types of thinkers – those who are in those roles will only address the issue from that particular perspective. The facilitator should initially explain to the participants that they are going to view the problem in six different ways.
2. Then the team starts focusing the discussion on a particular approach. The team members deliberately choose which hat they want to start with. For example, if they choose the blue hat, the discussion may start with everyone assuming the Blue hat to discuss how the meeting will be conducted and to develop the goals and objectives. The discussion may then move to Red hat thinking in order to collect opinions and reactions to the problem. This phase may also be used to develop constraints for the actual solution such as who will be affected by the problem and/or solutions. Next the discussion may move to the Yellow and then the Green hat in order to generate ideas and possible solutions. Next the discussion may move between White hat thinking as part of developing information and Black hat thinking to develop criticisms of the solution.
3. After developing a set of solutions, the participants examine the set critically and choose one solution.