six-hats

Six Thinking Hats

What this technique does

Take one decision and run it through six deliberately separated perspectives, one at a time. Each pass wears a single "hat": facts, feelings, risks, benefits, alternatives, then synthesis. The power is in the separation — a group that argues all six dimensions at once collapses into whoever talks loudest, but a group that examines facts only, then feelings only, surfaces things the argument would have buried. It converts a tug-of-war into six clean passes over the same ground.

Based on Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats® method (Six Thinking Hats, 1985). Six Thinking Hats is a registered trademark of the de Bono Group; this skill is an independent educational implementation.

Workflow

Step 1: Confirm the target

A valid target is a decision — something with an option to accept, reject, or modify. "Should we ship X in v1?", "Do we adopt this dependency?", "Which of these two rollout plans?" all qualify. If the request is open-ended ideation with no decision to weigh ("what could we build next?"), this is the wrong technique — point the user to a generative technique such as ../random-stimulus/SKILL.md instead. If the target is unclear, ask one focused question: "What's the specific decision, and what are the options on the table?"

Refuse requests to perform analytical work — "debug this", "review this code", "implement this change" — and suggest an analytical approach instead. Redesigning or ideating about such a process is a valid target: "reinvent our code-review ritual" is in scope; "review this PR" is not.

Step 2: Run the six passes in fixed order

Run all six, each under its own clear heading, never blending. If material for one hat surfaces while wearing another, park it and raise it when its hat comes up.

• White — facts only. State only what is verifiable. Name the missing data explicitly rather than guessing at it. No opinions, no interpretation.
• Red — gut reactions. One line each, no justification permitted. The instant "this feels wrong" or "I'd be relieved" — recorded, not defended. Justifying a feeling turns it into a Black or Yellow point; don't.
• Black — risks and failure modes. Each risk tied to a mechanism — how it actually goes wrong — not a vibe. "This could fail" is not a Black-hat point; "this fails if traffic doubles because the queue is unbounded" is.
• Yellow — benefits and best-case. Each benefit tied to a mechanism too. Not "this would be great" but "this cuts onboarding time because the config step disappears."
• Green — alternatives and modifications. Minimum three. At least one must abandon the premise of the decision entirely rather than tweak it.
• Blue — synthesis. What did the hats disagree about? What piece of information would change the answer? End with a recommendation carrying a stated confidence level.