Thinking - Six Hats

Edward de Bono created a useful model of thinking called "Six Thinking Hats". to distinguish six modes of thinking:

White hat - facts, figures, and objective information
Red hat - emotions, feelings, hunches, intuition
Black hat - logical negative thoughts (why something will not work)
Yellow hat - logical constructive thoughts (positive aspects of why something will work)
Green hat - creativity, generating new ide
as, provocative thoughts, lateral thinking
Blue hat - control of the other hats, thinking about the thinking process, directs attention to other hats to facilitate "mapmaking" thinking.

The use of the different hats facilitates a "mapmaking" thinking process, which is an alternative to an "argument" style. The mapmaking is similar to print one color layer to a map at a time. As all the color layers are added, a complete map is formed. Once the map is finished, one can view all route alternatives and decide the best route/decision to take. In the same way, a person can make a thinking map by putting on and switching among each of the six colored thinking hats. After all the hats are used in a systematic manner to contribute to the map, the person can decide on a route to take. Thus thinking becomes a two-stage process: 1) making the map, 2) picking the best route on the map. If the map is sufficiently precise, accurate and update, the route often becomes obvious.

Pros for six thinking hats:
1) identifies confusion as the biggest thinking deficiency. Emotions, logic, information, hope, and creativity scramble together will overwhelm the thinker. The six hats unscramble this disarray by differentiating into various thought modes, thus permitting the thinking to apply each mode one at a time (more organized and complete thinking).
2) by wearing or visualizing a hat, the thinker can role play thinking in that mode, thus reducing detrimental ego-involvement
3) the use of six hats does not limit the thinker to an "argument" thinking style, but a facilitates a more comprehensive "mapmaking" style. It will provoke two process thinking, mapmaking and choosing the most appropriate route.