I slogged my way through this book with much effort despite its abbreviated length. The core concept is an interesting one, and it involves a process to make meetings, brainstorming, and all sorts of collaborative efforts more organized and productive by helping the participants better organize the way they think so as not to get bogged down with unrelated minutia while trying to focus on another specific segment of the issue at hand.
Instead of anyone bringing up any sort of argument (logical, emotional, factual, cautious, etc.) at any time, the Six Hats method allows all participants the opportunity to don a metaphorical “hat” of a certain color in order to purposefully focus on a specific type of thinking while temporarily putting up a blockade to any other sort of reasoning.
White hat thinking focuses on facts and figures, red hat thinking is purely emotional with no need for justification, the black hat represents caution, the yellow hat accentuates the positive, green is the hat of creativity and moving forward, and the final hat is blue, representing organization and order.
As I said, it’s not a bad idea. This book just really repeatedly clubs you over the head with it, explaining how it works so many times (“It’s time we did some [pick a color] hat thinking on this problem…”) as to make a dead horse whinny for mercy.
At its best, this method of thinking and collaborating can be a very effective tool for organizing options, weighing considerations, making decisions and conducting meetings with order and little conflict. At its worst it can be used just to shut someone up and confound them so that by the appropriate time for airing grievances they’ve completely had the wind taken out of their sails: “Gary, I appreciate what you’re saying, but what we really need now are your green hat ideas. We will get to the red and black arguments at a later time (like when you’re in the bathroom).”
In my opinion, despite how short the book is, it could have been much shorter. This is a handout or PowerPoint presentation’s worth of material inflated with the author’s ego (If I had to read about one more term he coined or is now in the dictionary…) and overly reiterated simply to fill a 173-page book and slap a $14.99 list price on it.
Don’t get me wrong—I disliked reading it but I’m glad I did. I actually came across references to white- and black-hat thinking in a journalistic piece I read two or three days ago, and I knew what those terms meant without having to Google them. It wasn’t a total waste. I’m sure there will inevitably come a day when I will be asked to don my green hat to help arrive at a solution. And now I’ll know better what’s expected of me in that situation.
Did I mention I’m a skeptic and a bit of a tough sell on adopting new ideas? Oh well. Maybe these hats will grow on me in time…