Are your project teams struggling to work effectively? If so, you’re not alone. During a technology adoption initiative, project teams face enormous pressures amid tight deadlines. To complicate things further, they are often composed of individuals from completely different backgrounds who have never worked together before.
The Six Thinking Hats methodology can help you craft a more productive team dynamic. This innovative approach encourages diverse perspectives and structured thinking, enabling your teams to work, communicate, and brainstorm more efficiently.
The Importance of Project Team Effectiveness
Before we get into the specifics of the Six Thinking Hats, let’s take a moment to explore the concept of project team effectiveness. This refers to a team’s ability to work together to achieve their goals and deliver successful business outcomes. When a project team isn’t working effectively, it can lead to poor decision-making, lack of communication, confusion concerning roles and responsibilities, and other factors that inhibit a technology implementation.
Using effective project practices like the Six Thinking Hats can have a profound impact on a team’s ability to achieve the project goals. According to research, companies with strong project processes meet their goals 77% of the time (versus 56% without these processes), stay within their budget 67% of the time (versus 46%), and deliver on schedule 63% of the time (versus 39%). These are compelling statistics.
Applying the Principles of Parallel Thinking
The Six Thinking Hats technique is rooted in the concept of parallel thinking. Parallel thinking is a conflict resolution process that redirects disagreements through collaborative thinking. Suppose you have two opposing points of view held by person A and person B, respectively. Traditionally, these two would debate the merits of their respective approaches to arrive at a solution.
Parallel thinking takes a completely different approach. Using this method, individuals momentarily adopt opposite points of view. That means that person A sets aside their opinion to explore the merits of person B’s suggestion and vice versa. In this way, individuals break out of an adversarial thought process, enabling them to view the problem from a different perspective. This not only helps resolve conflicts, but it builds the trust necessary for individuals to function as an effective team.
The Basics of the Six Thinking Hats
Developed in the 1980s, the Six Thinking Hats is a method of parallel thinking in which each hat represents a different mode of thinking. By using this approach, individuals learn how to switch their mode of thinking at will. They can then fully explore solutions from multiple angles. Let’s look at each of the six hats and how and when to use them.
The Blue Hat
The blue hat is the control hat. This is typically worn by only one individual at a time. This person acts as a facilitator, setting the agenda in meetings and managing the team’s focus. This individual also summarizes and concludes meetings, takes notes, establishes rules, and ensures that those rules are followed throughout the meeting. Most importantly, the facilitator is responsible for determining which hat team members will use at a particular time.
Occasionally, someone may share the blue hat in a meeting to propose something to the group or offer a motion. Even in these instances, however, the blue hat defaults to the facilitator. It is also important to note that the facilitator can change from meeting to meeting. This person might be a project manager in one meeting, then change to an outside facilitator in the next.
When It Should Be Used:
The blue hat is used throughout the process, but particularly during meetings.
The Black Hat
Black hat thinking focuses on the risks, difficulties, and weaknesses of a particular approach. Think of this as a productive skepticism intended to uncover challenges and explore the reasons why something will not work. The black hat is used to ask questions that will anticipate what could go wrong.
While the black hat is a valuable assessment tool, it is important to not get trapped in this type of thinking. When the black hat is overused, it can shut down creativity and stifle innovation by being overly negative. Another key aspect of black hat thinking is identifying why a particular approach might not work. It is not aimed at throwing out concerns not supported by logic.
When It Should Be Used:
The black hat is a powerful assessment tool that works well when used after the yellow hat. It also provides a road map for improvement and problem-solving when used before the green hat.
The Yellow Hat
The yellow hat is an assessment tool for evaluating feasibility, benefit, and value. In many ways, the yellow hat functions as the opposite of the black hat, exploring why something will work. Much like with black hat thinking, it is important to provide specific reasons why an idea is valuable. When engaging in yellow hat thinking, be to consider both short- and long-term perspectives to accurately assess the value of a particular idea or approach.
When It Should Be Used:
The yellow hat works well when used after the green hat, enabling team members to evaluate the effectiveness of ideas born from creative brainstorming. It is useful to follow up a yellow hat session by putting on the black hat. This allows users to identify any risks or flaws in the benefits proposed during yellow hat thinking.
The White Hat
The white hat perspective focuses on essential information. This thinking seeks to identify what you already know about a particular solution, what you need to know, and how to go about obtaining that information. The white hat plays a critical role in obtaining the data needed to make informed decisions and determine the accuracy and relevance of that information. For instance, if someone proposed incorporating tablets into workflows, a white hat user might ask questions like:
- What is the connectivity like on the job site?
- Are the workers savvy enough to use the tablets properly?
- What is the cost of this approach?
When It Should Be Used:
The white hat works well when used after the green hat and before the yellow hat. This enables you to take the ideas from a brainstorming session and determine how realistic they are. Once that information has been discovered, you can use the yellow hat to determine the idea’s benefit.
The Red Hat
The red hat focuses on feelings and intuition. While emotion can be vital to the thinking process, if not properly reigned in, it can overwhelm it entirely. For this reason, using the red should be a short process. Limit red hat thinking to 30 seconds or less and encourage participants to express their emotions in as few words as possible. For instance, a simple “I like it” or “I agree” will suffice.
During this period, team members have full permission to express their feelings and hunches without the need to justify or explain the reasons. If you do not allow this type of thinking to occur, people tend to get overburdened by their feelings. Getting emotions out of the way allows the team to move on to more productive ways of working.
When It Should Be Used:
The red hat is particularly effective when used during the decision-making process to gauge buy-in or commitment to a particular solution.
The Green Hat
The green hat deals with creativity and innovation. When wearing the green hat, it is vital that you throw concerns about logic or feasibility out the window. While it may take a concentrated effort to maintain this type of thinking, it is crucial for the creative process. Green hat thinking is an exercise in pure creativity. It allows you to explore alternative ideas without having to explain the reasons behind them. The goal is to collect as many ideas as possible before moving on to subsequent stages where they will be assessed more logically.
When It Should Be Used:
The green hat can be used at various points in the creative process. It serves as a starting point for brainstorming fresh ideas. It can also be used after the black hat to innovate potential solutions to the risks identified during black hat thinking. This can motivate team members to solve their own problems, moving from a mindset of “This won’t work,” to “This is how we make it work.”
Implementing the Six Thinking Hats Method
The Six Thinking Hats approach provides a structured way to foster a more effective team dynamic. This approach takes time to master, so conduct Six Hat training sessions regularly. This sets the foundation and helps prevent team members from reverting back to traditional ways of working. Once workers have developed this skill, they become more open open-minded and agile, which can improve their performance in subsequent projects and assignments.
Are your project teams struggling to implement new technology adoptions? Discover how our transformative workshop can improve the way your project teams think and work.
About the Authors
