Six Hats is trying to solve a contradiction as a problem associated with group thinking: “A brain when subjected to thinking to solve a problem tends to go or wander in multiple directions, and in a group, these states tend to exist at the same time, hence causing chaos, conflicts, and arguments.”
This is like having a physical contradiction that needs to be resolved i.e., simultaneous occurrences of different mental states or states of mind. This physical contradiction creates a confusion and hindrance to creative and collective problem solving. Physical contradictions such as the occurrences of multiple states (not limited to just two opposite or conflicting states such as good and bad, small, and large, etc.) at the same time (in this case, states of mind or directions of thinking – intuition, ideas, arguments, judgment, negative and positive feelings, questions to seek facts and opinions etc., i.e., representing random flow of thoughts as an outcome of left-brain activities and right brain activities) can be solved by using TRIZ as separation in space, time, and circumstances as a solution. Six Hats in a way, follows this principle or approach as suggested in TRIZ (and can even do better) as follows:
A: Separation in space: It is possible to divide in space the thoughts produced by thinking minds or the individuals themselves (forming multiple or smaller teams or groups that are manageable to co-exist and co-operate in a physical space – separating them into multiple and different teams). No two brains are therefore at odds in any team or space, and there may be a means to occasionally combine the outputs through a third party or moderator who might keep an eye on or supervise these teams or minds divided or separated in the space dimensions. These resemble discussion threads or teams that have been split up or formed depending on the various kinds of responses they augur well, such as those who support an idea being in one group and those who oppose it being in another. In this way, those who are a part of these groups will not debate or fight with one another; instead, they will only enhance their shared beliefs. When both teams have had enough time to think, they may be moderated to meet or come together in one or common place or space and have a debate under the direction of a third team that, rather than producing its own ideas, assists in the impartial organization and control of the ideas of others. This approach to group thinking as to how form or separate the teams by physical space has not been highlighted by Six Hats explicitly. It starts with a team as given.
B: Separation in time dimension: In this case, the team members are asked to think in the same lines at any given point in time so that there are no conflicting thoughts. This is what Six-Hats uses as an underlying principle. People are asked to think about the problem from one direction, one state of mind, or one thought at a time. The concept of parallel thinking is well exploited in Six Hats.
C: Separation by a condition: This is akin to sayings like “transition to the next mode of thinking” or “return to a particular state of mind or thinking if no thoughts emerge in a given state after being dedicated some time as a resource.” Fundamentally, it involves formulating an algorithm for group discussion under different circumstances and having a predetermined set of guidelines to direct the flow of debate when such a circumstance occurs.
The ideas based on all three types of separations can help us overcome the group thinking issue (space, time, and conditions). To tackle the issue of physical contradiction, the classical Six Hats primarily applies the notion of separation in time. In short, TRIZ thinking seeks or pushes it for further improvement towards ideality.
Six Hats uses the principle of separation in time to solve the physical contradiction problem (by not having multiple modes of thinking at the same time). Six Thinking Hats: White, Red, Black, Yellow, Green, and Blue.
1: White Hat (controlled or best paired with a red hat or translates feelings of red hat; recommended as the first or sixth hat in a succession for promoting logic, reasoning, practical, analytical, objective, truth, precision, accuracy; unbiased, objective thinking orientation; concentrates on extracting facts, figures, reasons, opinions, and numbers). It helps understand the information available or missing in the group and how could that information be sourced or sourced from by framing right set of questions.
2: Red Hat (controlled or best paired with a white hat; preferred as the second hat in a sequence for bringing up feelings like anger, fear, hatred, love, suspicion etc., intuitions, biases, prejudices, hunches, values, personal religion and belief, expressions, irrationalities, relevance, reactions, hypotheses, inconsistencies, background, inflexibilities etc.; thinking direction is to be predisposed, provocative; focuses on extracting emotions, sensibilities, tastes, and feelings)
3: Black Hat (controlled or best paired with a yellow hat; fourth as a preferred sequence; direction of thinking is to highlights aspects that are serious, cautious, legal, matters of safety, profits, ethics, policies, values, critical thinking, logic, strategy, care; focuses on extracting flaws, weaknesses, challenges, dangers, threats, risks, negative assessments, limitations, deficiencies, problems, expectations, alerts, criticality, comfort and discomforts, errors, incorrectness, unfairness, and obstacles). It focuses on what is wrong and what will not work. These are backed by what comes from red hat with associated feelings when facing failures or what people would do or say in case of problems and what impacts them on critical issues of failures. It is complemented by the thinking and thoughts under yellow hat. If black hat is for finding weakness and threats, yellow hat is for discussing about the opportunities and strengths and the two together complete the SWOT analysis.
4: Yellow Hat (controlled or best paired with a black hat; preferred as third in the sequence of thinking; direction of thinking is to be positive, optimistic, constructive, curious, happy, motivated, practical, logical; focuses on extracting and identifying strengths, vision of success reasons, pleasure, greed, excitement, effectiveness, benefits, scenarios, options, perceptions that are useful, hope and evidence of merits and value). This hat focuses on possibilities and generating positive sentiments and judgments. It helps overcome negative assessments or issues of skewed or biased thinking. Gives the reasons in favor of ideas based on positive thinking to be weighed against the criticism raised under black and red hat.
5: Green Hat (controlled or best paired with a blue hat; preferred sequence is fifth; direction of thinking is towards creative intelligence, speculations, exclusions, exceptions, predictions, forecasts, guesses, estimates, experimental, creative, intuitive, growth, energy, lateral thinking etc.; focuses on eliciting novel ideas, trends, extrapolations, changes and interpretations, alternatives, approaches, and attitudes towards adoption of new concepts). It helps in developing new frameworks of thinking and assimilating thoughts. It opens the mind to be fertile and approach new challenges and problems with a positive mindset and forward thinking.
6: Blue hat (controlled or best paired with a green hat; preferred sequence is first to start with; direction of thinking is that of control, attitude, culture, goals, definition, classification, discipline, economics, sense of timing or time management, managing team ego and prejudices to keep them on track, focusing and monitoring the flow of discussion and conclusion or outcomes; focuses on organization and generation of thoughts, decisions, processes, adherence to frameworks, definitions, tailoring discussions, moderations, summarization, reports, observations, group dynamics and classification). It helps moderate the team discussion by steering the team to follow a process and stay on course of achieving the set goal and outcomes from and during the discussions. It helps people to reconnect and recharge themselves and assess the progress that they have made. It works on the discussion and adherence to the agreed process and not about discussion itself. The best under this hat, should keep the humor in the team and interest in the topic to keep the discussion flowing.
The Six Hats method involves deliberately sensitizing the cognitive process in one way at a time while you elaborate on the issue or topic at hand. It is difficult to guarantee that two teams or groups discussing the same subject will always arrive at the same conclusions or findings. There is no conclusive result. By making people think or talk in the same direction at the same time, it is a process to enable interpersonal communication without a conflict (like swimmers swimming parallelly in their own swim lanes in the same direction). Since time is a precious resource while trying to produce unique ideas while engaging with multiple minds, the main objective of this strategy is to keep people who are talking about the same subject apart to prevent conflicts of viewpoints and disagreements. Argumentative discussion techniques were once considered to be more effective at drawing attention to the topic at hand and generating original perspectives or lines of inquiry. Edward De Bono claims that the arguing strategy is not only ineffective but also unlikely to be able to highlight all the aspects of the conversation.
So, Six Hats is a better way to discuss a problem or subject in-group in multiple dimensions. However, the type of ideas generated, information gathered, or facts highlighted are entirely dependent on the individuals who comprise the group and the dynamics facilitated during that time. This method seeks to prevent ego-related disputes. The output for each problem dimension per unit of collective time might improve. The core concept of Six Hats is the economics of discussion time and volume per dimension, while ensuring that the team’s attention is kept on the issue at hand and the influence of ego is minimized. It is challenging to support the level of conversation.
It can also be said that Six Hats help in reducing the time-to-think for problems that have already got some solution identified or alternative identified, at an individual level. The discussion is more around the aspects of implementation and not necessarily about inventive problem solving. It is difficult to put this method to use to reduce the time-to-think and time-to-learn aspects of inventive problem solving. It is effective in its outcome if the problem is not inventive. Six Hats helps in reducing the time-to-learn by way of brainstorming on diverse viewpoints to solve a (non-inventive) problem or address an issue that needs to be solved through a group discussion. Six Hats speeds up learning about the problem and hence reducing the time-to-learn, by accumulating data from multiple points of view quickly, through a time and direction sensitive process of group discussion.
Furthermore, it may be claimed that Six Hats cuts down on the time spent thinking about issues for which a fix or replacement has already been found, at the individual level. Discussions frequently focus more on implementation than on producing original solutions. It is challenging to apply this method to shorten the time and effort required for the parts of creative issue solving that call for original thought and taking in fresh or new knowledge. In Six Hats, for instance, even if the eventual solution is not novel, it would be nonetheless considered as effective outcome of the process.
The learning curve is ramped up by producing solutions to a (non-inventive) problem from a variety of angles. By quickly compiling data from numerous diverse perspectives, it reduces the time needed to learn about a subject or topic. By gathering information from many points of view fast through a time-sensitive process as a set of rules for a group conversation, Six Hats shortens the time it takes to learn about the problem. This is different from producing new or original solutions or solving an inventive problem.
And if you consider how thinking and learning are intertwined, you will see that the Six-Hats can produce a variety of viewpoints that can be selected for thinking to prove or refute methodically using original thinking approaches. Therefore, it helps in defining and reframing the same problem from several viewpoints, much like lateral thinking. Six Hats may draw attention to related issues to the one being discussed i.e., appropriately broadening the area of problem solving. By highlighting elements that an inventor should consider when working on his or her invention, it may help draw attention to key facts that could significantly improve the original thinking process subsequently.
In fact, Six Hats’ problem-focused discussion could produce several insights. The output of the group discussion should be condensed along with the list of attributes or criteria that a final solution must possess. If the issue does not require a novel solution, the solution gets conclusively articulated, and taken through the validation test i.e., passed through the opposing points of view, before its acceptance. During discussions and deliberations, the best option or solution wins out, while the others are deemed inadequate or unattractive. To determine which alternative is better, each one is analyzed from a variety of angles or multiple criteria. If the solution is not inventive, for example, if it infringes on an already-existing solution or is not distinct and original enough, TRIZ may be able to help. TRIZ also offers an approach to address problems having existing or known solutions (prior art) and can increase the possibility of producing an alternate solution which possibly is novel.
Six Hats can be used in conjunction with the mind mapping tools. When a participant from a certain hat expresses the point of view, it could be graphically represented as a stream of thought. Thus, the group’s thoughts can be mapped using mind-mapping tools. By providing each member of the team with a visual representation of the efficacy up front is like plotting the productivity of the team conversations over a period on a graph or map. This visual map can be duplicated-freely and multiplied in a variety of problem-solving exercises later.
The synergies between TRIZ and the Six Hats methodology could be summed up as follows:
(i) by reducing the influence of individual egos and arguing, which otherwise could lead the team into chaotic and repetitious conversations, Six Hats could help in the systematic exploration of the issue from various angles
(ii) When the team must learn by using the opinions of experts as a knowledge base, Six Hats could shorten the learning process. It is also a useful tool for igniting the latent information that mind mapping tools can finally capture. Multiple mind maps of the same topic, problem, or subject that are being discussed simultaneously or independently in two diverse groups can be easily combined using a mind mapping software application. Through the addition of knowledge and the enrichment with fresh information or knowledge arriving from outside of an existing group, one can strengthen a certain thread or branch of dialogue that is weak. The level or quality of group discussions can be improved by organizing such interventions
(iii) Six Hats is not a good method for cutting down on the amount of time needed to think about an inventive problem; TRIZ works better for this. But by highlighting various aspects of the problem up front, it can expand the scope of application for TRIZ. This may make it easier for TRIZ to define the problem space from the perspective of forming various perspectives to find the best or final solution. This is due to the sensitization that occurs during discussion, which helps highlight the drawbacks and advantages of the proposed or desired process, product, or service. It assists in highlighting the characteristics of the needed solution.
(iv) Six Hats limits the scope or quality of thinking of the minds at work while thinking in group. Six Hats, on its own, only facilitate the development of various thought areas during a discussion and it temporarily trains the mind to think collectively in a certain direction. Regardless of how dissimilar, antagonistic, or contradictory the ideas or thoughts are, Six-Hats promotes useful parallel thinking by requiring people to choose a unidirectional viewpoint at some point. The opinions are merely compared to prevent the disputes. TRIZ can strengthen the idea generation process by enabling the group to think cooperatively as a team in numerous dimensions and directions in the direction of an inventive solution. This adds another structure to group thinking.
Six Hats
(a) is centered on psychology of people
(b) maximizes the use of people as knowledge sources
(c) aids in elaborating/identifying the characteristics of the potential result or solution (d) helps to draw attention to and record outside forces or environmental elements that surround the issue or potential solution
(e) assists in maintaining the thoughts’ flow and fluidity without overly stressing about things like worsening or improving
(f) does not let the problem’s perimeter to get very narrow
(g) can help in locating adjacent issues that surround a given problem which then can be approached to achieve the desired broad outcome
(h) has a level of output or quality that is determined by how well the minds are sensitized and motivated to solve a problem by wearing a particular hat in a group discussion and
(i) a successful strategy to reveal tacit knowledge.
TRIZ
(a) is centered on problems
(b) makes the most of earlier inventions as a source of information
(c) helps in elaborating on or identifying potential guiding concepts behind the solutions
(d) helps in concentrating on the system as well as its parts to solve the problem
(e) through rigid problem definition governs the mental process or flow of thoughts while solving the problem
(f) establishes the boundaries of the problem/opportunity boundaries
(g) focuses strictly on the problem/opportunity and approach it to maximize the ideality
(h) produces the quality of output constrained by the analogical strengths of individuals and
(i) provides good approach to spot or recognize conflicts and contradiction
