INTERACTIVE TEMPLATEEdward de Bono's 6 thinking hats method for brainstorming

Transform your brainstorming sessions

Want to energize your brainstorming sessions? Look no further! Based on Edward de Bono's 6 Hats method, Isabelle Barth (Associate Professor of Management) reveals how you can revolutionize the way you generate ideas and make decisions.

What is Edward de Bono's 6 Thinking Hats method?

Edward de Bono's 6 Hats method is a structured approach to brainstorming that promotes complete and balanced thinking. Each "hat" represents a different way of thinking, allowing you to explore all aspects of an idea or problem. Using this method, you can bypass creative blocks, encourage collaboration and get concrete results from your brainstorming sessions.

• White hat - Factual clarity: shine the light of neutrality on all available evidence, without interpretation or bias. Figures, data and facts are presented objectively, providing a solid basis for discussion.
• The red hat - Emotional intensity: Let your intuition and emotions flow freely. Without justification or restraint, share your feelings, judgments and sensations. This is the time to bring your emotions to life and let them resonate with the team.
• The black hat - Pessimistic lucidity: Address the negative aspects head-on. Identify risks, limits, obstacles and potential drawbacks. The black hat allows you to examine grey areas and foresee pitfalls, so you can better overcome them.
• The yellow hat - The glow of optimism: Radiate optimism and positivity. Explore potential advantages, opportunities, hopes and benefits. This hat allows you to give free rein to your wildest dreams and stimulate a positive vision of the future.
• The Green hat - Creative Energy: Unleash your boundless creativity! Explore original alternatives, formulate bold and extravagant ideas, without censorship. Let your imagination fly, generating unexpected and innovative solutions.
• The blue hat - Effective orchestration: Take the reins of the organization. Analyze, synthesize and channel emerging ideas. This hat embodies discipline and a structured thought process, ensuring that the brainstorming session progresses smoothly and achieves its objectives.

Why does it work?

By using the 6 Thinking Hats method with Wooclap, you benefit from a number of advantages. Firstly, this approach fosters creativity by encouraging divergent ideas. Each hat invites participants to explore different perspectives, avoiding the biases and limitations of conventional thinking. As a result, you'll be able to generate bold, unexpected ideas.

What's more, this method facilitates decision-making. By examining a problem or situation from different angles, you can consider the advantages, disadvantages, emotional aspects, logical aspects, opportunities and risks. This all-encompassing approach gives you a balanced, global view, which facilitates decision-making and reduces the risk of error.

How does Wooclap facilitate the application of the 6-hat method?

Wooclap has been specially designed to facilitate brainstorming, in particular through the application of the 6 Hats method.

• Thanks to the Brainstorming question, you can easily create your different hats by representing them in columns.
• Each participant sends in their ideas for specific hats.
• The transition is fluid between the different hats and therefore modes of thought; show or hide the hat you wish to focus on only one mode of thought.
• The "Like" function allows your participant to give a thumbs-up to an answer that has already been sent, and thus to move it up in the prioritization of ideas.
• Export results: Once you've completed the 6 Hats session, you can export the complete results, including proposed ideas, for further use. This feature lets you capitalize on your brainstorming sessions and keep track of your most promising ideas.

With Wooclap, create interactive brainstorming sessions using the innovative 6-hat method with the Brainstorming question!

Add a new dimension to your brainstorming sessions with the 6 hats method on Wooclap and unlock the creative potential of your teams or audience.

3 examples of application

In this template, you'll find 3 examples of how to put the 6 Thinking Hats method into practice.

1. Brainstorming on a new product launch

2. Strategic decision-making

3. Improving customer service

In these practical exercises, each column represents a different colored hat, and they must be processed sequentially.

Try out the Wooclap 6 Thinking Hats Template now and get some revolutionary ideas off the ground!

Note: the colors are an indication but have no real importance. Brainstorming categories created on Wooclap may have different colors. The important thing is to specify the thinking mode (optimism, caution, creativity, etc.) for each column.