Each of the six thinking hats has a colour: white, red, black, yellow, green, blue. The colour provides the name for the hat.
I could have chosen clever Greek names to indicate the type of thinking required by each hat. That would have been impressive and would have pleased some people. But it would be of little practical value since the names would be difficult to remember.
I want thinkers to visualize and to imagine the hats as actual hats. For this to happen colour is important. How else could you distinguish between the hats? Different shapes would again be difficult to learn and would be confusing. Colour makes the imaging easier.
The colour of each hat is also related to its function.
White Hat White is neutral and objective. The white hat is concerned with objective facts and figures.
Red Hat Red suggests anger (seeing red), rage and emotions. The red hat gives the emotional view.
Black Hat Black is sombre and serious. The black hat is cautious and careful. It points out the weaknesses in an idea.
Yellow Hat Yellow is sunny and positive. The yellow hat is optimistic and covers hope and positive thinking.
Green Hat Green is grass, vegetation and abundant, fertile growth. The green hat indicates creativity and new ideas.
Blue Hat Blue is cool, and it is also the colour of the sky, which is above everything else. The blue hat is concerned with control, the organization of the thinking process and the use of the other hats.
If you remember the colour and the associations of each hat, remembering the function of the hat will then follow. You may also think of three pairs of hats:
White and red
Black and yellow
Green and blue
In practice the hats are always referred to by their colour and never by their function. There is a good reason for this. If you ask someone to give his or her emotional reaction to something, you are unlikely to get an honest answer because people think it is wrong to be emotional. But the term red hat is neutral. You can ask someone to ‘take off the black hat for a moment’ more easily than you can ask that person to stop being cautious. The neutrality of the colours allows the hats to be used without embarrassment. Thinking becomes a game with defined rules rather than a matter of exhortation and condemnation. The hats are referred to directly:
… I want you to take off your black hat.
… For a few minutes let us all put on our red thinking hats.
… That’s fine for yellow hat thinking. Now let’s have the white hat.
When you are dealing with people who have not read this book and who are unaware of the symbolism of the six thinking hats, the explanation attached to each colour can quickly give the flavour of each hat. You should then follow up by giving those people a copy of this book to read. The more widespread the idiom, the more efficient it will be in use. Eventually you should be able to sit down at any discussion table and switch in and out of ‘hats’ with ease.