Edward de Bono’s concept of Six Hats on the surface looks creative, but in implementation it falls short. de Bono’s six hats are:
- Data (white)
- Emotion (red)
- Pessimism (black)
- Optimism (yellow)
- Creativity (green)
- Process (blue)
I do not disagree with these six hats. I tip my hat to de Bono. However, I feel that de Bono made a few mistakes. I am going to coin my own Six Hats:
The Conceptual hat is Creativity. The Contextual hat is Compatibility. The Logical hat is Reliability. The Physical hat is Economy. The Mechanical hat is Intuitivity. The Operational hat is Actuality. These are your six Perspectives.
Now, here is where I extend de Bono’s concept. This extension I call the Six Coats:
The Motivational coat is Goals. The Spatial coat is Networks. The Formal coat is Data. The Functional coat is Processes. The Personal coat is People. The Temporal coat is Time. These coats are your six Focuses.
Together, you take your hats and coats and wear them in a set order to get a project done. You start at the top and proceed left to right, row by row, to the bottom. This takes a chaos of perspectives and focuses and turns them into a methodology:
You may notice that the colors of the hats and coats complement each other. This is intentional:
- Green = Creatable = Goals = “Because we’re capable.”
- Yellow = Compatible = Network = “Because we’re portable.”
- White = Reliable = Data = “Because we’re reliable.”
- Black = Economical = Process = “Because we’re economical.”
- Red = Intuitable = People = “Because we’re intuitable.”
- Blue = Actual = Time = “Because we’re available.”
If you follow my blog you will see that my definitions are evolving. This is to be expected as I am learning between and during every post. I hope you enjoy the process with me.
To see a more recent version of the Six Hats, Six Coats model Click Here.
