Dwellworks Experience - Lean Agile Playbook 2.01

6 Thinking Hats Orderly and objective approach to problem solving where the Facilitator leads the group through sharing thoughts applicable to what ‘hat’ is presented at that time.

+ Blue: The organizing hat – Facilitator uses this hat as the first and last step. + White: Neutral, objective, only concerned with facts and figures. + Yellow: The positive hat, covering hope and positive thinking. + Black: The careful and cautious hat, points out weakness in ideas – the devil’s advocate. + Green: Associated with fertile growth, creativity, and new ideas - based on data collected from previous hats. + Red: The emotional view – what you feel without justification.

How it works: 1. Facilitator starts with the Blue Hat – summarizes the issue.

Next, Facilitator might suggest the team ‘wears’ the White Hat to collect facts about the issue.

2. After collecting some pertinent facts, Facilitator suggests ‘putting on’ the Yellow Hat to examine just the benefits attached to the issue 3. After some Yellow Hat discussion and data capture, Facilitator suggests switching to the Black Hat to get the opposite perspective. 4. The Facilitator then asks that the team switch to the Green Hat to explore different ways to address the issue. 5. After the Green Hat, Facilitator might suggest the Red Hat so that people can talk about how they feel about the issue, allowing for a controlled, emotional point of view.

6. Facilitator closes with the Blue Hat to summarize or create next steps on the issue.

© 2016 Dwellworks, LLC

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Lean & Agile Playbook v.2.01 – modified MAY2016