Culture of Innovation - 6 Hats Method

The easiest way for a company to be successful is to constantly innovate. Innovation is about finding new solutions for the market, creating disruptive products and being able to predict trends in our industry. Innovation is a complex and costly process, which requires the right working environment. In order to achieve an efficient innovation process at the enterprise level, various techniques have been developed to facilitate the freedom of creation and the production of novel ideas.

In this guide we will study the six hats method, focused on the development of innovation in our company.

What does the six hats method consist of?

The six hats method consists of focusing efforts to solve problems from different perspectives. It is thinking creatively, but without getting stuck in a single point of view or way of approaching the issue. Each hat represents a way of looking at the problem, six ways of thinking so as not to get stuck in a prejudiced view of reality.

White hat

The white hat represents neutrality. This means that from this point of view we must contemplate the facts from a neutral perspective, without taking part motivated by our emotions or previous knowledge of the fact.

Red hat

The red hat is intuition. Contrary to the white hat, when we face the facts from intuition, neutrality is broken, because we are making use of intuition and not reason. This vision is more irrational but allows us to get an approximation to our more emotional side, which in many occasions can be the right one.

Green hat

The green hat is the hat of ideas. It is the more creative side of thinking, it encourages the generation of thought around creating possible solutions to the problem at hand. When we think from the green hat we do it without focusing so much on the problem, but on the solution we can give to it. We must be flexible and creative; the more ideas we come up with, the closer we will be to finding the right one.

Black Hat

The black hat alludes to the criticisms and risks present both in the problem and in the ideas that revolve around it. Thanks to the thinking generated from this perspective is that a certain counterbalance is achieved that induces us towards the survival and preservation of our company. Innovating with disruptive ideas can be so exciting that in many occasions we can cloud our sense of risk. That is why the black hat plays a very important role when it comes to being creative.

Yellow hat

The line of thought approached when thinking from the yellow hat is optimism, optimism is to always see the positive side of the idea or problem. By being optimistic we encourage the fighting spirit against defeatism, we improve our mood and we are able to take greater risks. The yellow hat is the antagonist of the black one, while the first one urges us to take decisions with courage and without being so attached to risks, the second one moves us towards that more cautious and foresighted side. Both hats are very important because they allow us to find the right balance when making decisions.

Blue hat

The blue hat is the hat of control and results. Control alludes to active focus, total concentration on finding the solution to the problem at hand. Results should be the goal to follow, there is no better indicator of the progress we are making than looking at the results. Control and results are two aspects to keep in mind during the innovation process.