Solving problems as a group canbe tough. Differences of both opinion and personality often create conflict and impede progress. Outspoken people often dominate the group, while quiet people don't get an opportunity to speak.

To conquer this issue Edward De Bono created the Six Thinking Hats method, which is a great tool to improve the problem solving procedure and help teams reach a consensus in a smooth and effective manner. Let us look at the theory with the help of an example:

A company is planning to expand its office and wants to build a larger building to house the increased employees. The head of the company calls in his core team to help him reach a consensus whether the acquisition is a good practical move.

Using the White Hat the team analyzes the numbers. They discuss quantifiable issues: cost of expansion, square footage, time frame, capacity of the new building, etc.

Wearing the Yellow Hat, team members will discuss the positive aspects of the expansion: such as how it might improve employee satisfaction, motivation, and productivity.

While it may sound negative, the Black Hat is an important aspects of De Bono's thinking hats. Once this hat is worn, team members will come up with all the problems that could potentially be faced with the new building. What are the down sides? Is the building on safe ground? Would the money be better spent on something else? All these issues will ensure that there is no major hurdle that will be faced when the project is executed.

The Red Hat creates a space for the team to think emotionally, not logically. How do we feel about the expansion? What's our gut instinct?

The Green Hat is very important from a creative standpoint. It helps the team to come up with novel, innovative solutions to the situation and have a different viewpoint as opposed to the usual ones.

The meeting facilitator wears the Blue Hat, which is "master" hat that controls the thinking process. When wearing the Blue Team, the team discusses the sequence of hats, and whether they need to revisit a particular hat based on their satisfaction with their output. Proper Meeting facilitation training will help chairpersons understand how to use this theory to its best advantage.