What are Six Thinking Styles?
Six Thinking Styles is a structured brainstorming and decision-making approach designed to help teams explore a topic from multiple angles. It provides a practical framework for making discussions more balanced, focused, and effective by encouraging participants to deliberately consider different ways of thinking.
The approach encourages participants to move beyond their habitual thinking patterns by deliberately adopting different ways that people think. By doing so, teams can explore a broader range of ideas, challenge assumptions, and develop more balanced insights.
An example of the benefit of using the Six Thinking Styles technique is to encourage different viewpoints to be shared, seen, and discussed as part of the decision-making process.
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Tips for using Six Thinking Styles
- Encourage each person to contribute to each of the styles
- Avoid putting people into fixed categories — everyone can use all styles
- Use styles flexibly throughout the discussion
- Combine styles where useful (e.g. Benefits + Risks to evaluate ideas)
Six thinking styles is excellent at eliciting different viewpoints, but you may wish to combine it with other techniques to help resolve conflicting ideas.
- Facts
Focuses on analytical and objective thinking, with attention to evidence, data, feasibility, and known information. - Feelings
Explores emotional responses, intuition, perceptions, and personal viewpoints. - Risks
Examines concerns, limitations, and potential problems to identify what could go wrong. - Benefits
Highlights strengths, opportunities, and positive outcomes to identify what could go right. - Creativity
Encourages new ideas, fresh thinking, and alternative approaches. - Systems
Provides a structured, big-picture perspective by focusing on coordination, process, and how ideas connect.
One of the strengths of six thinking styles is its flexibility. While the default styles provide a helpful starting point, you can easily adapt them to suit your team, topic, or objective.
You can:
- Add new styles based on your specific context
- Rename styles to match your organisation’s language
- Combine or simplify styles for faster discussions
- Tailor prompts to focus on the outcomes you need
This flexibility allows teams to explore problems from different angles in a way that is relevant and meaningful, rather than being constrained to a fixed structure.
Use Six Thinking Styles for better meetings
Six Thinking Styles is a practical approach to decision-making that incorporates multiple points of view.
The method allows emotion, critical thinking, and creativity to be included alongside rational analysis, helping teams make more well-rounded decisions.
Decisions made using this approach can be more resilient and based on a holistic perspective, allowing you to identify risks and opportunities before committing to a decision.
When should I use Six Thinking Styles?
Use this approach to help with:
- Running more structured and inclusive meetings
- Making better decisions by exploring multiple viewpoints
- Analysing problems from factual, emotional, and creative angles
- Inspiring idea generation as an ice-breaker activity
- Encouraging collaboration during brainstorming and decision-making
Six Thinking Styles template example
Imagine facilitating a meeting to introduce a new product or service:
Facts
“What are the facts that we know?”
- Survey data indicates a 5% preference among a key segment
- Return rates have decreased significantly with new packaging
- New delivery routes are available
Benefits
“What are the potential upsides?”
- Opportunity to diversify revenue streams
- Potential for stronger customer feedback
- Improved delivery performance
Feelings
“What are your gut reactions?”
- Positive emotional response to the product design
- Curiosity about operational impact
- Interest in delivery improvements
Creativity
“What new ideas can we explore?”
- Expand into additional product variations
- Develop new partnerships
- Bundle products for increased value
Risks
“What should we be cautious about?”
- Demand uncertainty
- Cost implications of quality improvements
- Reliability of new delivery routes
Systems
“What processes are needed?”
- Review operational impacts
- Assess workflow changes
- Evaluate technology implications
How to use Six Thinking Styles to run better meetings
Brainstorm
Capture ideas across styles
Group
Organise responses into themes
Vote
Prioritise key ideas
Share
Discuss and decide
- Facts — understand the situation
- Feelings — gather reactions
- Risks — identify drawbacks
- Benefits — evaluate positives
- Creativity — generate solutions
- Systems — define next steps
There are many structured thinking approaches that help individuals and teams explore problems from different styles. Structured thinking approaches help teams including
- Synthesists: Creative, question assumptions, comfortable with conflict, and enjoy shifting perspective.
- Idealists: Goal-oriented, holistic thinkers focused on future goals, quality, community good, and harmony.
- Pragmatists: Flexible, practical, focus on immediate results, short-term payoffs, and quick, resource-based problem-solving.
- Analysts: Detail-oriented, methodical, rational; seek the “one best way” via data gathering and logical evaluation.
- Realists: Facts-oriented, prioritize “what is,” focus on efficiency, direct problem-solving, and practical results; act as a stabilizing force.
The Six Thinking Hats® method, by Dr Edward de Bono, uses the concepts of hats to represent different ways of thinking as a metaphor for different thinking styles.
“Six Thinking Hats” is a registered trademark of Edward de Bono Ltd.
Any reference to the Six Thinking Hats® method is made solely for the purpose of identifying and describing a well-known methodology. GroupMap is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or associated with Edward de Bono Ltd, and this template is not an official or licensed product.
- Abstract thinking: Connects ideas to the big picture using symbols/concepts, solving puzzles, understanding illusions, and finding hidden meanings.
- Analytical thinking: Uses a structured, logical, step-by-step approach for problem-solving and decision-making.
- Concrete thinking: Literal, straightforward thinking that relies on facts and concrete evidence, often struggling with creative solutions.
- Convergent thinking: Finds one solution using available information, useful when resources are limited or in emergencies.
- Creative thinking: Finds non-obvious, alternative solutions by thinking outside the box.
- Critical thinking: Carefully considers situations from all angles, weighing research, implications, and possible solutions before deciding.
- Divergent thinking: Generates every possible solution to a problem, often using mind mapping.
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