Six Thinking Hats Meeting Template: A Ready-to-Run Sequence

This page provides a free, copyable Six Thinking Hats meeting template based on Edward de Bono's 1985 parallel-thinking framework. The full 60-minute sequence: Blue Hat (5 minutes) — the facilitator states the decision question, the sequence, and the time-boxes; White Hat (10 minutes) — facts, data, and explicitly named information gaps; Green Hat (10 minutes) — alternatives and ideas, generated without critique; Yellow Hat (10 minutes) — benefits and best cases for the leading options, deliberately scheduled before Black; Black Hat (10 minutes) — risks, failure modes, and objections; Red Hat (5 minutes) — gut feelings, stated without justification; Blue Hat (10 minutes) — synthesis, decision or next steps, owner and date. A quick 25-minute variant for smaller decisions uses White, Yellow, Black and Blue only. Facilitation rules built into the template: everyone wears the same hat at the same time; Yellow always precedes Black for fragile ideas; every hat is time-boxed; and the session is bookended by Blue. The template's second half maps each hat to a claim type on an Argumentree argument tree — Blue's framing question as the root claim, White contributions as evidence, Yellow as supporting arguments, Black as attacking arguments, Green as new options or compromise proposals, Red as explicitly labeled intuition — so the session's structure is preserved as an auditable, rated case after the meeting ends instead of evaporating with the flipchart.

Free template

Six Thinking Hats Meeting Template

The 60-minute sequence with time-boxes and prompts, a 25-minute quick variant — and the mapping that makes the session outlive the meeting.

TL;DR

A ready-to-run parallel-thinking session:

  • •Full sequence (60 min): Blue → White → Green → Yellow → Black → Red → Blue, every hat time-boxed
  • •Quick variant (25 min): White → Yellow → Black → Blue for smaller calls
  • •Two fixed rules: Yellow before Black for fragile ideas; always bookend with Blue
  • •On an argument tree: hats become claim types, and the session becomes a permanent, rated case

The full 60-minute template

Copy the agenda below. The prompts under each hat are what the facilitator reads out; the method behind them — including the worked example and failure modes — is in the Six Thinking Hats guide.

SIX THINKING HATS — FACILITATED SESSION (60 min)
Decision question: [ONE decidable question — "Do we X by Y?"]
Facilitator: [name]   Participants: [names]   Date: [date]

BLUE — FRAME (5 min)
  Facilitator states: the question, this sequence, the time-boxes.
  Prompt: "We are deciding X. One hat at a time, everyone together."

WHITE — FACTS (10 min)
  Prompt: "What do we know? What do we NOT know?"
  Rule: cite sources; name gaps explicitly — gaps are output, not embarrassments.

GREEN — ALTERNATIVES (10 min)
  Prompt: "What else could we do? What's the unconventional version?"
  Rule: no critique of any idea during this hat. None.

YELLOW — BENEFITS (10 min)  ← deliberately BEFORE Black
  Prompt: "For the leading options: why could this work? What's the upside?"

BLACK — RISKS (10 min)
  Prompt: "What could go wrong? What kills this? What are we not seeing?"
  Rule: attack ideas, never people; specifics beat vibes.

RED — GUT (5 min)
  Prompt: "One sentence each: how does this FEEL? No justification required."

BLUE — SYNTHESIZE (10 min)
  Facilitator: decision or explicit next steps; owner + date; what changed whose mind.

--- QUICK VARIANT (25 min, smaller decisions) ---
WHITE (7) → YELLOW (6) → BLACK (6) → BLUE (6)

Facilitation rules baked into the template

  • ✓Everyone wears the same hat at the same time. Parallel thinking is the whole mechanism — a room where one person plays Black while another plays Yellow is just an ordinary meeting with props.
  • ✓Yellow before Black, always, for young ideas. Fragile options get their case made before the failure hunt starts — and risk-heavy teams don't get to skip to their comfort hat.
  • ✓Time-boxes are hard. The clock, not the facilitator's judgment, ends a hat — which is what makes cutting off the room's favorite mode impersonal.
  • ✓Blue bookends are non-negotiable. No framing at the start and synthesis at the end means six modes of output and no decision.

The argument-tree mapping — so the session survives the meeting

The subtlest Six Hats failure is session amnesia: excellent parallel thinking that evaporates because flipchart photos are not a record. Run the session on an Argumentree discussion — or transcribe it there in ten minutes afterwards — using this mapping:

Blue → root claim + recorded synthesis

The framing question is the root; the closing synthesis is the recorded decision on it, reasoning attached.

White → evidence (gaps included)

Facts attach as evidence on the arguments they support; named gaps become open questions with owners.

Yellow → pros · Black → cons

Every Yellow contribution is a supporting argument, every Black one an attack — typed exactly as the hats typed them.

Green → options · Red → labeled intuition

Alternatives enter as sibling options or compromise proposals; gut checks enter explicitly labeled, and a ratings pass captures where the room stands.

Afterwards, the structure keeps working: the Black-Hat objection that reshaped the plan is findable months later; the White-Hat gap's follow-up lands as evidence on the exact node that demanded it; and disagreements continue asynchronously as structured challenges instead of a reply-all thread. Full reasoning in the framework guide; the quality frame is decision quality.

Run it in Argumentree

Create a discussion, paste the decision question as the root claim, and capture each hat's output as typed arguments during the session — or paste the completed agenda notes and let AI extraction propose the tree. Free for individuals, no credit card.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best sequence for a Six Thinking Hats meeting?

A reliable default for a full session: Blue to frame the question and time-boxes; White for facts and named gaps; Green to generate alternatives before any evaluation exists; Yellow for benefits — deliberately before Black, so fragile ideas get their case made first; Black for risks; Red for one-sentence gut checks; Blue to synthesize with an owner and date. Adapt by situation (a risk review might lead with Black), but keep two rules fixed: Blue bookends, and Yellow before Black for young ideas.

How long should each hat last?

In the 60-minute template: 5 minutes for the opening Blue, 10 each for White, Green, Yellow and Black, 5 for Red, and 10 for the closing Blue synthesis. The exact numbers matter less than their hardness — the clock, not the facilitator's judgment, ends each hat, which is what makes cutting off the room's favorite mode impersonal. For smaller decisions, a 25-minute variant (White 7, Yellow 6, Black 6, Blue 6) covers the essential arc without the ceremony.

Can Six Thinking Hats be run asynchronously or remotely?

Yes, with the hats becoming phases instead of time-boxes. Run each hat as a deadline-bound contribution window on a shared argument tree — White-Hat evidence by Tuesday, Green-Hat alternatives by Thursday, Yellow then Black passes the following days — with the same rules: one mode per phase, no critique during Green, Yellow before Black. Async trades the room's energy for reach and a built-in record; the mapping on this page (hats to claim types) is exactly what makes the async version coherent rather than a scattered thread.

How do you keep the results after the session?

By giving the session's structure somewhere permanent to live — the mapping this template ends with. The framing question becomes a root claim; White output attaches as evidence and open questions; Yellow and Black contributions become typed pro and con arguments; Green alternatives become options; Red gut checks enter labeled as intuition; and the Blue synthesis is recorded as the decision with its reasoning. Months later the objection that reshaped the plan is findable, and follow-ups land on the exact nodes that demanded them — which flipchart photos cannot do.

Run a hats session that outlives the hour

The sequence on this page, captured as a typed, rated argument tree — parallel thinking with a permanent record.

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