A “hat” is not a physical piece of clothing, but a state of mind. It is a tool that can be used to push the boundaries of thinking and help you grow as a group and as leaders. You can think of a hat discussion as a movement, NOT an argument. It’s not about asking questions like: “Is this correct? Do I agree/disagree?” Instead ask yourself: “Where does this idea take us?”
For some entrepreneurs, this way of thinking comes naturally to them. You are always thinking of new ideas and creating possibilities and new combinations and mixtures. The focus of wearing this hat is on using ideas to move you to new and novel ideas. It’s about creating more and more options.
The key distinction between the yellow and the green hat is that yellow hat thinking is about finding a idea or solution (often it’s based on improving an existing idea) and green hat thinking is about creating something new, whether it’s useful or not. So yellow hat thinking is about utility; green hat thinking is about raw generation of new ideas for where they can take you.
Rarely is there one “best answer” or solution, so when brainstorming with your mastermind group don’t settle for the one answer or solution you come up with just becomes it comes to mind first. The real value of green hat thinking comes when you push past the easy and obvious answers, ideas, and proposals.
So often we think that decision making is the key step. The point of “deciding” that our culture tends to emphasis is that of the actual decision point. But quality decisions are don’t come out of thin air. They are dependent on perceiving quality options. This is why yellow and green hat thinking is so critical and valuable.