As we approach National STEAM Day on November 8th, we celebrate the role adding Arts to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines can play as a driving force for innovation and problem-solving in today’s business world.
In this blog, we look at the growing need for unique thinking to solve management challenges, and how thinking with different hats and including different styles of thought, can bring fresh new perspectives to solving your business issues.
What does ‘thinking with different hats’ mean?
The concept of ‘thinking with different hats’ originates from Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats method, which focused on encouraging individuals to think from different perspectives to help tackle challenges holistically.
What are the 6 thinking hats?
Each hat represents a unique way of management thinking:
- The White Hat – Focuses on facts, data, and information. Ideal for gathering evidence and understanding existing knowledge.
- The Red Hat – Embraces emotions and intuition. This helps to surface gut feelings and emotional responses.
- The Black Hat – Provides critical thinking and caution. This hat assesses risks, potential obstacles, and logical flaws.
- The Yellow Hat – Encourages optimism and positivity. This is about finding the potential benefits and opportunities.
- The Green Hat – Signifies creativity and growth. It’s a space for brainstorming and exploring alternative solutions.
- The Blue Hat – Represents organisation and control. This hat helps manage the thinking process itself, guiding it toward structured outcomes.
For example, say you usually focus your management decisions on facts and data you would be considered a ‘white hat’. However, this perspective might not necessarily allow you a chance to think creatively. Applying the ‘green hat’ and trying to think about the solution from this perspective might allow you and your team to come up with different options.
Extending this to STEAM thinking
By switching hats, leaders can explore multiple angles, break habitual thinking patterns, and discover innovative solutions to complex issues.
This method aligns closely with the ethos of STEAM, which is all about integrating different disciplines and perspectives to foster creativity, adaptability, and innovation.
As well as attempting to think differently, by personally thinking differently about management decisions, you could also include different members of your business with different specialisms in the decision making process.
Could the graphic designer provide a more creative solution to a financial management decision? Or could the accountant provide a different opinion on a creative marketing challenge?
Why combining the two for management thinking is important
STEAM thinking thrives on cross-disciplinary collaboration, where scientists, engineers, artists, and mathematicians must often work together to solve issues from multiple angles. However, the highly specialized nature of these fields can sometimes create silos, limiting cross-pollination of ideas.
Adopting the Six Thinking Hats in STEAM-driven environments breaks down these barriers, encouraging professionals to step into each other’s perspectives.
Consider a tech company developing a new product. By adopting the White Hat, the team focuses on data analytics and user insights to understand market needs.
When putting on the Red Hat, they tune into their customers’ emotional responses, fostering empathy that informs design.
With the Black Hat, they anticipate technical challenges, whereas the Yellow Hat opens up possibilities for growth and differentiation in the market.
The Green Hat fuels ideation, and the Blue Hat coordinates this thinking process, ensuring the team remains goal-oriented and organized.
This approach not only enriches the product design but also aligns closely with how STEAM encourages learning—by thinking critically, adapting creatively, and solving problems collaboratively.
Thinking differently is an ongoing element of being a positive manager and leading a business. The Help to Grow Management Programme enables leaders to adopt structured thinking models like the Six Thinking Hats and integrate them into their management practices.
By combining these insights with practical management thinking skills, the programme empowers leaders to tackle complex challenges, drive innovation, and make informed decisions.
