HOW  MANY HATS DO YOU THINK WITH?

Introduction
Six Thinking Hats is one of the best-known books on creative-thinking and thinking in general. It was written by Edward de Bono who, famously, coined the phrase “lateral-thinking.”
Six Thinking Hats isn’t just a book anymore. It’s a widely-used approach to creative-thinking and thinking in general, whether it be in work (i.e. marketing, design, business development, the arts, scientific discovery and more) or any area of human activity.
Here is an outline of the Six Thinking Hats.

White Hat – Facts & Information. Presenting the facts as they stand, as well as pointing out facts and information that are absent/missing.

Red Hat – Feelings, emotions, gut instincts. Could be used to narrow down ideas when there are too many to analyze. Could be used in a more general sense than this too.

Black Hat – Critical Judgment. Looking for potential weaknesses, problems etc .. As well as looking for mismatches in a line of argument/approach.

Yellow Hat – Positive. Looking for the positives in arriving at the best solution/idea. Not blind positivism. But positivism based on judgment.

Green Hat – New Ideas. Coming up with new thoughts and ideas. It’s about free, open-thinking. Might involve being provocative to stimulate creative thinking. And more.

Blue Hat – The Big Picture. This hat functions as the general facilitator/organizer in the 6-Hat thinking process. It takes the overall approach, keeping an overall sense of purpose/direction.

How many hats do you think with? Which hats are predominant in your thinking? Which hats could you use more?

Here is a sketch of my experience of Six Hats in what I do (I've tweaked the original Six Hats thinking to suit my particular approach to creative-thinking and thinking in general). Mainly digital marketing now, but, also, brand planning.

White Hat
When I think of White Hat in what i do, I like to focus on the word “research”. 
Blogging and online content. Researching content online and offline for blogging and online content in general. Knowing who your audience is. What sort of content they are interested in / would find useful. And ensuring that my content is based on facts and information not just opinions!
Search Marketing. Using tools such as Google Analytics that provide useful information about key words. 
Brand Campaign Research. Carrying out research on the brand, the market place, the competition, and the audience. Usually, there’s no point in a creative team coming up with a creative concept if the creative concept is not rooted, first, on thorough research.

Red Hat
General. In many ways, Red Hat is a even more important with digital marketing than off-line, traditional marketing. Of course, basing your thinking on facts and figures is important. But the internet opens up so many new marketing possibilities, that feelings/emotions/gut instincts and so on have to play a part. Never final decisions that are derived from blind feelings/emotions/gut instincts. But final decisions where feelings/ emotions/gut instincts are used in conjunction with rational/critical thinking – holistic thinking.

Black Hat
General. It’s so easy to come up with an idea or solution that one loves. But with a bit of critical-thinking the idea or solution isn’t as great as we once first thought. We then focus on a new idea or solution (or a redesigned one) and this can be the difference between success and failure.

Yellow Hat
General. When time is running out, I like to focus on this. Sure, if you had more time, you might be able to do better. But when time is running out, then positive decisions are required. And having come to an overall decision (and there’s no turning back for reasons of time/budget) then I like to focus on just getting things done (this – the second point being made here under “Yellow Hat” is more about approach, really, than thinking).

Green Hat
Blogging and online content. Although I try and focus my content on what I think people would want/expect. Sometimes, I think it’s a good idea to offer people things they hadn’t expected/envisaged. In otherwise to offer something really fresh and original (well, try at least ..). In order to do this, Green Hat thinking is essential. Free and  open-thinking.
Social Media. Social media is so prevalent in the internet, that coming up with new approaches is essential. How much more effective your strategy will be, if your approach unique, rather than just copying, all the time, the approach of others.
Brand Campaign Marketing Ideas. Having done your research about a brand (the brand itself, the audience, the market place, the competition, and so on), you want to try and aim for an idea that goes beyond the facts and figures. In other words you want to come up with a great idea that is rooted in facts and figures (as opposed to a great idea based on blind chance) but that is not restrained by them. This involves open, free thinking.
Online Business Development. The last point in Brand Campaign Marketing Ideas applies in a similar way to coming up with business projects in general on the web.
 
Blue Hat
General. Having a general-use notebook is great for this. A notebook that you can use for coming up with creative ideas, that includes a diary for deadlines, and so on. A central notebook that controls all aspects of the thinking process in general.

Conclusion
I don't always follow the Six Hats approach in creative-thinking or thinking in general. But it can be useful to adopt – in big and small scenarios. There's certainly something useful to be gained from it in general, I think.

@rd7765

De Bono's ideas are interesting, i think. And more than just that, he presents them in a neat and tidy way so that you're able to take them away and adopt them, in a practical sense.