How to Make Good Decisions | Jim Kwik

This is your brain coach, Jim Kwik. You see, I believe that our life is the sum total of all decisions we've made up to this point, but we've never taken a class— rarely have we taken a class on how to make a good decision. So this model I'm going to share with you, you could apply towards making a decision or solving problems, and it's called 6 Thinking Hats. This is the 6 Thinking Hats model, and it's created by Edward de Bono. Edward de Bono. So I'm going to go through and I'm going to outline how this framework works so that you can make better decisions and solve the problems in your life. So what I want you to do is imagine you have 6 hats in front of you. 6 hats in front of you. Now, before we get started and I share with you the colors and functions of these hats, I want you to think about a problem or a decision you need to make. Like what's going on in your mind? What's processing in the forefront or the background of your mind? It doesn't have to be the biggest problem in your life, nor the biggest decision in your life. But I want you to think about a decision or a problem you're facing that you could apply six thinking hats to. Do you have that situation? Okay, good. Now I want you to imagine in front of you on a table there are six hats and they're all different colors. I'm going to go through each of the colors. And I'm gonna talk about their functionality. And because I'm the memory guy, I'm gonna give you a mnemonic tip on how to remember what color represents what function. Now, really what we're talking about when we're talking about 6 Thinking Hats, it's a way to get outside of ourselves to look at a problem or a situation in a brand new way. It allows us to give ourselves permission to go in a different place so we can see the problem or the situation more vividly from different points of views. Mm-hmm. Because the same level of thinking that's created your problem or your situation won't solve it. So how do you do that functionally? Well, with 6 Thinking Hats, it allows you literally to put on a new point of view so you can make a better decision and solve your problems more rapidly and more intelligently. So how does it work? Imagine 6 hats in front of you, and I'm gonna go through the different colors in no specific order. The first color is the white hat. I want you to think about your problem, your situation. I want you to reach out physically and put on the white hat. Imagine you're putting on a white hat, and automatically when you put on that white hat, something magical happens. You start to look at the situation very logically, very logically. The white hat is logic. So for example, you put on the white hat, all of a sudden you're looking at the data, you're looking at the information. I want you to remember What a scientist wears. Scientist is wearing their white lab coat, or a doctor is wearing their white lab coat. Very scientific. I want you to take off the white hat now, place it back on the table, and I want you to pick up the red hat. The red hat. And then put it on with me. You put on the red hat, and automatically now you're looking at this problem and situation from a different point of view. The red hat represents Feelings, emotions. This is where your logical white scientific hat is no longer on, and you're looking at it purely from your gut. You're looking at it as, how does this make me feel? What are the emotions that come up when I think about this problem or this situation? So the red hat is feeling. So you see what we're doing here? We're building a more enriched perception of the situation. Now As a memory aid to help you remember that red is emotions, what can you remember? The red heart, right? The symbol of feelings, the symbol of emotions. Now take off the red hat, place it on the table, and what I want you to do now is put on the yellow hat. The yellow hat. So let's place the yellow hat on our head, and automatically the yellow hat is the optimistic hat. This is where you're looking at the situation or the problem and you're looking at all the things that could go right. Where's the opportunity here? What could go in your benefit, in your favor? That's the yellow hat. Now, to help you to remember that the yellow hat is opportunity, it's positivity, I want you to imagine the yellow sun, the warmth and opportunity, the positivity that comes from the sun, the yellow sun. Very good. Now take off the yellow hat, place it on the table, and I want you to reach for the black hat. Grab the black hat, put it on, and now you're looking at your personal situation and problem, and you're looking at it from the point of view of the critic. You're looking at what could go wrong. You're judging the situation. So the black hat, as you put it on, you're looking at the situation more critically. You're looking at it thinking about what's the downside here? You're judging what could go wrong. And to remind you that the black hat is the critic or the judge, I want you to think about the judge's robes. Imagine the judge's robes. They're all black. And that reminds you that I want you to judge the situation here. This is where you give yourself permission to be a judge or be a critic. Okay, take off the black hat. Now I want you to reach for the green hat. Put it on, and now it's allowing you. It's giving you permission to look at this situation from an opportunity standpoint. What's something that is growing? What's a third opportunity or choice that you're not looking at right now? The green is about growth. It's about looking at other options. And now, how do you remember that? Well, for green, I think of plants. I think of grass. I think of grass growing in new directions. What other possibility do you? have that you're not thinking about now. The green hat is the hat of creativity. Look at this situation and think about all the creative ways that you could solve this problem. Allow yourself to think out of the box. Remember, green grass grows, new growth. And finally, take off the green hat, place it down, and what I want you to do is grab the blue hat. Now, the blue hat usually comes last. The other ones could come in any order. The blue hat usually comes last. Why? The blue The blue hat is kind of like the management hat. The blue hat is listening to all the responses from the other hats, and it oversees everything and makes the final decision. So it listens to what the white hat has to say, it listens to what the red hat has to say, and so on. It sees things from a management standpoint and picks the best course of action. So to help you remember that the blue hat is the management hat, I want you to remember the blue skies. I want you to think about the blue skies that oversees everything else, and that's the one that's going to make the final decision. Now take off the blue hat, put it on the table, and you see the 6 thinking hats on the table. Now, how do you apply this? That problem or decision that you need to be able to solve— what I want you to ingrain here is the power of this tool. The power of 6 Thinking Hats is it allows you mentally to step into somebody else's shoes, because a lot of us are locked into a problem or situation and we're stuck there because we always approach that situation— our health, relationships, career— from one point of view. And that point of view is dominant. And because it's so dominant, you're always making the same kind of decisions and that pattern perpetuates. As opposed to introducing a second hat, Or a third hat, or maybe all 6 hats to be able to look at the problem in a new enriched way. And when you could see it from different points of view, you can make surely better decisions, but it allows you to get out of your own point of view, out of your own way, if you will. My question for you today is, which of the 6 thinking hats do you feel like you wear the most? Which of the six thinking hats do you feel like you wear the most? Are you always the logical white hat person, or are you the black hat critic? You know, kind of like the pessimist that's looking what could go wrong. Are you more the the red hat, always going with your gut and your feelings, and you're so attuned? You wear your feelings, your emotions on your sleeve. Are you the person that's the optimist, and you're always making your decisions on all the great things that could happen from it, and you get burned because you're not looking at what could go wrong? Wrong, right? And so who do you most identify? What color? Place that in the comments. There's so many applications of this. What I want to do is focus on yours. What's keeping you up at night? Is there something at work or at school or in your personal love life, in your health? What's bothering you? Now, if you don't have your situation clearly defined, then you could pause it and you could come back. Now, if you do, let's reach out and put on the white hat. Now, physically do this. Reach out in front of you. Imagine you're putting on the white hat. Now, I'm going to guide you through this. Now you're looking at the situation and you must look at it from a logical standpoint. You're just looking at the facts. So while you're wearing the white hat, I want you to take out your notebook and I want you to write down what comes to you. Stream of consciousness. I want you to write down the science. I want you to write down the facts. Remember, the white hat is like the white lab coat. It's science, it's logic, it's data. So what I want you to do right now is I want you to pause this video and write down all the information from wearing the white hat. Okay, welcome back. Hopefully I'm welcoming you back and you did this exercise. You're not going to learn this by intellectualizing this. You're going to learn it by doing it. Now, I'm going to assume you're doing it with me. I want you to take off the white hat. And now you're no longer logical. You're going to put on the red hat. And the red hat is what? You say it out loud. It's the emotions. It's the feeling. Now you're looking at this situation. This— maybe it's a decision you need to make. And I want you to go with your heart. I want you to go with your gut. I want you to pause this video when you're ready and just check in with your feelings and write them down. Do a little bit of an audit on how you feel about this and how you feel about Situation decision tree number one, or taking this decision. How do you feel in your gut, in your heart? Take a moment, pause this video, and then come back. Okay, welcome back. How did that feel? Check in with your feelings. Look at your notes here. How did that feel for you? Now let's go on to the next hat. I want you to physically take off the red hat, place it in front of you, and what I want you to do is I want you to reach For the yellow hat. And then think about your challenge or your problem, your situation, put on the yellow hat, and immediately when you put on the yellow hat, you look at things in a brand new way. You're looking at all the things that could go right. I want you to pause the video when you're ready and check in with yourself and write all the things that could go right in this situation. All right, welcome back. Now How did that feel as you're checking in with yourself? Now reach for the black hat. Reach for the black hat, and as you place it on your head, think about your situation. And here's the thing, I want you to judge it. This gives you permission to be a critic. What could go wrong here? Look at all the angles of what could go wrong in this situation. Where is the risk? Where could there be damage? Where can you have some kind of drawback? And what I want you to do do while you're wearing the black hat is write all the things that could go wrong in this situation. Where are the drawbacks? What could be negative? What could potentially hurt you? Take a moment and pause this video and write down the things that could not go right. Welcome back, quick thinker. So how was that? Not maybe a fun process. So let's switch hats. Let's take off the black hat Place it down in front of you, and I want you to reach for the green hat. Reach for the green hat and think about your situation. And as you place the green hat on your head, now you're thinking about newness, you're thinking about growth, you're thinking about creativity. What's an option here that you haven't yet considered? As you're thinking about your problem, your situation, you're thinking out of the box, and you're thinking about What else can I do in this situation? So you're writing all the different options. This is one of my favorite hats because this is where you can think about new possibility. What are you not yet considering? What are you blind to right now? What's a 3rd or a 4th or a 5th option? I want you to write those down. Think about 5 options that you could take, decisions you can make in this situation. Pause this video And write them down now. Okay, and welcome back. How was that? What was it like to come up with new ideas, to think in new, different ways? Did you write them down? Good. Now let's get to the final hat. Reach up, grab your green hat, place it in front of you, and I want you to reach for the final hat, which is your blue hat. Your blue hat. Reach for it and place it on your head. So remember, when you're wearing the blue hat, that's your manager's hat. That's the overseer. And as a manager, what you're gonna do in a moment is I'm gonna ask you to pause this video and go back and reflect on the insights and ideas that were generated by your other hats. So you're gonna go in your notes, you're gonna look at what the white hat had to say, what the red hat had to say, what the yellow hat had to say, and so on. And from that point of view, as the manager, you're gonna weigh the pros and cons. You're gonna take all of the feedback and insights you've gotten from these different perspectives, and you're gonna make a decision. You're gonna make your decision based on an enrichment of new information. Are you ready? Pause this video and do this now. Welcome back, quick thinker. How was this experience for you? What did you think about the 6 thinking hats? Did you have a new idea? Maybe a couple of new insights. Do you have a little bit more clarity on the situation? Did you have a breakthrough? Did you come up with your aha? You know what to do now. Now I have a question for you. Are you perfect at something the first time you try it? No, of course not, right? The goal is not to be perfect. The goal is progress. And how do you make progress with anything? You practice it. So I'm going to invite you to practice the 6 Thinking Hats, either to refine your current problem, the same problem or situation, Or to apply it towards something else. So what you could do is be playful with this. If you have a group of friends or family members or teammates that are involved in this decision or in this problem, go around and each of you wear a different hat. Or maybe you're wearing all the same hat and start having conversations. And it allows you— it gives you permission and others permission to be able to see things from a new point of view. And that new point of view will give you a new level of thinking to be able to go beyond your current problem. Now, here's your assignment right now. What I want you to do is in the comments section, if you are willing to share your experience with the 6 Thinking Hats, did you get a new insight, maybe a new idea, or did you get a big breakthrough? Share that with the community so there's learning all around, so you can learn from each other. And with these different examples, we could level up not only our learning, but also our life. So I hope you enjoyed the 6 Thinking Hats. I'm your brain coach, Jim Kwik, and I'll see you in our next lesson.