Edward de Bono opens Six Thinking Hats by introducing his foundational framework: six metaphorical colored hats, each representing a distinct mode of thinking, designed to structure group discussion and decision-making by deliberately separating types of thinking that typically occur simultaneously and chaotically in unstructured meetings.

The six hats and their corresponding thinking modes:

• White hat: neutral, objective facts and available information, without interpretation or opinion
• Red hat: emotions, feelings, and intuitive reactions, expressed without requiring justification
• Black hat: caution, critical judgment, identifying risks and potential problems
• Yellow hat: optimism, identifying benefits and value, constructive exploration of positive possibilities
• Green hat: creativity, generating new ideas and alternatives without immediate critical evaluation
• Blue hat: process management, organizing and directing the overall thinking process itself

De Bono's central innovation is having an entire group deliberately adopt the same "hat" — the same thinking mode — simultaneously, rather than allowing different participants to unconsciously operate in different modes at the same time, which he identifies as a major source of unproductive, circular group discussion.