The meeting that never ends
Picture the scene: a project is behind schedule, the room is tense, and everyone has an
opinion. One person is worried about the budget. Another is convinced there’s a better way to do it. A third just wants to know the facts. Forty-five minutes later, the meeting ends the way it started – nobody agrees, nothing is decided and everyone’s calendars are full for the rest of the week. If you’ve ever wondered how to run better meetings than this, the answer isn’t a stricter agenda – it’s a different way of thinking together.
It’s a familiar scene that barely registers as a problem anymore. But it is one, and it has a price tag. Research from Grammarly and The Harris Poll’s State of Business Communication study estimates that businesses lose up to $1.2 trillion a year to poor workplace communication, with leaders estimating their teams lose nearly a full working day (7.47 hours) a week to it – around $12,506 per employee, per year (Agility PR Solutions). Unstructured meetings, where discussion loops without resolution, are a major contributor.
An idea that started with a hat
In 1985, Dr Edward de Bono published Six Thinking Hats, a book built on a simple but unusual premise: much of the friction in group discussions doesn’t come from disagreement over facts, it comes from everyone trying to think in a different mode at the same time. One person being emotional, another cautious, another creative, with none of them talking about the same kind of thinking (Six Thinking Hats, Wikipedia).
De Bono’s fix was “parallel thinking”: get everyone thinking in the same direction at the same time, one direction after another, rather than everyone arguing from a different one simultaneously. Each direction is represented by a coloured hat:
- White for facts,
- Red for feelings,
- Black for caution and risk,
- Yellow for benefits,
- Green for new ideas, and
- Blue which manages the process.
When a group “wears” the same hat together, the conversation stops being a tug-of-war and starts being a shared exploration.
How to run better meetings with Six Thinking Hats®
Six Thinking Hats®: a practical, one-day workshop where teams don’t just learn about the six hats, they practise applying them to real workplace scenarios and leave with a facilitation toolkit they can use the next day.
For individuals, the benefits show up quickly:
- A structure for contributing that doesn’t rely on being the loudest voice in the room.
- Permission to separate feelings from facts, so contributing an instinct doesn’t mean being accused of being unobjective.
- A repeatable framework for personal decision-making, not just group discussions.
For the organisation, the impact compounds:
- Meetings that reach a decision instead of circling the same three arguments.
- Reduced dominance by senior or loud voices, because every hat gets equal airtime.
- A shared “thinking language” across departments, so a marketing team and a finance team can run a decision through the same process and reach an agreed outcome.
Saving organisations time, boosting collaboration and decision-making, while giving individuals more confidence to contribute in meetings they’d otherwise sit through in silence.
Ready to turn drag into drive
Six Thinking Hats® is a practical, one-day workshop. You’ll practise the Hats against real workplace scenarios and leave with a facilitation toolkit that turns your next meeting from a drag into a driving force.
If your meetings regularly end without a decision or the same people do all the talking, this is the workshop that fixes it.
Book the Six Thinking Hats® workshop for you →
Enquire about Six Thinking Hats® for a group or team →
