Edward de Bono

Six Thinking Hats: make the naysayer argue the optimist's case

Sam recommends Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats, where each 'hat' (white for facts, yellow for optimism, black for devil's advocate, and so on) is a role people deliberately take on. At The Hustle he used it to get the reflexive 'that can't work' person, or a creative, to argue from another seat, which he says improved discussions a lot.

“And so there's the 6 hats of thinking. And one of them's like, the guy, the white hat is focused on facts. The yellow hat is be optimistic. The black hat, be devil's advocate, whatever. And there's like 6 hats. And like, when you're having a discussion, you're like, okay, I hear what you're saying. Can you go ahead and like, tell me, like, if you were an optimist, what would you say about this idea?”

Steal thisWhen someone defaults to 'that can't work,' ask them to argue the optimist's case next.