The Thinking Styles questionnaire is a short, ipsative questionnaire that maps the preferred thinking styles of team members. Thinking Styles are highly applicable in team building to communicate more effectively with one another and collaborate better. By thoroughly understanding how team members think, you can improve their contributions to decision-making. The questionnaire is based on Edward de Bono’s model of thinking styles. De Bono identifies six thinking styles, namely:
White:Pure white thinking, in the form of facts, figures and information.
Yellow:Sunshine, brightness and optimism: positive evaluation, constructive contributions, spotting opportunities, why something will work (also: opportunism).
Red:Emotions and feeling judgements, hunches and gut feelings (intuition).
Green: Fertility: creativity, innovation, new insights, movement, provocation.
Black: Warning against risks and pitfalls. Why something will not work (pessimism).
Blue: Detachment and control: the conductor of thinking, thinking about thinking.
De Bono uses the term Six Thinking Hats for his model, which is registered as a brand name. Incidentally, the origin of this model is claimed by the School of Thinking, where De Bono worked.
Sample question Thinking Styles
Application The Thinking Styles questionnaire is highly suitable for team building to communicate more effectively with one another and collaborate better. By thoroughly understanding how you think, you can improve your contribution to decision-making. There are many enjoyable team-building exercises for recognising and applying these thinking styles. This questionnaire is used in coaching, organisational development and as a supplement to assessments. In coaching, Thinking Styles serves to raise awareness of the preferred thinking style and its effect on decision-making. In organisational development towards more effective decision-making, the model has also proven its added value.
Sample graphic display of results
Sample textual display of one of the Thinking Styles
Quick Facts Language NL | EN Norm group Advice Time 10 minutes Credits 60 Reliability 0.87
