Seventh Thinking Hat: Grey for Wisdom

Seventh Thinking Hat: Grey for Wisdom

Educator Michael Hewitt-Gleeson has suggested to add a 7th thinking hat: the Grey Hat for Wisdom.
Why the colour grey? Grey-haired seniors due to their time on earth gather a lot of wisdom, a combination of knowledge and experience. The brain is often referred to as "grey matter". Grey denotes a fuzziness, not crystal clear, but somehow you know it's the right thing to do.
It is different than White Hat thinking which is about data and information. Grey Hat thinking is meta-cognition with context.
It's different than Black Hat thinking which is about judgment and risk. Grey hat thinking is the ability to look back over history and to see forward into the future. To understand cycles, passages of time, the passing of fashions, eras, eons and the many possible futures including extinction, the possibility of no future at all. The long-term wisdom of Grey Hat Thinking may also be useful in raising one’s consciousness of Black Swans.
Grey Hat Thinking means the wisdom to want to see and ask for other points of view. It also means the wisdom to be patient, the willingness to listen to others first before expressing one’s own immediate viewpoint.
What do you think? How might you make use of the Grey Hat in your thinking process?

		John Waters Director, United Kingdom
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