Thinking Hats Team Challenge

Before you begin

• Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. There's also more guidance to help you carry out your risk assessment, including examples.
• This activity can be ran during an online session. Take a look at our advice on popular digital platforms, as well as guidance to help everyone to stay safe online.
• Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
• Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help.

Planning and Setting up

• This activity requires “Thinking Hats”. You could assign real hats, or use coloured card sellotaped into cone hats, sports cones, or make simple signs with the hat names written on them. You could also use imaginary hats, but make sure everyone can remember who is what colour and what each colour means.
• The activity also needs a discussion topic. It works well if you choose something meaningful to the group, such as planning an upcoming activity, event, or camp, or solving a challenge the group is facing. Choosing a topic that matters to the group will help make the discussion more engaging and support their learning.

Running this activity

1. Gather the group and talk about what makes a great leader. Ask the group to think about:
   
   • What qualities do great leaders have?
   • How do they present themselves?
   • How do they talk to and support others?
   • What kinds of things do they teach or share?
   • How do leaders take into account what other people say?
2. Explain that when making decisions, people often think in different ways – some focus on facts, others on risks, creativity, or feelings. Understanding these perspectives helps teams make better, fairer decisions.
3. Tell them that in this activity they'll all be wearing "Thinking Hats". Each hat represents a different type of thinking:
   
   • White Hat – Facts: Focus only on the information and data.
   • Red Hat – Feelings: Focus on emotions, gut reactions, and instincts.
   • Black Hat – Risks: Think about what might go wrong or the challenges.
   • Green Hat – Creativity: Focus on new ideas, solutions, and possibilities.
   • Yellow Hat – Positivity: Look for the benefits and reasons to be optimistic.
   • Blue Hat – Organisation: Keep the group on track and make sure everyone’s voice is heard.
4. Choose a decision or problem for the group to explore. You could pick a real situation (such as planning a camp or solving a group challenge) or use an example scenario.
5. Ask everyone to move to the colour of hat they feel most comfortable with or identify with. If people can’t decide, they can be assigned a hat.
6. Give everyone about 5–10 minutes to discuss within their hat groups, but remind them that they should only using the type of thinking represented by the hat they have. 
7. Once each group has shared their ideas, bring everyone together and hear from each group in turn. Ask participants what they noticed or found interesting.
8. Next, assign people a new colour hat—one they might not choose themselves, or assign it randomly. 
9. When forming new groups, you can either continue with the same-hat colour groups or reorganise into mixed groups to see how it affects decision-making.
10. Choose a new decision topic for everyone to discuss and allow another 5-10 minutes. 
11. Once the time is up, ask people: How did it feel to work with a different coloured hat? Was changing your hat difficult? How did it feel different? Did it make the discussions harder or easier?
12. You could repeat this until everyone has experienced every hat.
13. Finish by highlighting: One of the great things about using different hats is that it shows how everyone thinks in different ways. Some people focus on facts, others on risks, feelings, creativity, or positivity. When a group combines all these perspectives, decisions are usually stronger, fairer, and more balanced. Different ways of thinking can challenge ideas, spot risks, and inspire new solutions – and that’s what makes teamwork and leadership so effective!