Professional Development


5 - The black hat
The brain under the black, or logical-negative, hat is the one that looks for things that don’t fit into its knowledge or experience, that expresses critical judgment, tends to see the glass as half-empty and states the pessimistic point of view. It’s also the person who takes on the role of devil’s advocate with ease, who only sees risks and dangers, who can be a fantastic counterpoint in a meeting or when working in a team by putting the negative elements on the table. Although it argues and uses logic, it is ruled by emotions rather than data. The type of expressions we can expect from the black hat include: “well, my estimates are different and worse than the figures you are presenting;” “What if what we think is going to happen doesn’t actually happen?;” “What will happen if we don’t get there on time?” We could say that the context in which the black hat operates is to express the reason why something may not work.