---
title: "Six coloured cards and absolutely no advice"
description: "A simple peer coaching exercise using the colours of the Six Thinking Hats. You do not give ideas, you just hold up a mirror. And it works."
language: en
source: https://coachsteff.live/en/zes-gekleurde-kaarten
---

# Six coloured cards and absolutely no advice

There is one exercise from my creativity workshop that participants almost always take home with them. Not a tool, not an app, not a framework with a long name. Six coloured cards and a strict rule: you are not allowed to give advice.

## How the exercise works

You work in a pair or a trio. One person talks about an idea or a challenge they are working on. Something real, not a made-up case. The other listens, holding six coloured cards.

Those colours come from the Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono. White stands for facts and what you do not know yet. Red for feeling and intuition. Black for critical thinking and risks. Yellow for opportunities and what is good. Green for new ideas. Blue for the overview: where are we, what is the next step.

While the speaker talks, the listener holds up the card that matches the thinking mode they hear at that moment. Nothing more. No ideas, no tips, no 'have you ever tried to'. At most a question that helps the speaker think further.