Improving Your "Six Hat" Strengths
Remember that the different cognitive modes ("Hats") are not personality types (fixed and unchanging). They are skill sets that can be improved through practice. The goal of your "ranking" exercise is to identify your current relative strengths (so you can leverage them, and perhaps ensure that your career path matches them), but also your relative weaknesses (so you can get better at them). Here are some strategies for doing that - in the spirit of symmetry, I'll aim for 3 suggestions for each Hat.
Strengthening the White Hat
Since the White Hat involves the ability to observe and remember facts and details, the various "memory strengthener" games and software programs on the market (like "Brain Builder" - see http://www.brainbuilder.com/) are good for strengthening the White Hat through targeted practice. In the simplest of these activities, you look at a complex picture (like a snapshot of a roomful of unrelated objects) for 30 seconds, turn the picture over, and then try to remember as many of the objects as you can.
Another way is to try to build a strong factual case for something without offering any analyses or interpretations - "just the facts". Pretend you are the designated researcher for a debate team, and your job is to present concrete information to other team members without skewing that information by means of your own (premature) interpretation or bias. Work on getting your facts straight and documenting the sources of your information.
You might also try balancing your checkbook to the penny every month, not being satisfied until you have rooted out and accounted for even tiny errors. You'll learn that using the White Hat requires patience and persistence.
Strengthening the Red Hat
Since the Red Hat involves the ability to recognize, and respond empathically to, emotions (yours and other people's), you need to begin with developing a good "emotional vocabulary". Unless you can put feelings into words in a nuanced way, you can't improve your Red Hat skills very much. A good way to develop your feelings vocabulary is to purchase, and use, a "feelings poster" - as depicted below.
Practice reporting your feelings each day (to a friend or in a private journal) using as precise a set of emotional terms as you can.
Also learn the rules of "active listening" (for a brief overview, see http://www.colorado.edu/conflict/peace/treatment/activel.htm) and practice them. Learn how to respond within the other person's frame of reference.
Finally, be sure to let your "inner toddler" out regularly in a controlled way (especially if your normal style is one of disparaging or suppressing emotionality and of seeking stoic control over your behaviors).
Strengthening the Green Hat
Since the Green Hat involves the ability to think creatively and "laterally" - outside the box - it's helpful to recognize the common roadblocks to creativity. The most common roadblock is the fear of negative evaluation from others that might lead to embarrassment. An obvious antidote to that is to practice acting foolishly - on purpose - in low-risk situations. By making a fool of yourself in public intentionally (when appropriate), you'll discover that the risks are far fewer than you might have anticipated. Remember De Bono's dictum, "Often, the only intellectual stepping stone between an unsolved problem and a brilliant solution is a dumb idea."
It's also useful to increase your storehouse of seemingly irrelevant information, since creativity involves making unanticipated (lateral) connections between ideas that don't have any obvious association. Each month, read a book that you think won't interest you or that advocates a set of ideas with which you disagree. Try something new each week (even if it's just driving to school by a different route or brushing your teeth starting on the opposite side of your mouth from where you usually do). Have an in-depth conversation with someone who is different from you in some obvious way and try to mentally enter their world. Pretend you're preparing to be a contestant on Jeopardy, where you have to know at least something about almost everything (not just your ordinary, narrow circle of interests and concerns).
Finally, use humor as your ally. There's a strong mental connection between the "ha-ha" of humor and the "aha!" of creative insight - the same brain pathways are involved. In brainstorming, break the ice by generating some deliberately stupid ideas. Or use the random-trigger method - get a list of random words, close your eyes and pick one by pointing, and then force an association between that word and the problem you're trying to solve.
Strengthening the Yellow Hat
Since the Yellow Hat involves the ability to identify assets and advantages of a proposed course of action, begin by strengthening your "optimism muscle". Try playing the "Glad Game" for a week (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollyanna): for every seemingly negative experience you have, force yourself to identify at least one potential advantage or upside to that event.
Another good strategy is to acquaint yourself with the literature on resilience and to identify your own coping strengths. Check out Seligman's Web site at http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx and take the "Signature Strengths Questionnaire". (If you can't get into the site for some reason, email me and I'll give you a list of the 24 signature strengths, though not the questionnaire, which is copyrighted.)
Finally, when faced with a negative situation, try to exaggerate the negative possibilities until they begin seeming absurd and humorous, even to you. (This doesn't work when you are very stressed, however.) "Oh, no, I got a B on this exam! Maybe that's a downward trend that will ultimately result in getting all Fs! Maybe I'll be kicked out of the university and forced to work for a living! And maybe I won't even be able to get a job! Maybe I'll end up living on the street! And maybe it won't even be a very nice street," etc. This doesn't directly identify the positives, but it does blunt the impact of excessive negativity, which can otherwise impair Yellow Hat thinking.
Strengthening the Black Hat
Since the Black Hat involves the ability to identify potential problems and difficulties - the "down side" of a situation - it's helpful to practice, in safe contexts, anticipating difficulties in advance so you can take corrective action or otherwise safeguard yourself. One good way is to play chess (or some other similar strategy game) that forces you to think three or more moves ahead. (Don't pick a video game or other real-time simulation since in these games you are trying to beat the clock, while the Black Hat is best practiced in situations that encourage you to ponder and dig deep.) Especially if you don't enjoy such games or aren't good at them, it's important to practice. Find a partner who is at, or only slightly above, your current skill level.
Even if you hate math, take a math class. More than many other disciplines, math forces you to adopt a step-by-step approach and make sure that you guard for errors at every step. Or try a class in symbolic logic, which forces you to be detailed and systematic about outlining your arguments.
Try to write a structured argument in favor of a point of view with which you strongly disagree (it helps to pick an issue about which you are strongly emotionally engaged - not something about which you are largely indifferent). For instance, if you are strongly against the war in Iraq, write the strongest pro-war essay you can (or vice versa if you strongly favor the war). When you've done your best, ask a strong Black Hat thinker to critique your essay and offer suggestions for doing a better job. Don't take their criticism personally; just listen and say, "Thanks, got it." Then, implementing the instructions, rewrite the essay. When you are done, eliminate half the words without losing any of the important content.
Strengthening the Blue Hat
Since the Blue Hat involves the ability to organize, prioritize, and allocate resources, put yourself in a situation where you are in charge of running a group meeting. Establish an agenda in advance and work to keep the group on task and on track. Monitor deviations from the agenda and tactfully but firmly rein in the deviants. At first, this may feel like herding cats. But keep at it until it becomes more comfortable and you become more effective.
Especially if you don't usually do so, start making to-do lists. Set short-term goals for yourself each week. Pick goals that have a short enough time frame that you have some rational hope of achieving them (or reaching some distinct milestone) within that time period. Experiment with making your lists long enough that you will have to work hard to get things done (and probably won't achieve everything on your list), but short enough that your successes outweigh your failures and you don't get too discouraged. At the end of the week, tally up your progress and let your findings enter in to the next week's list (increase or decrease your goals as needed).
If you are a disorganized person, pick one small area of your home or workplace to organize. Keep it manageable (say, one drawer of your desk). Estimate in advance how long it will take; then allocate twice as long for the task. Do not let yourself get distracted by anything else during this time period; stick to the task at hand. Work quickly and efficiently as you decide what to do with each item (file it, toss it, give it away, finish it). Do not allow yourself the luxury of deciding later or of putting it in a "postpone indefinitely" pile.