Giving and receiving feedback is always an awkward and sometimes difficult process, especially if it’s negative. Luckily we have people like Edward de Bono, who created the Six Thinking Hats system to guide us through this awkward procedure, and it’s also three decades old, which means it works, right…?

De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats is a system designed to inform and guide group discussion and individual thinking. The main benefit of this system is that it follows an easy metaphor: hats. Hats are easy to put on and off and therefore the notion of a thinking hat lends itself to spontaneity and reversibility. Each of the six thinking hats is a different colour and each different colour corresponds to a different thinking ingredient. We have the blue hat for process, the white hat for facts, the red hat for feelings, the green hat for creativity, the yellow hat for benefits and the black hat for cautions.

Having a different hat for each thinking ingredient allows for each person’s view to be heard, but to be channeled in effective and directed ways. It also allows for criticisms to be openly aired and heard without the usual defensive reactions.Using the Six Thinking Hats is extremely important within creative fields as these fields often require high amounts of group interactivity as well as continual criticism and reworking. Learning how to use these hats in an efficient way enables the creative individual to not only learn from their mistakes but to find their own voice.

When using the Six Thinking Hats system within our workshop, I noticed that most people found giving complimentary feedback easy, but as soon as it came to giving the denoted negative feedback or ‘what you didn’t like about the piece’ people struggled. This is most likely exaggerated by the fact that we as students have just begun interacting with one another, barely beginning to learn each others names, therefore people are hesitant to be negative or critical straight off the bat. However, I think over time and through continued, forced use of this method, the majority of the class could  learn to openly give opinions, without the usual fear of social repercussions.

Catch you later, Louise Alice Wilson