My business partner is a “half empty” type person and I’m a “half full” type. Help!

My business partner is a “half empty” type person and I’m a “half full” type. How can we have constructive conversations?

The best business partnerships are when two quite different people come together bringing a wider range of skills and perspectives to the business than could be brought by a single person.

But those differences can also make working together, as business partners, tough.

A business I know well – let’s call it Magenta – is owned by two people who are at opposite ends of the “optimistic” spectrum. On the one hand Jack is a “glass-half-full, it’ll be right” type and doesn’t ever get concerned about falling revenues, rising prices or a skinny bank account. His partner Felix on the other hand is a born worrier, he sees doom and gloom in everything and can’t be happy even in bumper years.

Over time the relationship between Jack and Felix became increasingly tense. Jack ignored Felix’s concerns because, as he said, “Felix was always anxious and the issues never amounted to anything” and Felix thought that Jack didn’t take the business seriously because of his “it’ll be right” attitude. Jack and Felix no longer trusted each other’s judgement and it was seriously impacting the business.

To help Jack and Felix listen to each other and discuss the business constructively we started using Edward De Bono’s fabulously simple and effective way of thinking; the Six Thinking Hats.

Essentially the six thinking hats is a tool to separate thinking into six distinct categories. Each category has a coloured metaphorical “thinking hat” and by mentally wearing and switching “hats” you can easily focus or refocus thoughts.

Although there are six hats, Felix and Jack used just two: the yellow “bright and optimistic” hat and the black “judgemental and pessimistic” hat.

They didn’t just mentally switch hats. Instead they bought two yellow Bob the Builder-style hats and two black berets and wore them during their conversations. On every matter for discussion they would put on their yellow hat – to discuss the issue optimistically and then put on their black hat – to play devil’s advocate.

The hats worked. Jack and Felix started to think in terms of both points of view, enabling constructive discussion instead of instant polarisation. And they were even able to laugh about it – teasing each other for their black hat/yellow hat demeanour. Laughing about it took the tension away and Jack and Felix started working together better than ever.

In fact the hats worked so well that “yellow hat” and “black hat” have become company lingo that everyone understands. You might want to try it too.

Julia Bickerstaff’s expertise is in helping businesses grow profitably. She runs two businesses:Butterfly Coaching, a small advisory firm with a unique approach to assisting SMEs with profitable growth; and The Business Bakery, which helps kitchen table tycoons build their best businesses. Julia is the author of “How to Bake a Business”  and was previously a partner at Deloitte. She is a chartered accountant and has a degree in economics from The London School of Economics (London University).