Complacent, adequate, sufficient all imply that something is not wrong or bad. Our normal language and thinking behaviour does not have a convenient way of saying: “That is excellent but not enough”. Or we might need to say “That is excellent but that is only part of the picture”.
When I talk about the need for better thinking people often assume that I am attacking existing thinking as being wrong. It is not wrong. It is only wrong when it assumes that it is sufficient. We need to add perceptual thinking, creative thinking, design thinking and exploratory thinking.
The media, and especially the press, are usually full of negative news: murders, attacks, economic failures etc. It may be that experience has indeed shown that negative matters are of more interest to readers. Even if this is so, I believe that at least one page of positive news would be welcomed by readers. Readers would turn to this page - even if they found the negative stuff more interesting. Editors might agree with me. Then they would ask where positive stuff is to come from. Negative stuff comes easily from the police or the law courts. But where is the source of positive stuff.
So my suggestion is that someone sets up a ‘Positive News Agency’. This would be a news agency like Reuters. It would collect positive news and make it available on demand.
I was in Prague on January 7th for the launch of the European Year of Creativity, 2009. The CzechRepublic has the presidency of the EU for the first half of 2009.
As usual, one of the big problems facing creativity is the inability of language to distinguish between artistic creativity and idea creativity. Both involve creating something new which has value. The practical problem is that the Year of Creativity may tend to focus on artistic creativity because it is better known. That is unfortunate because the world needs creative thinking more than even before. Many problems facing the world are not easily solved with our existing thinking. I am very much in favour of artistic creativity but we do need idea creativity.
It may be that people still believe that nothing can be done about creative thinking and that we just have to wait and hope for new ideas. That attitude is very old fashioned but still prevalent. Many people just do not know that there are formal and deliberate ways of creating new ideas - such as the tools of lateral thinking. I encourage anyone reading this message to write to your government and the European Union to emphasise the need and possibility of creative thinking.
It is indeed a move in the right direction that the EU has appointed me ‘Ambassador for Thinking’ for the year of creativity.
Edward de Bono - is the worlds leading authority on the use of creative thinking in business. To learn Dr de Bono’s revolutionary thinking tools, join us at http://www.indigobusiness.co.uk and be trained by an officially recognised de Bono Master Trainer.
When the property market is falling buyers tend to wait until it falls further. Why buy now when you can get a lower price in a few months’ time? So the market falls further because some people need to sell and lower their price.
We could create a new type of contract. You sell at today’s price but contract with the buyer that in a year (or two years) if the house price index has fallen by a further twelve per cent then you refund that twelve per cent to the buyer. There is now no point in waiting. So the market stops falling and you may not have to refund anything. This could be a new type of contract which anyone could be free to use.
Edward de Bono
3rd November 2008
Edward de Bono - is the worlds leading authority on the use of creative thinking in business. To learn Dr de Bono’s revolutionary thinking tools, join us at www.indigobusiness.co.uk and be trained by an officially recognised de Bono Master Trainer.
“I understand the year 2009 has been announced as the EU Year of Creativity. I hope this is going to include creative thinking and not just the arts.
I have offered to give a free seminar in Brussels to EU personnel in order to indicate what can be done about ‘idea creativity’. I also intend to set up a Palace of Thinking which would hold periodic meetings to generate new ideas on specific subjects. This Palace would be in Malta, if the government can make available a suitable palace. Otherwise, in whichever country offered a suitable Palace.”
Do you want to learn the de Bono Thinking Methods? Learn why Six Thinking Hats and Lateral Thinking for business have become global business improvement techaniques; for full de Bono training workshop details go to: http://www.indigobusiness.co.uk/workshops/index.php
The answer is very obvious. People like to know where they are going. It would also be impossible to design a new route to satisfy all passengers. Perhaps there could be special bus stops dedicated to certain destinations. If enough people collected at such a stop then a bus would appear and take them there.
For most of our thinking we are very happy to have fixed routes. This allows us to predict effects and actions. We design a way to get to our required destination by combining known routes. This is what technology is all about. Architects rarely design new windows or new arches. They use existing ideas in new combinations. There is very little opportunity, or even need, to invent everything from scratch.
Indigo are authorised distributors for Dr Edward de Bono’s training techniques. If you, your team or your whole organisation wish to be trained in Dr de Bono’s Thinking Skills, call Indigo on 020 7924 8760
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