The European Union has declared 2009 to be the year of Creativity. On December 5th. I was officially appointed ‘Ambassador for Thinking’ for the European Union. Among other things I shall be issuing a monthly ‘World Thinking Report’. There may be occasional extra reports as required.
In my first thinking report I indicated that the major problem facing the earth and humanity is the inadequacy of our thinking. This is a problem even bigger than climate change. It is a huge problem because no one notices it as a problem. This is because we use our existing thinking to judge our thinking.
For religious reasons (Middle Ages etc) we developed a type of thinking concerned with ‘discovering the truth’. This is excellent but not enough. We also need the thinking concerned with ‘creating value’.
This year a new book of mine will be published with the sub-title “23 Reasons Why World Thinking is so Poor”.
I am also introducing a new and much needed word. This word is ‘ebne’ which means ‘excellent but not enough’. The rear left wheel of a motor car is ebne. The existing leg of a one legged man is ebne. Our thinking is ebne.
Too often people think of creativity as being concerned with new products, new services and new markets. All of these imply a risk factor. So in difficult times people tend to reduce their creative efforts.
It could be argued that in difficult times there is more need for creativity than at other times. There may be new situations to consider and new problems to solve. Too often it is forgotten that one of the main outcomes of creativity is ’simplification’. This may reduce costs, manpower etc. The current way of doing things may not be the best. There may even be operations which can simply be dropped. In my book on Simplicity I suggest dropping passport control on leaving the UK. Three months later this was dropped. I cannot prove any connection.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.
There are at least two key functions in any organisation. The first function is continuity. This means keeping things going as they are going. That includes solving the problems that arise and interfere with the continuity. Most executives see this as their main function. Keep things going as is expected of them. Solve the problems that arise.
The second function is that of change and growth. Occasionally this function is included in the first one. If the market is growing then continuing to do the same thing means growth as well. Often, however, this second function is different and requires a more creative sort of thinking. The first function may be led by the chief operating officer.
The second function should be led by the chief executive. Too often, however, the chief executive is too busy with the first function to have much time, energy or motivation to attend to the second function. In any case he, or she, has reached the chief executive position by being excellent at the first function. There may have been no experience at all in the second function.
Edward de Bono, 1st December 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 http://www.indigobusiness.co.uk and be trained by an officially recognised de Bono Master Trainer.
There is a growing tendency for corporations to feed all available data into a computer. The computer analyses the data and this shapes the strategy of the corporation and makes decisions. This is a dangerous tendency because thinking is locked into the old concepts which form the basis of the analysis.
There is a need for creative thinking in order to look at information in different ways. This is quite separate, and additional, to the use of creativity to find new ways of using the data.
There are examples of medical research which seems to prove a point but only because the original data has been assumed to be one thing when it was actually another. Does smoking cannabis produce schizophrenia or do people with a schizophrenic tendency enjoy smoking cannabis more than others?
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.
As I have mentioned so often the word ‘creativity’ in English is too broad and ranges from creating a mess to painting a masterpiece. The emphasis is on ‘bringing something about’.
At the same time repetition does not qualify. So there is an element of ‘new’. The element of change is not sufficiently covered. Nor is there creativity if there is perception - the way you choose to look at things in different ways. There is also the problem that for some people creativity means different for the sake of difference - with no other value. Further, the word ‘creative’ describes a result not a process. That is why there was a need for the term ‘lateral thinking’ - which is also directly related to the way the brain forms asymmetric patterns.
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.
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.
You may trust a person’s honesty - but can you trust that person’s intelligence? This may have some relevance to the current credit crunch or banking crisis. We can pick out at least five factors contributing to the problem and reflecting habits of thinking.
If everyone else is doing it - it must be alright. Who wants to be left out?
If you spread the risk among a large number of people that reduces the risk. Probably true but not if all the people fall into the same bracket (sub-prime borrowers). That is no longer a diversified risk.
A mortgage is usually a very safe loan because there is the real value of the house that is being mortgaged. But if the mortgage is securitised and fractionated, no one knows who owns which assets.
Once a market starts to decline in value there is an incentive to drive it further down in order to buy at a lower level in a market that is sure to recover one day.
Bonuses and incentives for short term performance tend to ignore long tem risky behaviour.
My most recent book is “Six Frames for looking at information” (Ebury Press, part of Random House). We are surrounded by ever more information. How do we look at information?
It is like being thrown into a swimming pool of information. How do you swim? What strokes do you use?
Once you have learned the frames they will become second nature to you as you look at any information.
Each of the frames has a different shape (square, heart shaped, triangular etc|). These shapes will come into your mind as you adopt that type of information scan.
“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
Because we often consider ‘thinking’ to be problem solving we do not think much about matters which are not problems. If there is a wide open road ahead of us we do not stop to consider the side roads. This is what I call ‘blocked by openness’. Many things continue because they are reasonably satisfactory so we never think any more about them. A classic example is democracy which is full of faults and limitations but can never be challenged. I can think of at least four ways in which democracy could be greatly improved.
Whose business is it to think about things which are not problems? EDWARD DE BONO - September 2008.
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