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Spotlight on Edward de BonoSarah Powell

Abstract

Purpose This paper seeks to present an interview with Edward de Bono who is widely regarded asthe father of lateral thinking and a leading authority in the direct teaching of thinking as a skill,describing how his medical background inspired his understanding of the brain as a self-organizingsystem, enabling him to design practical tools for thinking.

Design/methodology/approach The paper uses an interview to explain the development,application and impact of his ideas about thinking and creativity.

Findings Discusses some cultural issues relating to uptake of his ideas, mentions his most recentbook and emphasizes the difference between artistic and idea creativity.

Originality/value Details some of the applications and resultant successes of his thinking skillswork which has been introduced in companies and educational environments in many countriesaround the world. Discusses some cultural issues relating to uptake of his ideas, mentions his mostrecent book and emphasizes the difference between artistic and idea creativity.

Keywords Lateral thinking, Creative thinking, Ideas generation, Training, Education, Negotiating

Paper type Viewpoint

In this issue of Spotlight, Edward de Bono talks to editor Sarah Powell about thedevelopment, application and impact of his ideas about thinking and creativity.

Dr Edward de Bono, a leading authority in the field of creative thinking and directteaching of thinking as a skill, is considered one of the most influential businessthinkers and visionaries in the world (www.edwarddebonofoundation.com). Helectures worldwide and has had faculty appointments at the universities of Oxford,Cambridge, London and Harvard. His teaching in thinking has been sought by

governments, global organizations, and leading international corporations includingMicrosoft, IBM, DuPont, Prudential, Ford, GM, Motorola, Ericsson, Citicorp, Bank ofAmerica, Siemens, Nokia, TATA, Shell and Exxon.

In addition to his business consulting in thinking skills, Edward de Bono workswidely in education and his thinking methods are now mandatory in schools in anumber of countries. Dr de Bono has written over 70 books which have been translatedinto 39 languages. His most recent book is How to Have Creative Ideas 62 Exercisesto Develop the Mind (Vermilion, 2007).

Spotlight

Over the past 38 years you have written over 70 books focusing on the development ofthinking, and notably lateral thinking which you describe as the process of usinginformation to bring about creativity and insight restructuring. What inspired thiswork and how has your scientific background contributed to the development of yourideas and techniques?

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at

www.emeraldinsight.com/0025-1747.htm

This interview first appeared in the April issue of Emerald Now, www.emeraldinsight.com/info/about_emerald/emeraldnow/index.jsp

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Management Decision

Vol. 45 No. 6, 2007

pp. 1058-1063

q Emerald Group Publishing Limited

0025-1747

DOI 10.1108/00251740710762080

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Edward de BonoMy scientific background was essential to the development of my ideas. Mybackground is in medicine as well as in psychology, and it was through medicine whenI was dealing with the complicated system of glands, kidneys, circulation, respiration

and so forth that I derived the principles of self-organizing biological systems. I thenapplied these concepts to the neural networks in the brain and determined that this washow the brain works. This was the inspiration for my key book The Mechanism ofMind.

Professor Murray Gell-Mann, who was awarded a Nobel Prize for his discovery ofthe quark, subsequently commissioned computer experts to simulate its theories andconcluded that they worked exactly as I had predicted. For the first time in humanhistory we could relate thinking and thinking methods to the way the brain works.This book formed the basis for the design of specific tools for lateral thinking, which isformal and deliberate creativity.

SpotlightAs you have developed your thinking ideas, tools and scenarios, have you revised anyof your early conclusions?

Edward de BonoThe answer is no. I would equate the development of my thinking to entering a newuniverse, or a new country. You look around you, there is a lot to see, but the basicthings do not change. You could compare it with the Euclidean geometry which we usetoday, and which was designed more than 2,000 years ago. Fundamentals do notchange.

Spotlight

Your concepts of perceptual, parallel and lateral thinking have had wide-rangingapplications ranging from early years education and the training of young offenders tobusiness and management, and major international events and disaster organization.What do you consider your most interesting or rewarding challenge to date?

Edward de BonoThe applications certainly have been wide. In China five provinces are currentlyconducting a pilot project of our work in schools. If they are pleased with the results,the work will be introduced into four million schools in China. At the same time, Indiahas asked me to provide training in 55,000 schools and in certain provinces my trainingis now mandatory by law. In Venezuela every child has to learn my thinkingtechniques at school. The same goes for the Dominican Republic and a number of other

countries.In terms of challenges, these are more related to getting particular thinking work

incorporated in education and this could be seen more as a political than an intellectualchallenge. But this is what I regard as the biggest challenge because youngsters reallybenefit hugely from learning thinking. In Britain some research with the governmentsNew Deal programme found that when unemployed young people were taughtthinking for just five hours, their employment rate increased fivefold. When violentyoungsters at Hungerford Guidance Centre were taught thinking, the level of criminal

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conviction dropped to less than 10 per cent of what it had been. So this is the challenge to get things which we know and have shown to work better known and better used.

Spotlight

Your thinking methods promote behavioural change and there have been someremarkable recorded impacts on time management, conflict resolution, bottom-lineperformance and creativity in many different environments. Techniques such as SixHats thinking appear deceptively simple yet require the discipline of constant practiceto promote systematic thinking. How is ongoing progress monitored and performanceevaluated?

Edward de BonoThere are thousands of schools and organizations using my techniques and it would beimpossible to monitor all these programmes. However, we do receive feedback bothfrom many of the organizations themselves, and from formal research in schools.

A company in Finland reported that, as a result of using Six Hats training, timespent in multinational project discussions was cut from what used to be thirty days tojust two. At the time of the tsunami in Sri Lanka, when aid agencies failed to agreebetween themselves a common approach, the government invited my trainers toSingapore and, following Six Hats training, they were able to draw up a plan of actionin just two days. The Sri Lankan government has now stipulated that all aid agenciesmust learn this method. Formal research in schools in the UK conducted for the AtkeyOrganization showed that teaching thinking specifically as a subject increasedperformance in every other subject by between 30 and 100 per cent.

SpotlightWhile you have won plaudits for your work from many eminent people and

organizations, in the UK praise has sometimes been more muted and your ideas haveattracted some criticism. Can you suggest why, and do cultural differences play a role?

Edward de BonoWell, I would have to say that there are two words to explain that: jealousy andstupidity. Unfortunately stupidity is the dominant one. Some people simply do notunderstand my work. They have not read the books. They have not been to a seminar.Meanwhile top mathematicians, physicists, Nobel Prize winners, not only accept it,they like it.

What is needed is an attitude of open-mindedness. Some time ago the coach of theAustralian cricket team, John Buchanan, invited me to give a lateral thinking seminarto his team and his management. Since then they have been winning. Now I am not

suggesting that my seminar made them so powerful, but their attitude of saying:maybe theres something we can learn? must help. The same thing occurred inAustralian-rules football. The West Coast Eagles asked me to give them a trainingsession last year, following which they won the championship for the first time inmany, many years. Again there is that attitude that they should listen; that they mightlearn something; that there might be something to explore and that is important.

I see knocking copy as an inability to write constructively. I have not encounteredsuch resistance to or rejection of my ideas anywhere other than in the UK and I have

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worked in Japan, Korea, China, India, South America, North America, Canada... InEurope, Spain is the country which has taken up my work most enthusiastically andthis is reflected in Spanish-speaking countries in South America. Elsewhere in Europe,there has been notable interest in Italy and in Russia.

You have also asked about potential problems coming from differences in language,culture and so on. The reality is the very opposite of what you might think. Takeparallel or Six Hats thinking, for instance. This is very widely used in China and Japanand many other countries where western argument is totally unacceptable. In otherwords, my work is more easily accepted in some of these countries than are other formsof thinking because these cultures tend not to have arguments they think it isextremely rude to disagree and attack people and so on. This means that myprogrammes actually cut across cultures far more than other methods of thinking do.Indeed my first book, The Use of Lateral Thinking, may be new think in Japan whereit sold more copies per head than did Love Story in America.

The adversarial approach to discussion or negotiation, the idea that you focus yourwhole intelligence in trying to prove the other fellow wrong, is just stupid. Let me giveyou a very interesting example. In the USA one of my colleagues has been doingresearch with juries in courts. Using Six Hat parallel thinking with juries, they havebeen able to reach a unanimous decision very quickly. Judges in Michigan andWisconsin were so impressed that they have retained the right to recommend that a

jury be trained in Six Hat thinking.

SpotlightAre your programmes easier to implement in a teamworking environment or in atraditional hierarchical structure, and do differences in language, culture, educationalor values in multicultural environments complicate their introduction?

Edward de BonoWhere there is a hierarchy and a boss who is really enthusiastic, then a lot happensvery quickly and the hierarchical system can be particularly effective. That was thecase with Prudential in the USA. The head of Prudential was enthusiastic about mywork and he introduced it into the company. However, if the corporate leader is notenthusiastic then it is difficult to get anything done in a hierarchical culture. In theory ateamwork culture should make things easier but, unless the programme is takenseriously, it just does not happen. A team might just play around with the ideas andwould be less likely to recognize that they could do things better. So I would say thatfrom my experience, a programme will be more powerful when introduced into a

hierarchical system with a person at the top who recognizes its value.

SpotlightWhile the challenges of globalization and ever increasing competition reinforce theneed for greater emphasis on creativity, has the advent of new communicationstechnology and media, changing and ever faster-paced working practices led tochanges in your training approaches or tools?

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Edward de BonoThere have been no changes in our training approach because it is effective andpersonal. However, you have raised an interesting point. The introduction ofcomputers into schools, while excellent in most regards, introduced the problem that

youngsters start to believe there is no need to think because a computer enables you tosearch and to find the right answer somewhere. This is very dangerous.

SpotlightYour forthcoming book, How to Have Creative Ideas, offers 62 exercises to develop themind and encourage creativity and lateral thinking. Many people assume creativity tobe an inborn talent. To what extent can it be learned and developed, and are the gamesand exercises you have devised more likely to be enjoyed by a certain type of person?

Edward de BonoThere is an important point I would like to make here, which is that language

certainly the English language but most others too I think fails to distinguishbetween artistic creativity and idea creativity. We need to distinguish very clearlybetween the two. I am talking about idea creativity. While many people in the world ofmusic use my work people such as Peter Gabriel, the Pet Shop Boys, the Eurythmics

I am not talking about their artistic creativity. I am talking about idea creativity andin answer to your question: can it be taught?, I would answer: definitely. Its a skill.Its a habit. Some people will be better than others just as they are at tennis and golf;everyone can learn to play but some people are better than others. But idea creativitycan be learned it is not some inborn, magic talent.

Some people will have an inherent propensity to creative thinking. It is all aboutmotivation. It is the difference between enjoying possibilities and only being happywith certainties. Our methods and message are uncomfortable for some people,

whereas a creative person loves exploring possibilities it can be an emotionalexperience.

SpotlightLooking at the many challenges facing the world today, where do you believe lateralthinking could be practised to the greatest potential benefit?

Edward de BonoThis is a very relevant question. There are at least four mathematical reasons why newideas are essential and yet representative bodies like democracies or the UN are unableto generate new ideas because they are a contradiction. Such bodies must represent

current thinking, and new ideas are obviously not current thinking, which means thereis a huge lack in the world of a place or platform for putting forward new ideas. Toaddress this I recently launched a World Council for New Thinking (www.worldcouncilfornewthinking.org). The Councils members include no fewer than sixNobel Prize winners who will be joined by university chancellors and vice-chancellors,editors of significant publications, leading entrepreneurs and CEOs of majorcorporations. Our idea is to provide a very badly needed input of new ideas intoworld affairs.

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There will be no agenda. It is effectively an internet-based platform for makingvisible new ideas. It works at two levels: one, the Council itself; the second, a League ofNew Thinkers. This is open to anyone who wishes to submit ideas. If their ideas aregood enough, they will be invited to join the Council.

From time to time there may be a task force which will seek to generate ideas aboutimportant issues such as employment or Israel-Palestine. . . for example, just supposethat in Israel-Palestine the people were to be allowed to vote in each others elections;there is no way the Israelis would have elected Hamas and there is no way thePalestinians would have elected Sharon... constructive people would be elected on bothsides; and they would find a way of working together.

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