Interesting Stories

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Three powerful stories

1. In 1976 the Olympics were held in Montreal and cost so much the remaining debt was only paid off by 1993. The financial load on the city was enormous. After that no city or country wanted to host the Olympics. They were held in Russia in 1980, but of course they had a different accounting system. The International Olympic Committee was having trouble finding a city and country host for 1984. When the city of Los Angeles decided they would act as host, stipulation was made that no local funds would be used. Peter Ueberroth, as person in charge of the Los Angeles games, developed a totally new way of thinking about financing the Olympics. For the first time in history, the Olympics made money. Asked how he came up with these new ideas, he attributed the results to Edward de Bono's Lateral Thinking tools.

2 . Life insurance is a very traditional industry controlled by tradition and regulations. One day Ron Barbaro, then chief executive of Prudential Canada, visited a friend who had a terminal illness. His friend indicated he had an insurance policy of $20,000 but it was of little use. Barbaro, a strong advocate and user of the lateral thinking tools, and concerned about the fate of others like his friend developed a whole new form of insurance using Provocation, one of the lateral thinking tools. The provocation he used led to the development of 'living benefits'; any policy holder who falls sick with a terminal illness is immediately entitled to 75 per cent of the benefits that would normally be payable on death. The concept was a big success in the industry and imitated by many. It turned life insurance partially into catastrophic health insurance. Ron Barbaro was soon chosen to be President of Prudential Insurance (USA).

3. In 1983 Australia was about to challenge the United States in the America 's Cup, the famous international yacht race. The United States had held the cup for 130 years having never been defeated. John Bertram, head of the Australian syndicate and skipper of the Australian yacht used Dr. de Bono's lateral thinking tools to redesign the keel and sails of the challenging boat as well as the training methods of the crew. The Australians won! Bertram also indicated in the next challenge race four years later, the Australians did not use the lateral thinking methods. They lost!

What Other Have Said

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What others have said about Edward de Bono's Thinking Tools

"I believe Dr. de Bono's work in teaching people to think may be the most important thing happening in the world today." - George Gallup

"If you haven't heard of Edward de Bono or of Lateral Thinking, perhaps you have been too busy thinking in conventional ways." - Forbes Magazine

"You can do no better than to attend a de Bono seminar." - Tom Peters

"By using Edward de Bono's brilliant concept of 'Lateral Thinking' we were able to revolutionize the insurance industry through 'living needs' policies that allow people to benefit from their life insurance while they are alive." - Ron D. Barbaro, President, the Prudential Insurance Company of America

"At DuPont, we have experienced the power of deliberate, systematic application of the de bono tools to practical problems with remarkable results. for example, Lateral Thinking led to a major breakthrough in process continuity at a fiber plant with a radical altering of basic equipment design, reducing the number of moving parts by 80%." - David Tanner, Founding Director, Du Pont Center for Creativity & Innovation

"The head of research at 3m, an innovative corporation, said that a 90 minute talk by Edward de Bono, ten years before, has had more effect on the thinking of their entire research staff than anything they had done before." - Business Press

"Our key professionals have embraced de bono's creative thinking techniques. they are having a profound impact on the quality of our thinking at IBM." - Jack Smulowitz, IBM

"...I have become a convert. in 'Lateral Thinking' our normally haphazard way of thinking is replaced by a deliberate method that, in a prescribed and systematic way, solves the problems." - Ivar Giaver, Nobel Prize for Physics, Renssalear Institute

"Sad to think how much harm has been caused by the brutal arrogance of rock logic." in a comparison of the rock logic of the present to the water logic of perception proposed by Dr. Edward de Bono in his book, I am right you are wrong: from rock logic to water logic - Professor Dudley Herschbach, Harvard, Nobel Prize for Chemistry 1986

"Lateral thinking helps us to leap from a well traveled neural rut to a more productive side-track whose benefit is seen only in hindsight. his (de bono's) thinking tools are designed to lead us from the vicarious 'why didn't I think of that before?' to the triumphant 'eureka.'" I saw the system work in action at an impasse during a seminar of nobel laureates. when a random word was injected into the discussion (a de bono thinking tool), the problem was quickly solved." - Sheldon Lee Glashow, Nobel prize for Physics, Harvard

"Six Hats systematically provides an opportunity for creativity in an environment that's free of the criticism and confrontation we used to see. this means that everyone can collaborate and build on even the craziest of ideas to come up with creative solutions. it's true, we had great results using Six Hats with qstar (an increase in the efficiency of the development process by 40%), but the long-term impact is even greater. we can repeat our success over and over because of these changed behaviors." - Suzanne Wolfe, Human Resource Director, MDS Sciex

"...our culture is suspicious of any kind of thinking that works in ways other than through logic; and, to a very large extent, logical thinking is the only kind of thinking that is encouraged in our educational system. dr. de bono does well to expose so clearly the faults in a system that places exclusive reliance on one aspect of the mind alone. one hopes that this book (i am right-you are wrong) will be studied and appreciated by those to whom it will be of the most value. - Dr. Brian David Josephson, Nobel Prize in Physics, Cambridge

Six Thinking Hats

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At one time or another, everyone has felt frustrated by inefficient, wasteful meetings. Oftentimes meetings are plagued by divisive arguments, side conversations, lack of preparation, and inaction.

Imagine what might happen if you, your team, department, or entire organization learned specific thinking tools that would instantly eliminate these issues, opening the door to thorough decisions, better communication, and easier problem resolution . . .

Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats methods teach parallel thinking as an alternative to argument. Parallel thinking guides thought processes in one direction at a time so we can effectively analyze issues, generate new ideas, and make decisions. The Six Thinking Hats method helps put our opinions aside so we can focus on a way forward, without argument.

The Six Thinking Hats Training Course is fast-paced, practical, and interactive. Participants learn how to separate emotion from facts, the positive from the negative and critical thinking from creative thinking. Six Thinking Hats Training Course participants leave with tools they can apply immediately.

Who Needs Six Thinking Hats Training?

Anyone who wants to think clearly, objectively, and creatively should attend Six Thinking Hats training.

HR Professionals Project Managers Meeting Facilitators Engineers New Product Developers Team Leaders & Members

Trainers & Consultants Sales & Marketing Professionals Advertising & PR Professionals Patent Attorneys

Where Might You Use The Six Thinking Hats?

Facilitation of meetings Preparing for discussions Continuous process improvement New products / new designs Conflict resolution Decision making and problem solving

Customer focus groups / interviews Leadership development Presentations Virtual meetings Individual thinking

Six Thinking Hats Training Course Objectives and Outcomes

Participants in the Six Thinking Hats course will show evidence of the following:

• A marked tendency to identify themselves as thinkers
• Confidence that they have the ability to cope with and improve their environments
• Competencies enabling them to solve problems including the ability to:
• identify a problem
• propose alternative solutions
• predict the consequences of each alternative
• assess the usefulness of each set of consequences
• select the best alternative
• implement it
• evaluate it
• Competencies enabling them to identify and pursue opportunities including the ability to:
• develop a habit of perceiving events and situations as opportunities
• identify the benefits/desired outcomes of pursuing each opportunity
• identify the risks/dangers of pursuing each opportunity
• design ways to minimize risks and dangers
• select opportunities based on weighing the benefits against remaining risks
• design plans for pursuing a selected opportunity
• assess and reevaluate plans in progress
• Competencies enabling them to think cooperatively including the ability to:
• understand and take on the facilitator role in a group meeting
• identify and articulate other people's points of view
• devise an agenda and demonstrate the necessary discipline to follow it provide for equal participation among group members

Dr.Edward de Bono

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Biography:

Edward de Bono is regarded by many as the leading authority in the field of creative thinking, innovation and the direct teaching of thinking as a skill. He is equally renowned for his development of the Six Thinking Hats® technique and the Direct Attention Thinking Tools? (D.A.T.T.?) framework.

Edward de Bono is the originator of the concept - and formal tools - of Lateral Thinking, which is now a part of language enjoying an entry in the Oxford Dictionary.

Dr. de Bono was born in Malta . He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, holds an M.A. in psychology and physiology from Oxford, a D. Phil in Medicine, a Ph.D. from Cambridge, a D. Des (Doctor of Design) from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology; an LL.D. from Dundee. He holds professorships at the Universities of Malta, Pretoria , Dublin City University , and the University of Central England . The New Univeristy of Advancing Technology in Phoenix , Arizona appointed Dr. de Bono Da Vinci Professor of Thinking in May 2005.

His techniques and work focus on improving the elements that constitute a perception and the formal design and application of the frameworks required towards innovative and creative action. One may easily say that all the recent (past thirty years) focus on thinking, on creativity, on innovation, on frameworks beyond 'x-storming' etc has taken its lead from Edward de Bono's work.

Whereas Rene Descartes propounded "cogito ergo sum' (I think therefore I am), Edward de Bono proposes 'ago ergo erigo' (I act therefore I construct/ act). It is not enough to sit, (talk) and think: Action, together with an intentional design of the thought process, is required to constructively advance towards results and change.

He has written 70 book with translations into 40 languages and has been invited to lecture in 58 countries.

His methods are now mandatory on the school curriculum in many countries and widely used in others. These countries include Australia , New Zealand , Canada , Argentina , U.K. , Italy , United Arab Emirates , Ireland , Spain , Portugal , The Baltic States, Sweden , Denmark , Norway , Singapore , Malaysia , India , China , U.S.A. , Russia . It is compulsory in all schools in Venezuela . In Malta there is a model show-case for the de Bono Thinking Tools within the national Education Department.

The appeal of Dr. de Bono's work is its simplicity and practicality. It can be used by four year olds and by senior executives; by Down Syndrome youngsters and Nobel Laureates.

His instruction in thinking has been sought by many organisations: Boeing, BT (UK), Nokia (Finland), Mondadori (Italy), Sanofi (France), Rolex (Switzerland), Total (France), Siemens (Germany), 3M (Germany), Ericsson (Sweden), NTT (Japan), GM, Kraft (Switzerland), Nestle (Switzerland), Bouygues Construction (France), Bosch (Germany), Goldman Sachs, Ernst & Young and many others.

Dr. de Bono acts as advisor to various Governments, cities, regional Governments and global organisations dealing on a macro level with diverse topics including economy, unemployment, social policy, recidivism, pensions, health care, finance, transportation, education, conflict resolution, judicial processes, foresight scenario design etc.

Dr. de Bono was the Chairman of the Council of Young Enterprise Europe which had a membership of 1,500,000 youngsters across Europe, Israel and Russia who set up mini-businesses whilst at school.

Dr. de Bono established the World Centre for New Thinking which acts as a platform and channel to make visible New Thinking from any source. Democracies and representative organisations, due to their nature, cannot put forward new ideas. By definition "new ideas" are not representative of existing thinking. They are therefore high risk. Such organisations may be perfectly capable of having new ideas but cannot risk putting them forward. The specific function of the World Centre is to focus directly on new ideas and new possibilities: "hypothesis development."

New Thinking

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The basic software of human thinking is backward looking. We analyse the situation and seek to identify standard elements. Such elements arise from our previous experience. Then we provide the standard answer to the standard element.

A child with a rash is brought into the surgery. The doctor has to make a diagnosis. From the signs, symptoms, history and tests, the doctor judges the condition to be measles. Once this standard illness is diagnosed then the probable cause of the illness is known, the possible complications are known and the standard treatment can be given. That is the basis for one hundred per cent of our education and ninety per cent of our thinking behaviour.

The software of human thinking is based on information, analysis and judgement. This is excellent just as the front left wheel of a motorcar is excellent – but it is not enough.

“New Thinking” includes the thinking that concerns the future.

New thinking includes:

• 
  

• Constructive thinking

• Creative thinking

• Design thinking

• Perceptual thinking

You can seek the truth about the past but you cannot have truth about the future. At best you can have “possible value”. For the future, analysis is not enough – there is a need for design.

Yet our whole culture of thinking is about analysis, truth, logic and argument. These are all about the past. New thinking is about the future.

The quality of our future will depend directly on the quality of our thinking.

In conflicts we seek to judge the way forward: the good guys and the bad guys; injustices; fairness; breaching principles etc. There is a need to design the way forward taking into account the fears and needs of all parties.

Information comes in over time. Yet we have to make the best use of the information that we have. In such a system there is a mathematical need for creativity. There is a need to go back and put things together differently. This is not a matter of choice. Otherwise we get trapped in concepts and perceptions that are inadequate.

Research at Harvard shows that something like ninety per cent of the errors of thinking are errors of perception. Errors of logic are rare. If perception is limited or inadequate the outcome will be rubbish no matter how excellent the logic.

Goedel's theorem points out that from within a system it is impossible to logically justify the starting points. Such starting points are arbitrary perceptions and assumed values. There is a need to be able to change perceptions.

The behaviour of self-organising information systems like the human brain demands new ideas and new possibilities. Otherwise we are locked into old patterns. We are also locked into selective perception which forces us to see things only through the old patterns.

Two thousand years ago China was far ahead of the rest of the world in science and technology. This rapid progress came to an end when scholars started to believe that you could move from “certainty” to “certainty”. As a result they never understood the importance of “possibility” and “hypothesis”. Progress came to a dead end. Today we are in a similar situation with the belief that analysis of information is enough.

Representative bodies like democracies and the United Nations cannot put forward new ideas. By definition “new ideas” are not representative of existing thinking. They are therefore high risk. Such organizations may be perfectly capable of having new ideas but cannot risk putting them forward.

There is therefore no existing body on the international level with the specific function of putting forward the new ideas that are so badly needed.