‘Edward de Bono and the Mechanism of Mind’ (Great Minds Series, Vol. 5) is a study that features one of the ...
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
BOOKS BY PETER FRITZ WALTER SOVEREIGN IMMUNITY LITIGATION COACHING YOUR INNER CHILD THE LEADERSHIP I CHING LEADERSHIP & CAREER IN THE 21ST CENTURY CREATIVE-C LEARNING INTEGRATE YOUR EMOTIONS KRISHNAMURTI AND THE PSYCHOLOGICAL REVOLUTION THE NEW PARADIGM IN BUSINESS, LEADERSHIP AND CAREER THE NEW PARADIGM IN CONSCIOUSNESS AND SPIRITUALITY THE NEW PARADIGM IN SCIENCE AND SYSTEMS THEORY THE VIBRANT NATURE OF LIFE SHAMANIC WISDOM MEETS THE WESTERN MIND CREATIVE GENIUS THE BETTER LIFE SERVANT LEADERSHIP CREATIVE LEARNING AND CAREER FRITJOF CAPRA AND THE SYSTEMS VIEW OF LIFE FRANÇOISE DOLTO AND CHILD PSYCHOANALYSIS EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND SHORT BIOGRAPHY, BOOK REVIEWS, QUOTES, AND COMMENTS (GREAT MINDS SERIES, VOL, 5) by Peter Fritz Walter
Published by Sirius-C Media Galaxy LLC 113 Barksdale Professional Center, Newark, Delaware, USA ©2015 Peter Fritz Walter. Some rights reserved. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License This publication may be distributed, used for an adaptation or for derivative works, also for commercial purposes, as long as the rights of the author are attributed. The attribution must be given to the best of the user’s ability with the information available. Third party licenses or copyright of quoted resources are untouched by this license and remain under their own license. The moral right of the author has been asserted Set in Palatino Designed by Peter Fritz Walter Free Scribd Edition Publishing Categories Biography & Autobiography / Business Publisher Contact Information
[email protected] http://sirius-c-publishing.com Author Contact Information
[email protected] About Dr. Peter Fritz Walter http://peterfritzwalter.com
About the Author Parallel to an international law career in Germany, Switzerland and the United States, Dr. Peter Fritz Walter (Pierre) focused upon fine art, cookery, astrology, musical performance, social sciences and humanities. He started writing essays as an adolescent and received a high school award for creative writing and editorial work for the school magazine. After finalizing his law diplomas, he graduated with an LL.M. in European Integration at Saarland University, Germany, and with a Doctor of Law title from University of Geneva, Switzerland, in 1987. He then took courses in psychology at the University of Geneva and interviewed a number of psychotherapists in Lausanne and Geneva, Switzerland. His interest was intensified through a hypnotherapy with an Ericksonian American hypnotherapist in Lausanne. This led him to the recovery and healing of his inner child. In 1986, he met the late French psychotherapist and child psychoanalyst Françoise Dolto (1908-1988) in Paris and interviewed her. A long correspondence followed up to their encounter which was considered by the curators of the Dolto Trust interesting enough to be published in a book alongside all of Dolto’s other letter exchanges by Gallimard Publishers in Paris, in 2005. After a second career as a corporate trainer and personal coach, Pierre retired as a full-time writer, philosopher and consultant. His nonfiction books emphasize a systemic, holistic, cross-cultural and interdisciplinary perspective, while his fiction works and short stories focus upon education, philosophy, perennial wisdom, and the poetic formulation of an integrative worldview. Pierre is a German-French bilingual native speaker and writes English as his 4th language after German, Latin and French. He also reads source literature for his research works in Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Dutch. In addition, Pierre has notions of Thai, Khmer, Chinese and Japanese. All of Pierre’s books are hand-crafted and self-published, designed by the author. Pierre publishes via his Delaware company, Sirius-C Media Galaxy LLC, and under the imprints of IPUBLICA and SCM (Sirius-C Media).
One cannot look in the right direction by looking more efficiently in the wrong direction. —EDWARD DE BONO
The author’s profits from this book are being donated to charity.
Contents Introduction!
9
About Great Minds Series
Chapter One!
13
Short Biography
Chapter Two!
21
Major Training Concepts
Lateral Thinking!
21
The Need for Creative Thinking!
23
Alternatives!
24
Focus!
24
Challenge!
24
Random Entry!
24
Provocation and Movement!
25
Harvesting!
25
The Treatment of Ideas!
25
Six Thinking Hats!
26
Simplicity!
28
Facilitation!
29
Chapter Three!
31
Book Reviews
Review! Quotes! The Mechanism of Mind!
32 34 36
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
Review!
36
Quotes! Serious Creativity!
39 50
Review!
50
Quotes! Sur/Petition! Tactics!
53 60 69
Bibliography!
77
Contextual Bibliography
Personal Notes!
81
8
Introduction About Great Minds Series
We are currently transiting as a human race a time of great challenge and adventure that opens to us new pathways for rediscovering and integrating the perennial holistic wisdom of ancient civilizations into our modern science paradigm. These civilizations were thriving before patriarchy was putting nature upside-down. Currently, with the advent of the networked global society, and systems theory as its scientific paradigm, we are looking into a different world, with a rise of ‘horizontal’ and ‘sustainable’ structures both in our business culture, and in science, and last not least on the important areas of psychology, medicine, and spirituality. —A paradigm, from Greek ‘paradeigma,’ is a pattern of things, a configuration of ideas, a set of dominant beliefs, a certain way of looking at the world, a set of assumptions, a frame of reference or lens, and even an entire worldview.
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
While most of this new and yet old path has yet to be trotted, we cannot any longer overlook the changes that happen all around us virtually every day. Invariably, as students, scientists, doctors, consultants, lawyers, business executives or government officials, we face problems today that are so complex, entangled and novel that they cannot possibly be solved on the basis of our old paradigm, and our old way of thinking. As Albert Einstein said, we cannot solve a problem on the same level of thought that created it in the first place— hence the need for changing our view of looking at things, the world, and our personal and collective predicaments. What still about half a decade ago seemed unlikely is happening now all around us: we are rediscovering more and more fragments of an integrative and holistic wisdom that represents the cultural and scientific treasure of many ancient tribes and kingdoms that were based upon a perennial tradition which held that all in our universe is interconnected and interrelated, and that humans are set in the world to live in unison with the infinite wisdom inherent in creation as a major task for driving evolution forward! It happens in science, since the advent of relativity theory, quantum physics and string theory, it happens in neuroscience and systems theory, it happens in molecular biology, and in ecology, and as a result, and because science is a major motor in society, it happens now with increasing speed in the industrial and the business world, and in the
10
ABOUT GREAT MINDS SERIES
way people earn their lives and manifest their innate talents through their professional engagement. And it happens also, and what this book is set to emphasize, in psychology and psychoanalysis, for Françoise Dolto, while having been a member of the Freudian psychoanalytic school, has created an approach to healing psychotic children that was really unknown to the founder of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. More and more people begin to realize that we cannot honestly continue to destroy our globe by disregarding the natural law of self-regulation, both outwardly, by polluting air and water, and inside, by tolerating our emotions to be in a state of repression and turmoil. Self-regulation is built into the life function and it can be found as a consistent pattern in the lifestyle of natives peoples around the world. It is similar with our immense intuitive and imaginal faculties that were downplayed in centuries of darkness and fragmentation, and that now emerge anew as major key stones in a worldview that puts the whole human at the frontline, a human who uses their whole brain, and who knows to balance their emotions and natural passions so as to arrive at a state of inner peace and synergetic relationships with others that bring mutual benefit instead of one-sided egotistic satisfaction. For lasting changes to happen, however, to paraphrase J. Krishnamurti, we need to change the thinker, we need to undergo a transformation that puts our higher self up as the caretaker of our lives, not our conditioned ego. 11
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
Hence the need to really look over the fence and get beyond social, cultural and racial conditioning for adopting an integrative and holistic worldview that is focused on more than problem-solving. What this book tries to convey is that taking the example of one of the greatest child psychoanalysts of our time, we may see that it’s not too late, be it for our planet and for us humans, our careers, our science, our collective spiritual advancement, and our scientific understanding of nature, and that we can thrive in a world that is surely more different in ten years from now that it was one hundred years in the past compared to now. We are free to continue to feel like victims in this new reality, and wait for being taken care of by the state, or we may accept the state, and society, as human creations that will never be perfect, and venture into creating our lives and careers in accordance with our true mission, and based upon our real gifts and talents. Let me say a last word about this series of books about great personalities of our time, which I came to call ‘Great Minds’ Collection. The books within this collection do not just feature books but authors, you may call them author reviews instead of book reviews, and they are more extensive also in highlighting the personal mission and autobiographical details which are to note for each author, including extensive quotes from their books.
12
Chapter One Short Biography
Edward de Bono has been a think tank, corporate consultant, writer and philosopher of world renown for decades. His creative impact upon business and conceptual planning can’t be underestimated. He has been a corporate consultant for DuPont, Exxon, Shell, Ford, IBM, British Airways, Ciba-Geigy, Citibank—to name a few. Edward de Bono has contributed in a unique, outstanding manner to
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
the progress of education, creative thinking and human resource development and, more generally, the intellectual evolution of humanity. Unlike many other corporate training experts, Dr. de Bono went way beyond the job of a corporate trainer, and is to be considered a true business philosopher and conceptualist. His research on perception and the memory matrix of the human brain has had a decisive impact upon accelerated learning, whole-brain learning, and other new approaches for learning languages, such as Suggestopedia or Superlearning.® I found de Bono’s books at the onset of my career as a corporate consultant, in 1998. At that time, as work notes for myself, I made a quotes collection, and then wrote these book reviews about a decade later, after choosing the career of a full-time writer. However, since then, my interest in Edward de Bono has only increased, despite the fact that I am now working on quite different projects. Dr. de Bono is one of not more than a handful of think tanks who show you how to bring your genius to the world, and earn fame and recognition for your creative contributions to the intellectual brilliance of humanity. Edward de Bono was born in Malta in 1933, studied medicine and became a Rhodes Scholar to Christ Church in Oxford where he gained degrees in psychology and physiology, and a D.phil in medicine. On top of all that, he holds a Ph.D. from Cambridge and an MD from the Uni-
14
SHORT BIOGRAPHY
versity of Malta. He has held appointments at the universities of Oxford, London, Cambridge and Harvard. Dr. de Bono is one of few people in history who can be said to have had a major impact on the way we think. In many ways he could be said to be the best known thinker internationally.
He has written numerous books with translations into 34 languages (all the major languages plus Hebrew, Arabic, Bahasa, Urdu, Slovene, Turkish etc), and has been invited to lecture in 52 countries around the world. In the University of Buenos Aires five faculties use his books as required reading. In Venezuela, by law, all school children must spend an hour a week on his programs. In Singapore more than one hundred secondary schools use his work. In Malaysia the senior science schools have been using his work for ten years. In the U.S.A., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland and the UK there are thousands of schools using de Bono's programs for the teaching of thinking. At the International Thinking Meeting in Boston (1992) he was given an award as a key pioneer in the direct teaching of thinking in schools.
15
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
Edward de Bono has worked with many of the major corporations in the world such as IBM, DuPont, Prudential, AT&T, British Airways, British Coal, NTT (Japan), Ericsson (Sweden), Total (France), etc. The largest corporation in Europe, Siemens (370,000 employees) is teaching his work across the whole corporation, following Dr. de Bono’s talk to the senior management team. When Microsoft held their first ever marketing meeting, they invited Edward de Bono to give the keynote address in Seattle to the five hundred top managers. Edward de Bono’s special contribution has been to tackle the mystical subject of creativity and, for the first time in history, to put the subject on a solid basis. He has shown that creativity is a necessary behavior in a self-organizing living systems. His key book, ‘The Mechanism of Mind’ was published in 1969. In it he showed how the nerve networks in the brain form asymmetric patterns as the basis of perception. The leading physicist in the world, Professor Murray Gell Mann, said of this book that it was ten years ahead of mathematicians dealing with chaos theory, and nonlinear and self-organizing systems. From this basis, Edward de Bono developed the concept and tools of lateral thinking. What is so special is that instead of his work remaining hidden in academic texts he has made it practical and available to everyone, from five years olds to adults. The term ‘lateral thinking’ was introduced by Edward de Bono and is now so much part of the
16
SHORT BIOGRAPHY
language that it is used equally in a physics lecture and in a television comedy.
Traditional thinking is to do with analysis, judgment and argument. In a stable world this was sufficient because it was enough to identify standard situations and apply standard solutions. This is no longer so in our rapidly changing world where the standard solutions may not work. There is a huge need worldwide for thinking that is creative and constructive and can design the way forward. Many 17
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
of the major problems in the world cannot be solved by identifying and removing the cause. There is a need to design a way forward even if the cause remains in place. Edward de Bono has provided the methods and tools for this new thinking. He is the undisputed world leader in what may be the most important field of all in the future: constructive and creative thinking. In 1995 the Malta Government awarded Edward de Bono the ‘Order of Merit.’ This is the highest award available and is limited to only twenty living persons. For many thousands, indeed millions, of people world-wide, Edward de Bono’s name has become a symbol of creativity and new thinking. Edward de Bono founded the International Creative Forum which has had as members many of the leading corporations in the world: IBM, Du Pont, Prudential, Nestle, British Airways, Alcoa, CSR etc. The International Creativity Office was setup by de Bono in New York to work with the United Nations and member countries to produce new ideas on international issues. Dr. de Bono has made two TV series: de Bono’s Course in Thinking (BBC) and The Greatest Thinkers (WDR, Germany). Perhaps what is so unique about Edward de Bono is that his work spans from teaching 7 years olds in primary schools to working with senior executives in the world’s largest corporations. His work also spans many cultures: Europe, North and South America, Russia, The Middle 18
SHORT BIOGRAPHY
East, Africa, SE Asia, Japan, Korea, Australia, New Zealand etc. In September 1996, the De Bono Institute was launched in Melbourne as a world center for new thinking. The Andrews Foundation has donated $8.5 million to make this possible. Edward de Bono is the consummate peripatetic educator! Nearly every week he is in a different part of the world talking to government leaders, educators and heads of industry and business. Some of his key engagements listed below demonstrate the broad appeal of Dr. de Bono’s message: thinking can and should be taught if we are to meet the needs of today’s fast-paced and changing world. July 1994 he was awarded the Pioneer Prize in the field of thinking at the International Conference on Thinking at M.I.T. in Boston. A recent survey by the European Creativity Association of its members showed that 40% consider Dr. de Bono as the greatest influence in the field of creativity. This was far ahead of any other nominee. —In DuPont, we have many good examples of how out technical people have applied Dr. de Bono’s lateral thinking techniques to successfully solve difficult problems. Source: David Tanner Ph.D., Technical Director, DuPont. —The complexity and pace of contemporary life being what they are, de Bono's course should be an essential curriculum for the human race. Source: Alex Kroll, Chairman & President, Yong & Rubican.
19
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
It’s difficult for anyone to put a precise value on Edward de Bono’s work and expertise. His views on thinking and creating are persuasive and cumulative. Jeremy Bullmore, Chairman, J. Walter Thompson Company —Dr. de Bono’s course builds up your thinking skills quickly and enjoyably and you then find yourself using the skills instinctively in approaching all situations. Leaders in every field—from skilled labor to nuclear physics, from manufacturing to selling—have this in common : the ability to think clearly. I’ve seen in my own organization how de Bono’s concepts have triggered ideas, enthusiasm and positivism—at every level of personnel. Source: Paul MacCready, Founder/President Aero Vironment Inc., known as the ‘Father of Human Powered Flight.’ —I definitely know of Dr. de Bono and am an admirer of his work. We live in an information economy, where we have to live by what comes out of our minds. Source: John Sculley, Chairman, President and CEO, Apple Computer Inc. —It is a function of clarity of de Bono’s approach that his thinking course works well with school children or executives. Source: John Naisbitt, Author of ‘Megatrends 2000.’ —We all hang on to assumptions of the past to make conclusions about the future … de Bono teaches us to challenge such assumptions and develop new creative solutions to problems. Source: Philip L Smith, President, General Foods Corporation —Lateral Thinking … really transformed my approach to business problems. Source: A. Weinberg, Management Consultant, NYC
20
Chapter Two Major Training Concepts
Lateral Thinking Lateral Thinking is a way of thinking that seeks a solution to an intractable problem through unorthodox methods or elements that would normally be ignored by logical thinking.
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
Edward de Bono divides thinking into two processes. He calls one ‘vertical thinking’ that is, using of logic, the traditional-historical analytical method. The other, however, he calls ‘lateral thinking,’ which involves disrupting an apparent sequence and arriving at the solution from another angle. From a practice point of view, many leader today believe that when you are faced with fast-changing trends, fierce competition, and the need to work miracles despite tight budgets, you need ‘lateral thinking’ in order to get at new, creative solutions and forge new strategies. Developing breakthrough ideas does not have to be the result of luck or a shotgun effort. De Bono’s proven methods provide a deliberate, systematic process that will result in innovative thinking. Creative thinking is not a talent, it is a skill that can be learnt. It empowers people by adding strength to their natural abilities which improves teamwork, productivity and as a result, more profit. Today, better quality and better service are essential, but they are not enough. Creativity and innovation are the only engines that will drive lasting, global success. Our minds are trained to find typical and predictable solutions to problems. Lateral thinking will also helps with strategic planning and thinking outside the box of everyday issues.
22
MAJOR TRAINING CONCEPTS
The Need for Creative Thinking Here are some particular thinking strategies or methods that have been derived from Edward de Bono’s main teaching. They are to be found on his website, under the ‘Training’ header. 23
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
Alternatives
For gaining new ground and breed new ideas, we need to brainstorm for alternative solutions. Sometimes we do not look beyond the obvious alternatives. Sometimes we do not look for alternatives at all. The method shows how to extract the concept behind a group of alternatives and then use it to generate further alternatives. Focus
When and how to change the focus of our thinking? The discipline of defining our focus and sticking to it. The attitude of focusing on matters that are not problem areas. Challenge
Breaking free from the limits of the accepted ways of operating is crucial in creative thinking. Finding new solutions is always a challenge, for the the present way of doing things is not necessarily the best. Challenge thus is not an attack or criticism. It is rather the willingness to explore the reasons why we do things the way we do and whether there are any alternatives. Random Entry
Random entry is used in a game-like setting, for brainstorming purposes. It helps gaining new insights through using unconnected input to open up new lines of thinking.
24
MAJOR TRAINING CONCEPTS
Provocation and Movement
Generating provocative statements and then using them to build new ideas is the focus of this method. It is set to explore the nature of perception and how it limits our creativity. The various techniques are designed to challenge these limitations. Movement is a new mental operation that we can use as an alternative to judgment. It allows us to develop a provocative idea into one that is workable and realistic. Harvesting
At the end of a creative thinking session one takes note of specific ideas that seem practical and have value. We need to also make a deliberate harvesting effort to collect ideas and concepts that are less well developed, for they can be improved later on and may contain valuable new insights. The Treatment of Ideas
How to develop ideas and shape them to fit an organization or situation? The aim is for you to leave the workshop with skills you have practiced and can apply immediately on return to your home or workplace.
25
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
Six Thinking Hats
People are seeking quality everywhere except in the most important area—the quality of thinking. We need better thinking methods in order to make full use of our available intelligence and experience. As organizations reduce the number of people employed, they need to get the maximum benefit from those remaining, including the maximum output from their thinking. 26
MAJOR TRAINING CONCEPTS
Current thinking is dominated by adversarial thinking, which is a form of thinking based on the idea that there is always conflict in the world. Consequently, the mode of discussion revolves around argument, the purpose being to defeat your opponent and by doing so discover the truth. Adversarial thinking serves a purpose. However, it is not the only way of thinking and in some circumstances it has limitations. Six Thinking Hats offers a practical alternative. It encourages not adversarial but cooperative thinking, exploration and innovation. It is often assumed that intelligence goes hand in hand with thinking. In fact, very intelligent people are in danger of becoming poor thinkers. This is because they fall into the intelligence trap. That is, they use their intelligence to entrench themselves in support of one point of view. Even though you have a fantastic sports car you may be a poor driver. Similarly those with excellent minds may use them inadequately. Thinking and driving are skills that can be taught and improved upon. The Six Thinking Hats Workshop is a powerful one day ‘hands-on’ training to help business executives break out of their ‘thinking ruts’ using techniques found in Dr. Edward de Bono’s landmark book ‘Six Thinking Hats.’ I have conducted Six Hats training for for a major hotel chain in Singapore, back in 1998, and this opened my eyes to the gruesome lack of creativity at the department head level in that 5-star hotel. Working for other clients, I subsequently found out that my experience was not an exception, and I 27
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
became aware of all the emotional blockages people get stuck with because of our completely inadequate school systems. The Six Thinking Hats is an extremely simple and powerful training method. This powerful simplicity, together with the practical nature of the method, has led to its adoption by major corporations, among them IBM, NTT, Bell Canada, Federal Express, Eli Lilly, BA, BAA and Rockwell International.
Simplicity Business strategies should be simple enough so that the return on investment is not impaired by unnecessary and widely ineffective bureaucracy. This seems to be obvious but it is neglected even in major companies today. To increase simplicity means to remove age-old roadblocks and barriers that are the result of following traditional methods and procedures without questioning their effectiveness, thus the result of keeping things simple is more employee and customer satisfaction. Free employees get to think through new ideas more quickly; this will lead the company to bring about market innovations more timely and efficiently. There are few things more annoying and frustrating in work than dealing with a piece of complex machinery or a cumbersome process which will not do what you need to be done. Overly complex work processes on a daily basis
28
MAJOR TRAINING CONCEPTS
lead to stress, anxiety, frustration—even rage—followed by apathy and depression. But you do not have to be a victim. Now you can get the tools and support to move your company in exactly this direction. ‘Simplicity’ is a new course which is invaluable to companies looking to decomplexify their business processes and thus, their lives. If your organization is implementing practical ways to streamline products and processes, you can become more effective, efficient and user-friendly. ‘Simplicity’ teaches how to put an end to habits that are no longer necessary, to stop duplication of tasks, and to challenge every aspect of business so that you can perform at a higher level in all areas. In ‘Simplicity,’ an instructor-led training event plus ongoing follow-up plan, you will learn how to institute creative techniques like shredding, reframing tasks, bulk-andexceptions, and historical review to shift group thinking to a ‘challenge’ mode where moving from complex to simple is the name of the game.
Facilitation What if you could walk into any meeting, with any group of people and help them be more effective? Can you imagine how sought after you would be? And how productive your meetings would become? This new course shows how to combine tools from all three core tools to become an expert facilitator for any kind 29
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
of meeting. Get employees engaged and help them accomplish much more—before, during, and after attending the new kinds of meetings you will plan and facilitate for them. This instructor-led workshop teaches practical tools; it requires multiple, coached facilitation practices and includes many useful resources to support you in applying your new techniques: ‣
Executive portfolio with room for all your facilitator visuals;
‣
Complete facilitator handbook (we call it the facilitator’s Bible!);
‣
Exercise book to collect all the tips you get and thinking you do during the workshop;
‣
Facilitation cards to ‘deal’ yourself a visual map of the agenda you’re planning;
‣
Table mats that engage your meeting participants in tracking group progress;
‣
Slide rules so participants can easily call to mind the steps in the de Bono thinking methods;
‣
Capture cards for writing, sorting, and assessing ideas generated;
‣
Energy dots to indicate top priority ideas and to measure buy-in on decisions made;
‣
A catalogue of colorful, practical facilitation supplies, both de Bono specific and generic. 30
Chapter Three Book Reviews
The Use of Lateral Thinking (1967) The Mechanism of Mind (1969) Tactics (1991) Serious Creativity (1992) Sur/Petition (1992)
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
The Use of Lateral Thinking New York: Penguin, 1967, reedited 1990
The Use of Lateral Thinking is one of de Bono’s first publications, a book written in the 1960s; but it is one of his most important books.
Review It seems that few have understood the book when it appeared more than forty years ago. In the first chapter of the booklet, the author introduces the idea of lateral thinking and defines it as a concept. Orthodox education usually does nothing to encourage lateral thinking habits and positively inhibits them with the need to conform one’s way through the successive examination hoops. /15
The second and third chapters prepare the ground for the main part of the study which unfolds as a meticulous examination of perception habits. In these chapters, the 32
BOOK REVIEWS
author makes interesting remarks about how ideas are born. Where are ideas coming from? How to generate new ideas? Truly, these questions are important not only for artists, writers or designers, but also for business leaders. We can observe in recent years that it is surprisingly not always large corporations but more often than not mid-sized or small companies that are leading the competition by their intelligent and novel approach, focused customer care and an effective cycle of innovation. For de Bono, this was not new thirty years ago.
He wrote that it is ‘not possible to look in a different direction by looking harder in the same direction.’ He thought that for innovation, the tough, hardworking approach is dysfunctional, which is why he advocated flexible intelligence as the prime mover for ultimate success. One of the major tasks of lateral thinking is to identify and overcome dominant ideas because a dominant idea can be a real obstacle in the creative thinking process. In every business, dominant ideas are very subtly and often imperceptibly built into the system through the formulation of strategies, marketing slogans, habits and traditions, the archaic ‘we have always done it that way and it has worked for us.’ In the fifth chapter, the author summarizes his thorough examination of thinking habits and writes:
33
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
With most situations, what starts as a temporary and provisional manner of looking at them soon turns into the only possible way, especially if encouraged by success./68
Quotes ‣
Lateral thinking is not a new, magic formula but simply a different and more creative way of using the mind. /6
‣
Creative thinking is a special part of lateral thinking which covers a wider field. /14
‣
Orthodox education usually does nothing to encourage lateral thinking habits and positively inhibits them with the need to conform one’s way through the successive examination hoops. (…) Lateral thinking is a matter of awareness and practice - not revelation. /15
‣
The full development of an idea may well take years of hard work but the idea itself may arrive in a flash of insight. /16-17
‣
It is frightening (or exiting) to contemplate how many new ideas are lying dormant in already collected information that is now put together in one way and could be rearranged in a better way. (…) It is said that the great Napoleon found it just as difficult to get rid of his wife’s dog as he did to get rid of the powerful armies sent against him. /18 34
BOOK REVIEWS
‣
Once a new idea springs into existence it cannot be unthought. /20
‣
It is not possible to look in a different direction by looking harder in the same direction. /21
‣
To realize that a dominant idea can be an obstacle instead of a convenience is the first principle of lateral thinking. /29
‣
With most situations, what starts as a temporary and provisional manner of looking at them turns into the only possible way, especially if encouraged by success. /69
‣
The mind divides the continuity of the world around us into discrete units. (…) When the same division has been made over and over again, the units come to acquire an identity of their own. /71
‣
The fluidity of a situation where nothing is rigid and everything is doubled all the time makes vertical thinkers extremely uncomfortable. Yet it is from this limitless potential of chaos that new ideas are formed by lateral thinking. /79
35
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
The Mechanism of Mind New York: Penguin, 1969, reedited 1990
The second of the five books I am reviewing is a booklet that develops and elaborates Edward de Bono’s approach to creative thinking, as it was first exposed in The Use of Lateral Thinking.
Review The book is uncanny in that the author examines with scientific exactitude how our brain handles perception and how it processes information. Using many examples for demonstrating his theory, Edward de Bono concludes that the specific memory surface that the brain uses for information processing is in itself a highly unreliable system. In Part II, 29: Overcoming the Limitations, de Bono writes: The errors, faults and limitations of information-processing on the special memory-surface are inescapable because they 36
BOOK REVIEWS
follow directly from the nature of the organization of the surface. /218
In the next four chapters of the study, Edward de Bono analyzes the process of thinking. He divides thinking into four categories, natural thinking, logical thinking, mathematical thinking and lateral thinking. He then discusses each of these modes of thinking. Natural thinking that de Bono also calls simple or primitive thinking is characterized by being fluent yet its very fluency is the source of its errors. This mode of thinking, de Bono says, is the natural way the memory surface behaves and its thought-flow is ‘immediate, direct and basically adequate.’ Logical thinking is characterized by the management of no, most logical processes being forms of binary equations of identity and non-identity. Logical thinking is seen by de Bono as a tremendous improvement over natural thinking, in spite of the limitations that he pointed out in detail. Mathematical thinking is judged by de Bono as useful, however with the limitation that it is more adequate to describe things than people. Lateral thinking as a genuine mode of thinking has been developed by Edward de Bono himself. The purpose of lateral thinking is to counteract both the errors and the limitations of the special memory-surface./236
37
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
De Bono states that lateral thinking is concerned with making the best possible use of the information that is already available in the memory surface. He then gives examples to illustrate in which ways lateral thinking is essentially different from vertical thinking. To say it with a slogan, lateral thinking is a way of thinking that lets a door open for the unexpected to occur; in other words, with lateral thinking you may not know what you are looking for until after you have found it. There are several broad characteristics that show the obvious usefulness of lateral thinking. Edward de Bono discusses them one after the other in his book: ‣
Seeking alternatives
‣
Thinking non-sequentially
‣
Undoing selection processes
‣
Shifting attention
‣
Giving random input
I do not need to further comment this brilliant study which bears the stroke of genius. I guess that it was this book that laid the foundation for de Bono’s overwhelming success as a think tank and business coach later on. Strangely enough, then, this booklet is the least known and perhaps the least popular among all his books. But for 38
BOOK REVIEWS
one who is seriously interested in the foundations of lateral and of creative thinking, it is an absolute must-read.
Quotes ‣
This book is to do with the way the brain becomes mind. It may be that the brain is not too difficult to understand, but too easy. Matters are often made more and more complex by the ability of man to play elaborate games that feed on themselves to create bewildering structures of immense intricacy, which obscure rather than reveal. The only thing these structures do reveal is that man has the ability and the compulsion to play such conceptual games. /7
‣
Of its own accord the brain does not seek to understand and explain, but to create explanations—and that is a very different thing. The explanations may be highly acceptable without having much relevance to what is being explained. Can one escape from the circular self-satisfaction of elaborate philosophical description? In this book the brain is described as the mechanical behavior of mechanical units. It is the organization of these units that provides the mechanism of mind. /7
‣
Systems do not have to be complicated or unintelligible, or even dressed in jargon. A sys39
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
tem is just an arrangement of circumstances that makes things happen in a certain way. The circumstances may be metal grids, electronic components, warm bodies, rules and regulations or anything else. In each case what actually happens is determined by the nature of the system. One can take the function of the system for granted and become interested in how it is carried out. /17 ‣
If you want to get your shoes cleaned in an English hotel you simply leave them overnight in the corridor outside your room. Many an unhappy Englishman has learned that in America shoes treated in this way disappear never to be seen again. Left outside the door, the shoes are regarded as a rather eccentric form of tipping or garbage disposal. The first useful thing that can come out of knowledge of a system is the avoiding of those errors that arise through thinking the system to be something that it is not. /18
‣
The second useful thing is awareness of the limitations of the system. No matter how good they may be at performing their best functions, most systems are rather poor when it comes to performing the opposite functions. One would no more go racing in a shopping car than shopping in a racing car. When one can, one chooses the system to fit the purpose. More often there is no choice, 40
BOOK REVIEWS
and this means that a single system will perform certain functions well but others not so well. For instance the brain system is well suited to developing ideas but not so good at generating them. Knowing about the limitations of a system does not by itself alter them. But by being aware of the nature of the system one can make deliberate adjustments. /18 ‣
In the early days of the instant breath-test for drinking drivers one drunken driver drove his car into a lamp-post and wrecked it. As he sat waiting in the wreckage for the police to come and test and charge him, he remembered the nature of the system. So he pulled out a hip-flask and started to drink some more. When the police came he explained to them that the shock of the accident had caused him to have a drink. Since his car was no longer drivable he knew that he could not be held to have the necessary intent to drive, as required by the system. What his blood alcohol level had been at the time of the accident was, of course, no longer determinable. /18-19
‣
Birds do not have propellers any more than human beings move around on wheels. Wings and propellers are different but fulfill the same flight function; legs and wheels are
41
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
different but fulfill the same movement function. /21 ‣
Laughter is a fundamental characteristic of the brain system but not of the computer system. And with laughter goes creativity. It will be a sinister day when computers start to laugh, because that will man they are capable of a lot of other things as well. /22
‣
It is perfectly possible that a computer could be deliberately programmed to imitate the functions of the brain system, probably even to the extent of laughter and creativity. But this would not mean that the two systems were functioning in a similar manner except on the final level, that is to say the outcome level. It is quite easy to tell someone to draw a square, but much more cumbersome to give him the mathematical definition of a square, though the outcome would be the same. A similarity of outcomes does not imply a similarity of process. /22
‣
The elaboration of a few basic principles gives rise to the richest musical symphony. The elaboration of a few basic principles in physics explains much of the universe. The simple basic process of evolution by random mutation and survival of the fittest ultimately leads to a complicated variety of species. /25
42
BOOK REVIEWS
‣
When one starts from the simple basic units it is easy to see how they can be built up into complicated structures capable of complicated functions. But when one starts from the complicated structures or functions then it is not so easy to see the basic processes. In this book the intention is not to break down the complicated behavior of the brain system into simple basic processes, but to show that simple basic processes can be put together to give a system that is capable of as complicated behavior as the brain system. /25
‣
This book has been concerned with building up, principle by principle, a type of information-processing system. This system has been capable of such things as the direction of attention and thinking. It has also been shown that there are certain inherent errors in the information-processing behavior of this type of system, just as there are certain tremendous advantages. Th advantages by far outweigh the disadvantages, even though more attention has been paid to the latter. The system has been called a special memory-surface, and it is activity on this surface that has been described. /266
‣
There is evidence in the brain for a two-stage memory system consisting of a short-term memory and a long-term memory. The shortterm memory could possibly take the form of 43
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
an increased ease of activation of a synapse after the tiring factor had worn off. It could also take the form of circuits of nervous activity which circled round and round in endless loops for some time after a pattern of synapses had been activated. There is a special method of depolarizing the brain which stops nervous activity in an area. If this method is applied to the surface of an animal brain soon after some event it can prevent that event being recorded in memory. If it is applied much later then the memory is not interfered with. This suggests that the short-term emory has to do with nerve activity but the long-term one does not. /268 ‣
Of what use is consideration of the mechanical structure of mind? The brain is an inescapably physical system with a mechanical way of working. From a consideration of the possible working of the brain may come useful conclusions; from a dogmatic mysticism about its function will come nothing. /273
‣
The most important thing that arises from a consideration of the information handling in the type of system proposed is the nature of the errors and limitations which are inherent in the system. The very great efficiency of the system taken as a whole carries with it certain inherent faults. /275
44
BOOK REVIEWS
‣
Basically the system is very poor in updating itself. There is no efficient mechanism for doing this. In fact the accretion method of treating information inevitably leads to the arrangement of the information being slightly out of date. This is due to the importance of time of arrival of information and the persistence of established patterns. The arrangement of information on the memory-surface must always be less than the best possible arrangement. /275
‣
The more specific faults of the system include its divisive tendencies, which create artificial entities and artificial separations between them. This is the phenomenon that has been described as polarization. The memorysurface efficiently creates patterns out of the confused information offered it by the environment. /275
‣
But then these patterns take over, and instead of being a self-organization of available information they actually direct what information can be accepted. Once the patterns take over as cliché patterns or myths, then the prospects of changing such patterns are even more remote. Where the patterns are correct this is obviously an advantage, but where the patterns are imperfect it is another matter. /276
45
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
‣
Leonardo da Vinci’s diaries were lost for centuries for the simple reason that they were not lost at all. It seems that they had been mis-filed in some library. Had they been truly lost then there might have been a better chance of finding them. So it is with information that is incorrectly filed on the memorysurface by being fixed in a cliché pattern. /276
‣
Once one is aware of the faults of the information-processing system one comes to realize that the main information sin is arrogance. Arrogance, dogmatism or a closed mind of any sort are so insecurely based on the fallible information-processing system that they would be pathetic if they were not sometimes dangerous. /276
‣
For the same reasons the need to be always right, the insistence on this in education, and the basing of self-esteem on this need, cannot be justified unless it is tempered with the awareness that for some part of the time one is inevitably going to be wrong. It is these inherent faults of the information-processing system that make lateral thinking essential. Insight is so haphazard a mechanism that it cannot be expected to reduce the gap between the current arrangement of information and the best possible arrangement with any reliability. The purpose of lateral thinking is to bring 46
BOOK REVIEWS
about this insight type of re-structuring of information. /276 ‣
The sequential process of vertical thinking as developed in logical and mathematical thinking are incredibly effective when one things how clumsy natural thinking is. Yet these sequential processes are not effective in bringing about the insight type of re-structuring of information. One cannot change a sequential pattern by developing it further. One needs some method of disrupting the sequence to allow another one to form. Lateral thinking is not an alternative to vertical thinking but an essential complement, which is made necessary by the nature of the informationprocessing system. Later thinking increases the effectiveness of vertical thinking by providing direction. One cannot look in the right direction by looking more efficiently in the wrong direction. /276-277
‣
There are, however, situations in which the mere disruptive effect of material thinking is sufficient. Once certain myths and patterns have been disrupted then the formation of better patterns may follow on its own. Lateral thinking has nothing to do with chaos for the sake of chaos. Disruption of a pattern in lateral thinking is only in order to let a better pattern form. /277
47
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
‣
Far from reducing the importance of emotions, the nature of the special memorysurface elevates them into an essential position. The special memory-surface is a passive system, and on it information organizes itself into patterns. (…) These considerations are fairly obvious. What is less obvious is that even abstract intellectual processes such as logical thinking would be impossible without emotion. /278
‣
If information is the door that gives access to the world, then emotion is not just the paint on the door but the handle with which the door is opened. Emotion is essential to information-processing, not something apart. The division between intellect and emotion is another of the harmful polarizations that arise from the divisive tendencies of the system. Too often, emotion is thought of in terms of the caricatures and grotesqueries that are so often put forward as the stuff of emotion with the admirable purpose of attracting attention. /
‣
The division between art and science is another of these polarizations. The two are but aspects of the same thing. Art is science with instant information. Science is art with progressive information. In both cases the aesthetics and the emotions are the same. /279
48
BOOK REVIEWS
‣
Since emotion is the major source of variability on the special memory-surface one might expect there to be an optimum level of emotionality for true creativity. At less than this level there would be too little change, at more than this level there would be too much fixity. It is true that the patterns fixed by overemotionality might be worthwhile for their unusualness, but there would not be a creative fluidity about them. /279
‣
The essential feature of the special memorysurface is that it is a passive system which provides an opportunity for information to organize itself. Much of the information comes from the environment, but a good deal is supplied by internal patterns which represent the needs and the emotions of the body that is using the memory-surface. /280
‣
The major theme of Eastern philosophy is the arbitrariness and artificiality of the separate units that have been carved out of the environment by the selfishness of the human spirit. The ultimate aim is to dissolve these separate units—and the self as one of them— back into the continuum of nature. Western philosophy, on the other hand, emphasizes the usefulness and sometimes the permanence of certain patterns. The ultimate aim is not to get rid of patterns, as in the East, but to achieve the right patterns. /280 49
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
Serious Creativity Using the Power of Lateral Thinking to Create New Ideas New York: Penguin, 1992, reprinted 1996
In Serious Creativity, de Bono continues the line of thought previously exhibited in The Use of Lateral Thinking and The Mechanism of Mind. However, Serious Creativity is a more elaborated study of lateral thinking in its broadest and most practical dimensions.
Review The book consists of three major parts. In Part One, Edward de Bono writes about the need for creative thinking and shows its theoretical and practical applications. The author leaves no doubt that his approach is not destined for artists and creators, but primarily for business people. Thus, not artistic creativity or inspirational creativity is the main field of application of de Bono’s approach to 50
BOOK REVIEWS
creativity, but creativity used for developing new and profitable ideas for marketing products and for succeeding in the competitive world of trade. Accordingly, the style and the language of the book are ideally suited for entrepreneurs and executives, and it provides what the author calls take-away value. Interestingly, and unlike the two predecessors, lateral thinking is now only one element among others within the ten sub-chapters that throw different lights on the important question for every innovative company: how can we find and develop new and successful ideas? Part Two is a detailed and highly elaborated analysis of the use of lateral thinking in the brainstorming process. The quality and exclusiveness of the material presented here is such that it by far outreaches the competence of a creativity manager or innovation department; but on the other hand, corporate leaders or executive committees will seldom have the time and tranquil setting needed to digest the innovative ideas and creative tools presented in this book, and to make the utmost profit out of it. It is therefore important to emphasize what de Bono repeatedly suggests in his books, that is, to create special Concept R&D Departments that are to be created in the future for the purpose of providing new organizational concepts for the growth and expansion of any company. The material presented in the book is so vast that it surpasses the space to discuss it in a book review, so much the more as de Bono has included his famous Six Thinking Hats brainstorming technique among sixteen other creative 51
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
thinking techniques that are worth to be studied and tried out in practice. The third part of the study is concerned with the practical application of creative thinking. This chapter is indispensable for anyone who wants to setup training seminars or workshops on serious creativity. It is written in a clear and practical style. Every suggestion the author made here is useful in the day-to-day running of seminars or company workshops on creativity. Not to forget the Appendixes which are jewels for the training practitioner: ‣
Appendix One: Lateral Thinking Techniques;
‣
Appendix Two: Use of Lateral Thinking Techniques;
‣
Appendix Three: Harvesting Checklist;
‣
Appendix Four: Treatment of Ideas Checklist.
To summarize, this book has more practical and directto-use value than its two predecessors which however have laid the theoretical foundation so that this book could come to existence. De Bono’s brilliant diction and his smart in presenting highly complex content makes this book, among all others by the same author, a true enrichment of any business library.
52
BOOK REVIEWS
Quotes ‣
Although it is now beginning to do a little bit about the direct teaching of thinking as a skill, education does very little indeed / about teaching creative thinking. /Introduction 2-3
‣
If every valuable creative idea is indeed logical in hindsight, then it is only natural to suppose, and to claim, that such ideas could have been reached by logic in the first place and that creativity is unnecessary. This is the main reason why, culturally, we have never paid serious attention to creativity. I would say that over 95 percent of academics worldwide still hold this view. Sadly, this view is totally wrong. /Introduction 3
‣
In a passive information system (externally organized system), it is perfectly correct to claim that any idea that is logical in hindsight must be accessible to logic in the first place. But it is not so in an active information system (self-organizing system) in which the asymmetry of patterns means that an idea be be logical and even obvious in hindsight but invisible to logic in the first place. /Introduction 3
‣
It is difficult to condemn brainstorming because it has some value and does sometimes produce results; but, in my experience, it is 53
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
old-fashioned and inefficient. We can do much better with deliberate systematic techniques. Nor is there any need for creativity to be a group process as in brainstorming. An individual can be even more creative on his or her own—with the proper skills. /Introduction 4 ‣
Associated with brainstorming has been the notion that deliberate creative thinking has to be ‘crazy’ or ‘off-the-wall’ in order to be effective. This notion of craziness is a complete misunderstanding of the nature of creativity and is fostered by those who do not really understand the true nature of provocation. Because provocation is different from normal experience and because anything ‘crazy’ is also different from normal experience, it is assumed the two are the same. /Introduction 5
‣
I regard creative thinking (lateral thinking) as a special type of information handling. It should take its place alongside our other methods of handling information: mathematics, logical analysis, computer simulation, and so on. /Introduction 6
‣
I believe that the crude word ‘creativity’ covers a wide range of different skills. In this book I do not set out to talk about artistic creativity. I have been taught by playwrights, 54
BOOK REVIEWS
composers, poets, and rock musicians that they sometimes use my techniques of lateral thinking. That is always nice to hear, but I am not setting out to improve the skills of artistic creativity as such. I am very specifically concerned with the creative skills needed to change concepts and perceptions. /4 ‣
My preference is to look directly at the behavior of self-organizing information systems. These systems are patterning systems. They make and use patterns. From an analysis of the behavior and potential behavior in such systems we can get a very clear idea of the nature of creativity. (…) The logic of creativity is the logic of patterning systems … /4
‣
Understanding the logic of creativity does not itself make you more creative. But it does make you aware of the necessity for creativity. It also explains the design of certain creative techniques and shows why apparently illogical techniques are actually quite logical within the logic of patterning systems. Above all, understanding the logic of creativity motivates a person to do something about creativity. /5
‣
Red Telephones were pay phones maintained at a high standard and owned by a private company that has since been bought by Australian Telecom. The difficulty was that in 55
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
Australia local calls were not timed; for the same initial cost, a user could talk for a long time. (…) In the end he id find a new approach. He arranged with the makers of the telephone handset to put a lot of lead into the handset. This made the handset heavy and long calls became very tiring. Apparently the idea worked, and to this day Red Telephones are unusually heavy. /6 ‣
The neglect of humor by traditional philosophers, psychologists, information scientists, and mathematicians clearly shows that they were only concerned with passive, externally organized information systems. It is only very recently that mathematicians have become interested in nonlinear and unstable systems (chaos, catastrophe theory, and so on). /8
‣
In an active system … the information and the surface are active and the information organizes itself without the help of an external organizer. That is why such systems are called self-organizing. /8
‣
What computers find so hard to do (pattern recognition) the brain does instantly and automatically. /11
‣
The brain can only see what it is prepared to see (existing patterns). So when we analyze 56
BOOK REVIEWS
data we can only pick out the idea we already have. /11 ‣
We need creativity in order to break free from the temporary structures that have been set up by a particular sequence of experience. /17
‣
Changing patterns is just as difficult as trying to give a word a totally new meaning whenever you choose to. Words are patterns of perception and experience. /17
‣
Doing the old things better is not going to be enough. There is a need to do things differently. /19
‣
Most executives, many scientists, and almost all business and school graduates believe that if you analyze data, this will give you new ideas. Unfortunately, this belief is totally wrong. The mind can only see what it is prepared to see. /24
‣
The systematic creative techniques of lateral thinking can be used formally and deliberately in order to generate new ideas and to change perceptions. These techniques and tools can be learned and practiced and applied when needed. The tools are directly derived from a consideration of the logic of perception, which is the logic of a self57
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
organizing information system that forms and then uses patterns. /51 ‣
The production of the ingredients for information processing is the role of perception. It is perception that organizes the world into the x’s and y’s that we then process with mathematics. It is perception that gives us the observations or propositions that then handle with logic. It is perception that gives us the words and the choice of words with which we think about anything. /57
‣
While we have developed excellent processing systems, we have done very little about perception - because we have not understood perception. We have always assumed that perception operates, like processing, in a passive, externally organized information system. That makes perception impossible to understand. It is only in the last twenty years that we have begun to understand the behavior of self-organizing information systems and self-organizing neural networks. Now we have a conceptual model with which we can begin to understand perception, humor, and creativity. /58
‣
Most of the mistakes in thinking are inadequacies of perception rather than mistakes of logic. /58
58
BOOK REVIEWS
‣
If we set out to attack something, then others will rush to defend the existing way of doing things. A lot of unnecessary time is used in attack and defense. Even worse, there will be a polarization between those who defend the status quo and those who seem to be attacking it. So it is much better to avoid judgment and to indicate that there is no attack on the status quo but just an exploration of other possibilities. Such possibilities would never replace the existing methods unless the new ideas could be clearly shown to be superior. /105
‣
The creative challenge simply refuses to accept that the current way is necessarily the best way. /105
‣
Because the creative challenge is not an attacking challenge, even the most useful polarizations can be challenged: is this the only way of looking at it? /118
59
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
Sur/Petition Creating Value Monopolies when Everybody Else is Merely Competing New York: Fontana, 1992, HarperCollins, 1993
Edward de Bono’s book Sur/Petition is very important. All the issues that he tackles in this extremely well-written book are still today hot issues, in the sense that they are unresolved so far in most businesses.
But let us ask, ‘What is Sur/Petition?’ The basic subject matter of the book is the issue of creating value monopolies. Competing literally means ‘struggling together,’ whereas surpeting, by contrast, means struggling ahead of others. How to get ahead of your competitors? The answer is by offering more value, integrated value, value that is yet unmatched by others and that, therefore, becomes a monopoly. As Dr. de Bono explains, value monopolies are not illegal forms of business conduct because they serve the customer; they are specific solutions for the 60
BOOK REVIEWS
paradigm that Karl Albrecht called Total Quality Service or briefly TQS, as a parallel to Total Quality Management or TQM. This approach puts the customer first in the agenda, not housekeeping or the company tradition. Value monopolies can only be created after brainstorming has taken place which is based on a serious effort to understand and value the needs of the customer. It seems that presently multinational corporations are beginning to grasp the importance of giving the customer solutions that are of real value. De Bono, as always, has looked into the future and offered solutions that most people, at the time of publishing the ideas, were not ready to grasp. The example that de Bono cites regarding Ford strikes. He consulted Ford Britain to buy a company that owned large car parks all over Great Britain. He argued that cars are no more than a lump of engineering and that a customer who buys a car wants and needs more, and more service in the first place. One of those needs being the urge to find a parking lot in town, de Bono’s idea seemed brilliant. Now Ford could have connected a value to the existing value ‘car’ which would have created a value monopoly for the company. De Bono’s idea was precisely that at the entrance of those car parks a note would have been put that only Ford cars could enter them—and no other cars. However, Ford did not see the chance nor the need of its customers for more integrated value and thus did not follow the proposal. 61
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
Some years ago, the popular German car maker Volkswagen was brainstorming on the same lines and they created Volkswagen Bank as a result, and a free basic insurance for home and family, given free for every car buyer. To make it round, third in the package was a credit card offer for new car customers. Not only did Volkswagen sell more cars, the Volkswagen Bank surprisingly for many became one of the most successful and effectively managed banks in Germany.
The example was inspiring. Mercedes-Benz and BMW followed suit and developed similar surplus-value concepts and opened their Mercedes Bank and BMW Bank. What they give is even more. Every new customer, besides the afore-mentioned benefits, receives a credit card, 62
BOOK REVIEWS
that gives a range of benefits so numerous that it fills a little booklet. De Bono always questions traditional ways of doing things and goes straight to the root of problems. In the first chapter that is entitled What is Wrong with the Fundamentals? he calls efficiency and problem-solving mere maintenance procedures and concludes that only effective solutions can bring success in the long run. Today, most of the Fortune 500 companies have realized this and other of de Bono’s early ideas, but when de Bono voiced these requirements twenty years ago, he was taken as a visionary with lacking sense for reality. As it is so often the case, in hindsight we see that he had more sense of reality than all his contradictors since what he predicted so many years ago is business reality today! Reading Sur/Petition, you get a feeling that in most businesses, there is a desperate longing for more creativity while at the same time creative thinking is rejected as an illusion, time waster, or as something for artists only. Intelligent ways of dealing with business, and effective solutions, in the past as today are the exception. Even Fortune 500 companies that are the most likely to adopt strategies and fixes as de Bono suggests them, are not immune against old mistakes. The high turndown rate among Fortune 500s is an indicator for this fact. It is not enough to just understand the principles and to establish
63
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
planning committees. The art of management is to walk the talk one wants all in the company to walk. My experience has shown that often corporate leaders are well ready to follow the advice of consultants but they think that they themselves are beyond the need for consultancy. The hairy truth is that, in the contrary, the boss has to adopt the new attitude first and thoroughly walk it through before he can expect others down in the corporate hierarchy to adopt it.
Interestingly, when we study successful entrepreneurs, we see that they intuitively apply the principles Edward de Bono writes about. I would cite Bill Gates as an example; his extraordinary success is not chance and it is not just luck. What I found after having studied various sources about him as well as information received from people working with him is that he applies all these principles in his leadership style. Gates goes even beyond. He is one of the few entrepreneurs who voluntarily apply chaos principles in their management to 64
BOOK REVIEWS
get out of linear movement and into the magic of serendipitous strikes. What is perhaps the final secret for the success in business is the combination of technical competence (the hardware) and people competence (the software). What Microsoft has done to get out of the claws of its competition, and sur/pete was: ‣
Creating value monopolies based upon precise knowledge regarding to what the mass customer expects and needs;
‣
Intelligent concept design that gives a familiar look to all Microsoft software;
‣
Superior striving for providing the utmost userfriendliness, intuitive handling and ease-of-use;
‣
Very conscious and careful approach in customer care and follow-up;
‣
Leading position in advancing new technologies, and courage and expertise to do so;
‣
Most advanced approach for people care;
‣
Very careful examination of what the competition is doing for quickly and often boldly sur/peting it.
A company that does not value its own achievements and strength will not succeed. However, high self-esteem, as de Bono observed, is in practice often replaced by complacency. Complacency is such a destructive attitude that
65
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
he devoted twelve pages, a whole subchapter, to its discussion. More than once, de Bono reports that arrogance and complacency are what he found to be the two strongest impediments for implementing new customer-focused management strategies. A very interesting part of the book, for those who are not yet familiar with value-based management is chapter eight entitled The Three Stages of Business. These three stages are outlined as— ‣
Product Values
‣
Competitive Values
‣
Integrated Values
It is only logical that at the end of this thorough study, de Bono suggests to implement Concept R&D Departments, a brilliant idea. The author notes that in traditional business settings, it is still considered a threat to empower employees and to establish think tank groups. As long as business or government is managed like the military—and this was really the traditional way to manage large corporations and government agencies all over the world—we will not be able to move into management and leadership that is— —Team driven instead of person driven; 66
BOOK REVIEWS
—People driven instead of technology driven; —Progressive, effective and ecological; —Flexible and unbureaucratic. One of the purposes of Edward de Bono’s contributions was to help us move away from this old management paradigm that has become archaic and ineffective, and implement an effective, sustainable and people-driven business management paradigm that is based upon values and the virtue of satisfying value-driven customer needs. To summarize, this book that is not one of the most well-known Bono books, is yet one of the best productions of the author. For all people concerned with management, it is one of the most original and valuable books on management success strategies that have ever been published. I would even go as far as saying that it is a must-read for everyone who is in some way involved in leading people into the postindustrial era. At the time de Bono wrote this book, most of his daring ideas were rejected by the mainstream management paradigm. The author’s reputation as the think tank and trainer did not change this fact, nor the fact that among his clients were large multinational corporations. This is the somewhat frustrating point of departure of the book in the author’s own words:
67
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
Government needs thinking very badly but does surprisingly little of it. (…) Business handles the analytical side of thinking quite well. But there is a need for improvement in the constructive, creative, and conceptual side. In the future, this is the aspect of thinking that is going to be essential for success./XX
With his habitual lucidity, Edward de Bono shows the present discrepancy between a new paradigm of quality management and the emphasis on housekeeping that used to be the flaw of traditional management. Down the road, you have to provide values that customers want, writes de Bono. We can only hope that both government and business leaders will comprehend and implement de Bono’s futuristic ideas so that the new business culture will be more customer driven, more flexibly intelligent and more creative.
68
BOOK REVIEWS
Tactics The Art and Science of Success London: Pilot Productions Ltd., 1985 Fontana, 1991 Harper & Collins, 1993
Edward de Bono’s book Tactics is a thoroughly empirical study on the subject of success and the various factors that contribute to a person experiencing success. Together with a team of researchers, fifty-five highly successful people from business, finance, sports, art and fashion were interviewed.
Excerpts of these interviews together with the author’s very original classification of success into various categories and subcategories make the core of this most unusual and highly readable book. To be true, the book is a treasure! The information you get out of it is among the most valuable you can obtain not only for your business career but for your life as a whole.
69
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
Most of the people interviewed show really uncommon views, high originality, and a daring, non-conventional, highspirited, intelligent and bold approach to life, an approach that is never, in this form, taught or encouraged in school or university. Let me start this review by having a look at the main characteristics that the author found to be valid for success in life and business: —Creative style; —Energy, drive and direction; —Confidence and self-confidence; —Stamina and hard work; —Effectiveness; —Ruthlessness; —Ability to cope with failure; —Tactics. These were found to be the positively stimulating factors of success. Interestingly, not only the positive stimulants such as power, money or self-image were found to be contributing to success but also negative stimulants such as anxiety. The latter view is uncommon. Especially the exponents of the positive thinking movement seem to suggest that a well-directed life is one free of anxiety. Nope! Very successful entrepreneurs such as Robert Holmes à Court speak another language.
70
BOOK REVIEWS
Let me quote a passage in which de Bono summarizes the findings collected from different interviews on the matter of anxiety: It is interesting that with successful people the anxieties are propellant rather than retardant. The anxieties push the entrepreneur forward rather than hold him back. There does not seem to be a search for the easy way or for security as such./60
Edward de Bono lists several traditional positions that he has seen to play a major role in success, such as— —Being lucky; —Being a little mad; —Being very talented; —Operating in a rapid growth field.
Lord Grade
An important part of the study deals with the way ideas are relevant for practice and for successful action. 71
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
Let’s see what one of the interviewees has to say on this subject: Lord Grade The ideas you want are real ideas; they’re not fantasies. There is a difference. The real ideas can be put into action. They are not dreams; they’re something real. And what gets the team confident is that the entire team, the whole company, is successful./38
Lord Grade
72
BOOK REVIEWS
The question of style emerges boldly in this study. De Bono observes that changing one’s personal style and imitating somebody else’s style is not a success formula. Success is based upon polishing and refining one’s personal style, even though it may be a style that few people possess. In a paragraph entitled Characteristics of Typically Successful Styles, de Bono gives examples for energy, drive and direction as being one successful style among many. This is what David Mahoney, named in Fortune Magazine as one of the ten toughest bosses in America, has to say about this subject: David Mahoney I just keep moving every day as hard and fast as I can. High-intensity and high-voltage. Light comes from that, not from passivity. I insist we all do our best every day. I’m intense in everything I do and I expect others will be, too. There may be timing factors in it, good luck and fortune factors, but the question is, do you utilize it? Some of it you can’t control—some of it goes against you—it works both ways. You run to daylight—where you see the break you go. Most people aren’t even aware of what’s happening around them. Two-thirds of the people don’t know what’s going on to them, personally./39
There are of course other styles, such as the creative and inspiring style of Alex Kroll, president of the world’s largest advertising agency, who transforms every challenge into a game-like arrangement that is inspiring himself and 73
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
his staff for finding creative solutions. In addition, there are the managerial and the entrepreneurial styles. The question is if ego-based styles or can-do are original styles or if they are just attributes to other styles?
Alex Kroll
Chris Bonington who climbed Annapurna II, the Eiger North Wall, Kangur, Ogre, Annapurna South Face, and SouthWest Face of Everest says that it’s also the great drive to find something in yourself, or the curiosity of finding whether this can be done. The question if one can achieve something daring and difficult is a constant tenor in ambitious people’s life. There is no security in this, no conviction. There is only intuition, and it can be very strong, as in case of Paul McCready who incarnates the can-do style or attitude. This man made the first plane that flies only by using muscle power, without any motor, and he says: 74
BOOK REVIEWS
Paul McCready I went single-mindedly and with considerable assurance towards the goal./41
Nolan Bushnell, creator of the video game industry, worth $70 million after the first decade of running a company with a $500 investment, says that he always feels like there is a solution. There we are indeed in the realm of anticipation, of sixth sense, of intuition. Another style or style element is self-confidence and a certain amount of conceit. Roy Cohn, described by Esquire Magazine as a ‘legal executioner … the toughest, meanest, vilest and one of the most brilliant lawyers in America’ says: You also have to have a certain amount of conceit, which leads you to believe that you and you alone can get things moving./42
In this chapter, de Bono examines all these possible styles and gives examples from the abundant material that the interviews provided to this purpose. He summarizes: ‣
Develop your personal style and refine it;
‣
Build on your strong points or characteristics;
‣
Do not try to alter your weak points or characteristics;
‣
Make sure that every choice or decision comply with your style;
‣
Choose the circumstances that best fit your style; 75
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
‣
Be bold and egocentric;
‣
Use failure as a shadow that gives dimensions to the picture.
And the author to comment: ‘An inflated balloon is vulnerable, but that is the only way it is going to fly.’/57 The other chapters of the book deal with what triggers success, and what are the factors that may have a more subtle impact upon success. Part II of the book teaches how to prepare for success and Part III points out six factors that are important to practice for everyone who sets out to be successful. —Strategy; —Decision-making; —Opportunity; —Risk; —Strategy for people as resources; —Tactical play. I can only express my admiration for this careful and precious study that has enriched my life in an extraordinary manner. Every time I read again chapters from this book, it reveals me new insights, horizons and hints for my life, and in addition lets me participate in the lives of highly successful people.
76
Bibliography Contextual Bibliography
Boldt, Laurence G. Zen and the Art of Making a Living A Practical Guide to Creative Career Design New York: Penguin Arkana, 1993 How to Find the Work You Love New York: Penguin Arkana, 1996 Zen Soup Tasty Morsels of Wisdom from Great Minds East & West New York: Penguin Compass, 1997 The Tao of Abundance Eight Ancient Principles For Abundant Living New York: Penguin Arkana, 1999
Butler-Bowden, Tom 50 Success Classics Winning Wisdom for Work & Life From 50 Landmark Books London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2004
De Bono, Edward The Use of Lateral Thinking New York: Penguin, 1967 The Mechanism of Mind New York: Penguin, 1969
EDWARD DE BONO AND THE MECHANISM OF MIND
Serious Creativity Using the Power of Lateral Thinking to Create New Ideas London: HarperCollins, 1996 Sur/Petition London: HarperCollins, 1993 Tactics London: HarperCollins, 1993 First published in 1985
Borg, James Persuasion 2nd Edition New York: Pearson Books, 2008
Covey, Stephen R. The 8th Habit From Effectiveness to Greatness London: Simon & Schuster, 2006 The 3rd Alternative Solving Life’s Most Difficult Problems London: Simon & Schuster, 2012
Hill, Napoleon The Law of Success The Master Wealth-Builder’s Complete and Original Lesson Plan for Achieving Your Dreams New York: Penguin, 2008 First published in 1928
Krause, Donald G. Sun Tzu The Art of War for Executives London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 1995
Welch, Jack Winning With Suzy Welch New York: HarperBusiness, 2005
78
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Zyman, Sergio The End of Marketing as We Know It New York: HarperCollins, 2000
79
Personal Notes
