Once you’ve made your mind up… changing it can be really difficult… or can it?

In business, changing your mind can be seen as a weakness and that you have a lack of clarity or direction. People who change their minds can be considered unreliable or indifferent. Changing your mind in business, known as pivoting, … Continue reading

How Lateral Thinking enriches team creativity and collaboration

Virtually every business in the world promotes ‘teamwork’. Teams play a crucial role in generating profit, gaining market share, enhancing customer service, increasing engagement and securing a competitive edge—all contributing to organisational success. Teams are the social ‘bond’ that blend … Continue reading

Why creativity is essential for strategic thinking

Before beginning a strategic thinking or strategy development activity, we often spend excessive time and effort on determining the rigorous analytical, solution-oriented processes and skills needed. These methods are crucial and should not be discarded. They help us understand an … Continue reading

Allowing people’s creativity to flow when writing for business

Richard Morris, Accredited Trainer Creativity in business enhances success. It fosters engagement, teamwork, innovative ideas, product and service enhancements. Breaking old thinking habits and work patterns. But how often do businesses actually promote creativity in their business writing? In creative … Continue reading

Creative leadership

As the saying goes, ‘In calm water, every ship has a good captain’. It’s only in turbulent times that leaders need to show what they are made of. With financial storms looming, what can leaders do to keep their organisations … Continue reading

Agile decision-making

Although the Agile model was developed with software design in mind, two of its principles have been widely adopted by businesses in all sectors: Valuing individuals and interactions over processes. Responding to change over following a plan. These are appealing, … Continue reading

Design thinking

The business world has been abuzz with the concept of Design Thinking over the last few years – and with good reason. This non-linear, iterative process is a great way to avoid the trap of rushing in to solve a … Continue reading

Sur/petition – focus on value creation

“Sur/petition: creating value monopolies when everyone else is merely competing” Edward de Bono Competition is based on the idea of different individuals or companies striving to win a part of the same thing. Dr Edward de Bono suggests an alternative: … Continue reading

Leaders can do more with less

  Leaders have opportunities to use creative thinking every day. Whether they’re making improvements, cutting costs or solving problems, they have to go beyond what has been done before. The constant need to do more for less demands creativity from … Continue reading

Make a real difference to your organisation’s creativity

‘Necessity is the mother of invention’, as the saying goes – and we’re certainly seeing that now. The Coronavirus pandemic has led to a proliferation of new ideas everywhere. The Mercedes Formula 1 Team have worked with medics to develop … Continue reading

Robust and clear ideas to take forward

Now that Covid-19 has challenged us to work and think, more creatively, it would be a shame to lose this new ability of approaching life with an innovative mindset. Dr Edward de Bono’s ‘Lateral Thinking’ gives the tools to come … Continue reading

Stop talking over me! Making the most from online meetings.

This weekend I decided to attempt a family ‘Mother’s Day’ get together on Zoom – given the social distancing rules in place. We are not a particularly quiet family, but we are polite and usually observe the informal rules of conversation … Continue reading

Too busy to think?

The decision is made – two weeks later you have to backtrack! How many times has that happened to you, either as the person making the decision or as a part of the team bringing it to life. This happens … Continue reading

Classic Lateral Thinking™ in action: Plastic bottle tops that double as Lego blocks.

This article, first published in March 2010, has become topical again with all the discussion regarding implementing a plastic bottle tax to tackle waste and ocean pollution. With a little Lateral Thinking there could be more innovative ways to solve these challenges… …bottle caps … Continue reading

Creativity throughout an organisation

We all know that change is happening more often and faster than ever before! Organisations have to be innovative, whether they’re responding to change or driving it. They’ll need to innovate at all levels and in all functions to be … Continue reading

Changing the way you do things

By Richard White – de Bono Accredited Trainer. Change for the better is always good but we have to make it happen, we can’t sit back and wait for it. Adding to that, the old adage “nothing is perfect” suggests … Continue reading

Adding a process to creativity is not restrictive

By Richard White – de Bono Accredited Trainer. Although many people think of creativity as being about a select group of unconstrained, “creative” individuals having inspirational ideas, the practical truth is very different. Inspirational ideas are great when they occur … Continue reading

Taking time to save time

By Richard White – de Bono Accredited Trainer. Creative thinking and innovation are key to the prosperity of most businesses and organisations today. This is especially true, as we look to the future – there will be some major changes … Continue reading

Creativity for leaders

By Richard White – de Bono Accredited Trainer. Leaders have opportunities to use creative thinking every day. Whether they’re making improvements, cutting costs or solving problems, they have to go beyond what has been done before. The constant need to … Continue reading

Create a culture of dynamic meetings

Most meetings don’t work hard enough. Don’t take our word for it: A 2016 study estimates that inefficient meetings cost the UK economy £582m per week, with one in three people reporting that many of their meetings are unnecessary. 95% … Continue reading

Engaging stakeholders

The skills required to understand, engage, manage and communicate with stakeholders. By Trish Thurley, Indigo Master Trainer and Richard Evans Stakeholder management can be the difference between success and failure for anyone who has to deal with other people. Who … Continue reading

Eco bottle caps double as Lego blocks. Classic Lateral Thinking in action.

Brazil-based innovative packaging developer Clever Caps offer an environmentally friendly solution to the production of bottle caps – while also adding value to the objects to encourage consumers to re-use them. We like this classic use of Lateral Thinking and Provocation that Edward de Bono would be proud of. Continue reading

Creativity for graduates

I’m Olivia, you may have read my other blog ‘The graduate: a day in the life’. I was lucky enough to attend two of Edward de Bono’s most popular techniques Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats® and Lateral Thinking™. This … Continue reading

The Graduate: A day in the life

Being a graduate is scary. This year’s cohort of freshly graduated newbies to the workplace are the second year group to leave university lumbered with higher debt than ever, with more pressure than ever to perform and succeed. I am … Continue reading

My day is just meetings, meetings, meetings…

Does this sound like a familiar problem? Too many of us find ourselves spending many hours a day in meeting after meeting, which all too often fail to reach any sort of positive outcome, even after hours of debate. The … Continue reading

Will your idea work?

So, ‘innovation is a part of your culture’  and you have accepted that ‘change is inevitable…’ You have set your focus and generated fresh, fast and on-demand ideas, so what next? Do you just pop them in a box somewhere … Continue reading

Where do you do your best thinking?

In the shower… Driving in the car… Lying in bed… Exercising… Gardening… Dancing… We ask this question at our Six Thinking Hats® training sessions. If you are like 95% of people we’ve surveyed… your answer is doing something alone that … Continue reading

Ideas on-demand: fresh ideas, fast = competitive advantage

Our article ‘Is innovation a part of your culture?’ looks at how many organisations want to be innovative or creative, yet the people at the top of the organisation cannot often elaborate on how or if this happens. In this article we … Continue reading

Is innovation a part of your culture?

Many organisations have mission or vision statements that suggest they are an innovative or creative organisation, yet the people at the top of the organisation can often not elaborate on how, or if this happens. Often just putting people in … Continue reading

Change – is inevitable…

Change in business is constant. The 2016 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting, in Davos, focused on ‘employment, skills and human capital’. It found that successful organisations need to ensure their employees have the skills to be able to innovate, evaluate … Continue reading

Do you sound like the expert that you are?

“I know everything there is to know about my product, business and industry”. We are all specialists and experts in our given field/areas. We can speak for hours on end in terms of what we do, how we do it, … Continue reading

Can you laterally think?

Personally I have, until recently, considered ‘lateral thinking’ to be a buzz-phrase. Often when I hear it, my children are preparing a contrived, stupendously hard to answer question, with a blatantly obvious solution – existing only in hindsight. These playful … Continue reading

Indigo sponsor scientists through a “Dragons Den” style competition…

Indigo are thrilled to announce that, for the third successive year, we are a proud sponsor of the Environment YES (Young Entrepreneurs Scheme) competition this December 2013. This innovative scheme raises levels of entrepreneurial awareness amongst PhD students and post doctoral researchers working in the environmental sciences. Continue reading

Try Before You Buy – The Free Webinar Line-Up

In these cost conscious times,we appreciate that it is often difficult to get approval to attend a workshop. For this reason we have created a number of FREE webinars to help you gain a clearer understanding of our events, before you decide which one to attend. Continue reading

Edward de Bono confirmed as keynote at the Learning Technologies / Skills Conference 2012

Indigo is thrilled to partner with the thirteenth annual Learning Technologies Conference on 25th January Creativity expert and author, Dr Edward de Bono, will open with a keynote speech on one of the fundamental issues facing business: how we think! Continue reading

Free Webinars – Indigo’s “try before you buy” series.

In these cost conscious times, and with travel budgets being cut, we appreciate that it is often difficult to get approval to attend a workshop, without a full understanding of how it will meet your training requirements, and link to your companies strategic plan. For this reason we have created a number of free webinars to help you gain a clear understanding of our events, before you decide which one to attend. Continue reading

You’re hired! Why innovation is the key to business success.

Every year I say I am not going to get hooked on the BBC’s hit show ‘The Apprentice’, and then it draws me in and I am there to the bitter end! But at least, this year’s record viewing figures for the show prove that I was not the only one! But what struck me with this year’s change of circumstances – with the candidates vying to become business partners with Lord Sugar – was that, as well as the ‘nice guy’ coming first; this was a triumph for innovation too. Continue reading

Calling all trainers – Free Webinar: 2pm, 1st June 2011

Organisations are desperately searching for proven, practical tools to ramp-up the creative thinking capacity of their workforce. Yet we frequently hear clients saying “We know we need to be more creative, but we don’t know how”. What’s the Problem? Increased … Continue reading

Six Hats = Smart Business – nothing silly about it!

Recently, while keeping an eye on the virtual market place, we noticed that someone had taken our YouTube clip of Dr. Edward de Bono describing the Six Thinking Hats®, and added Arabic sub-titles to it! Continue reading

Indigo client is University of the Year

A small blog entry to say HUGE congratulations to the University of York; one of our premium clients recently recognised as the Times Higher Education University of the Year! (See full article at http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=414419) Continue reading

What’s keeping the CEO’s of global businesses up at night?

In this new era of perpetual change, rapid innovation and global competition, it may come as no surprise to learn that recent surveys indicate CEO’s worry most about… wait for it …UNCERTAINTY! Continue reading

Six Thinking Hats® in action at mark-making*

At Indigo we are always eager to hear from our clients after their training. The key measure of Indigo’s success is how our customers benefit from the practical use of our Creativity, Communication and Project Management training. Here is a … Continue reading

The de Bono Weekly Message – Do you recognise this problem?

The human brain is designed to recognise. I described in detail how the brain does this in my book “Mechanism of the Mind”. The leading physicist in the world liked my book and commissioned a team of computer experts to… Continue reading

The de Bono Weekly Message – “We need to add”

Complacent, adequate, sufficient all imply that something is not wrong or bad. Our normal language and thinking behaviour does not have a convenient way of saying: “That is excellent but not enough”. Or we might need to say “That is excellent but that is only part of the picture”. Dr Edward de Bono Continue reading

The de Bono Weekly Message – Out of the Box!

The brain is designed to allow incoming information to form itself into routine patterns. Without this life would be impossible. With eleven items of clothing to put on in the morning, it would take seventy six years to go through … Continue reading

The de Bono Weekly Message – Positive News Agency

The media, and especially the press, are usually full of negative news: murders, attacks, economic failures etc. It may be that experience has indeed shown that negative matters are of more interest to readers. Even if this is so, I … Continue reading

The de Bono Weekly Message – EU Thinking: Idea Creativity

I was in Prague on January 7th for the launch of the European Year of Creativity, 2009.  The Czech Republic has the presidency of the EU for the first half of 2009.   As usual, one of the big problems … Continue reading

The de Bono Weekly Message – EU Ambassador for Thinking

The European Union has declared 2009 to be the year of Creativity. On December 5th. I was officially appointed ‘Ambassador for Thinking’ for the European Union. Among other things I shall be issuing a monthly ‘World Thinking Report’. There may be … Continue reading

The de Bono Weekly Message – Creativity and the Risk Factor

Too often people think of creativity as being concerned with new products, new services and new markets. All of these imply a risk factor. So in difficult times people tend to reduce their creative efforts.    It could be argued … Continue reading