Edward de Bono Meets Thai Prime Minister

BANGKOK, 6 March 2010 – Originator of Lateral Thinking, Edward de Bono yesterday met Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva at the Government House. He praised Thai government for the proclaimation of National Creative Economy Policy. Read more at https://www.siamdailynews.com/2010/03/08/originator-of-lateral-thinking-lauds-thailands-creative-economy-policy/

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 – A Different Sort of Logic!

Our habits of thinking are too much judgement based and not enough design based. This arises from the origin with the GG3 (Greek Gang of Three). When this thinking came into Europe at the Renaissance, the Church ran schools, universities and thinking in general. What the Church needed was truth, logic and argument to prove heretics wrong. So we developed an excellent thinking system for ‘finding the truth’ but we never developed thinking ‘for creating value (design)’. 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 – Football

I once suggested a change to the rules of soccer. When there is a draw then extra time is played. If there is still a draw then there is a penalty shoot-out. This introduces an element of luck. In addition … Continue reading

The Edward de Bono Weekly Message – Economic Crisis

The current economic crisis requires some new thinking. It will not get that. There will be a lot of analysis and references to the 1930 crisis.  The methods for influencing the local economy are very limited. There are interest rate … 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

The de Bono Weekly Message – Two Functions of an Organisation

  There are at least two key functions in any organisation. The first function is continuity. This means keeping things going as they are going. That includes solving the problems that arise and interfere with the continuity. Most executives see … Continue reading

The de Bono Weekly Message – Computer Analysis

There is a growing tendency for corporations to feed all available data into a computer. The computer analyses the data and this shapes the strategy of the corporation and makes decisions. This is a dangerous tendency because thinking is locked … Continue reading

The de Bono Weekly Message – Creativity

As I have mentioned so often the word ‘creativity’ in English is too broad and ranges from creating a mess to painting a masterpiece. The emphasis is on ‘bringing something about’.   At the same time repetition does not qualify. … Continue reading

The de Bono Weekly Message – Property Market

When the property market is falling buyers tend to wait until it falls further. Why buy now when you can get a lower price in a few months’ time? So the market falls further because some people need to sell … Continue reading

The de Bono Weekly Message – Credit Crunch

You may trust a person’s honesty – but can you trust that person’s intelligence? This may have some relevance to the current credit crunch or banking crisis. We can pick out at least five factors contributing to the problem and … Continue reading

The de Bono Weekly Message – Six Frames For Looking At Information

My most recent book is “Six Frames for looking at information” (Ebury Press, part of Random House). We are surrounded by ever more information. How do we look at information? It is like being thrown into a swimming pool of … Continue reading

The de Bono Weekly Message – EU Year of Creativity

“I understand the year 2009 has been announced as the EU Year of Creativity. I hope this is going to include creative thinking and not just the arts. I have offered to give a free seminar in Brussels to EU personnel … Continue reading

De Bono Weekly Message – Thinking through a problem

Because we often consider ‘thinking’ to be problem solving we do not think much about matters which are not problems. If there is a wide open road ahead of us we do not stop to consider the side roads. This … Continue reading

De Bono Weekly Message – Youth Gangs

I have recently had serious meetings both in London and Johannesburg with people concerned with youth crime. There are two things which everyone needs. They are ‘significance’ and ‘achievement’. In today’s world the only way a youngster can get these … Continue reading

De Bono Weekly Message – Information

Many corporations believe that it is enough to collect all data on their computers and then to analyse this data. This sets strategies and makes decisions. The process can be very competent and relieves executives of these complex tasks. But … Continue reading

De Bono Weekly Message – New Combinations

Why do buses have fixed routes? The answer is very obvious. People like to know where they are going. It would also be impossible to design a new route to satisfy all passengers. Perhaps there could be special bus stops … Continue reading