{"id":3272,"date":"2015-05-01T12:19:03","date_gmt":"2015-05-01T10:19:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grupobcc.com\/?p=3272"},"modified":"2015-07-07T12:31:24","modified_gmt":"2015-07-07T10:31:24","slug":"de-bono-still-trying-to-rid-the-world-of-uncreative-thinking-40-years-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grupobcc.com\/en\/news\/de-bono-still-trying-to-rid-the-world-of-uncreative-thinking-40-years-on\/","title":{"rendered":"De Bono still trying to rid the world of uncreative thinking 40 years on"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Did you hear the one about the old businessman who dies and goes to hell? Bumps into an elderly colleague down in the furnace happily seated with a voluptuous woman on his knee. Guy says to his mate, \u201cThis can’t be hell, you’re not being punished, you’re having fun!\u201d To which the friend replies, \u201cIt is punishment \u2014 for her!\u201d Thinking about new possibilities, as much so in the business life as in any afterlife, sometimes helps.<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n

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Edward de Bono, the man who both introduced the term \u201clateral thought\u201d to the English language and regularly retells this gag to illustrate what he has been on about ever since coining the original expression in the late 1960s, is booked to visit New Zealand next week as a guest of the local Human Resources Institute to offer more of his offbeat wit and perspectives at a time when each have been in notably short international supply.<\/p>\n

Speaking with the NBR ahead of his arrival, Dr de Bono (76) said that uncreative thinking, rather than the likes of environmental degradation or the state of the global banking system, remained the gravest threat to mankind.
\nBy uncreative thinking he means thought that is merely adequate, or what he calls \u201cexcellent but not enough,\u201d the kind of wheezy mental effort that one usually doesn\u2019t stumble across in the 70-plus motivational books he has published over the past 42 years \u2014 the big idea of which is that western man has been hobbled by an over-reliance on logic at the expense of perceptual possibilities \u2014 for an increasingly appreciative corporate audience. The Oxbridge-trained scholar has held an array of professorships at leading universities on both sides of the Atlantic. This year he had his business-guru status confirmed by the European Union, which has appointed him as an ambassador for the EU\u2019s current Year of Creativity and Innovation.<\/p>\n

The government of New Zealand made as much of him eight years ago when Dr de Bono to New Zealand was a keynote business speaker at the 2001 Knowledge Wave conference in Auckland. An example of the kind of abrupt idea that has made him a hit on speaking circuit would be his take on the various Middle East conflicts. The good doctor\u2019s prescription would be to airlift over tons of \u2026 Marmite.<\/p>\n

Such a \u201cMiddle Yeast\u201d solution, he has argued, could help remedy the widespread regional irritability that he believes might owe more to a lack of zinc brought about by people eating only unleavened bread than any geopolitical difference. While Dr de Bono\u2019s crisp way of looking at old problems might be refreshing, the man himself sometimes doubts whether sufficient numbers of listeners take him at his word. \u201cI\u2019m not really optimistic about this, you know, because very few people see the problem. We\u2019re very complacent, very self-satisfied. Having been at some of the leading universities \u2014 Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard \u2014 I would say the attention given to what I\u2019m saying about possibilities is minimal if not totally absent.
\n\u201cI know the situation is improving in some countries \u2014 I know there are schools in New Zealand now where my work is starting to be taught in some classrooms \u2014 but people don\u2019t see this lack of thinking as a problem. We\u2019re content to leave the design aspect of thinking to just a few individuals, most of whom we don\u2019t listen to anyway.\u201d Could it be because we also happen to live in an information-rich era in which people and businesses are tempted to believe they can computer-search their way out of any problematic situation?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re absolutely right. I work with lots of big corporations, where people think computers are so wonderful \u2014feed the information in, they say, let the computer analyse it, and we\u2019ll just make out decisions and set our strategy. But that\u2019s extremely dangerous. Unless you develop the habit of looking at the information in different ways, you\u2019re trapped in the very old concepts.\u201d
\nAll the same, Dr de Bono\u2019s ideas have obtained popular purchase among some business organisations, at least those for whom having the best mental tools to generate new ideas is as important as the practical ability to implement, follow through and deliver on them. What would he be telling them during his half-day seminar at the Sky City Convention Centre next Thursday about the current recession?<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, a recession is rather like saying that if there\u2019s a sudden downpour then all those people with umbrellas stand to benefit. If something affects everyone, then those who have got a way forward have got a competitive advantage.\u201d He said he returned to New Zealand with few abiding impressions from that last major national gathering he addressed here in 2001.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m invited to a lot of events, you know,\u201d he said. \u201cUnless there are spectacular belly-dancers at these things, I don\u2019t tend to remember.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did you hear the one about the old businessman who dies and goes to hell? Bumps into an elderly colleague down in the furnace happily seated with a voluptuous woman on his knee. Guy says to his mate, \u201cThis can’t be hell, you’re not being punished, you’re having fun!\u201d To which the friend replies, \u201cIt… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3278,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\t\n