Edward De Bono In Hong Kong

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Originally uploaded by fernandogros.

Wednesday saw me in a day long seminar with the yoda of creative thinking – Edward De Bono. It would be foolish to underestimate his impact on my thinking, since I was exposed to the CoRT programme at a young age and at several stages in my life since, I’ve engaged in his approaches (most significantly with the six thinking hats).

The first thing that stands out for me is how low-tech De Bono’s approach to presenting his material. He sits at a table, writing on an overhead projector and using an egg timer and plastic whistle to co-ordinate the participant exercises. He chooses his provocation words by reference to a laminated list and the second hand on his watch.

On of De Bono’s consistent claims is that many schools of thought, philosophy, law, business promote very inefficient approaches to problem-solving because they proceed by argument. The problem here is that argument often involves scoring points, proving the way someone else is in error and focussing on difference. It’s the 5% phenomenon, we focus on the 5% we disagree on, rather than the 95% upon which we agree.

This always pulls me back to theology as a discipline and church as a practice – to what extent are our limitations in creativity, in practical problem solving, systemic – a consequence of the established patterns of thinking and debating?

I’ve employed De Bono’s ideas, especially the Six Hats and PO (Lateral Thinking) in a number of church situations (mostly covertly) and results have always been revolutionary and productive. I don’t believe it is because there is any “magic” in De Bono’s approach. It’s just that by breaking some rigid patterns it opens up creative space.

Next week I’ll open up a few more of the ideas De Bono shared in the seminar and some of thoughts they provoked for me. But for now, I’d be interested to hear if anyone has some experience with his ideas…

[tags] Creative Thinking, Edward De Bono [/tags]