Out of the box!
May 21, 2009 by Holst Group
Edward de Bono’s Message
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 all the ways of getting dressed – spending just one minute on each. It is the same with organisations. People working within a organisation become aware of the idiom, the culture and the guiding frames for that organisation. That is why they perform well.
It is very difficult for executives to think outside this box. It is even worse than that because when someone makes a conscious effort to jump out of the box they usually jump too far. It is even more difficult to think of an idea which is only slightly outside of the box. Of course, executives should learn the specific thinking tools of lateral thinking. These can be very powerful.
Use of just one tool generated 21,000 new ideas for a workshop one afternoon. There is also another approach which I shall outline in my next message.
Hi
Just wanted to say how much I enjoy the messages. The curriculum for under fives in this country has recently evolved into the mandatory Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS). I really hoped there would be some separate recognition of developing ideas creativity. Instead they have put problem solving with numeracy (limiting practitioners perception of what problem solving means) and muddled up creativity with artistic ability. What a missed opportunity.
Angela
P.S I teach on the Early Years Foundation Degree, and it is a real challenge to get practitioners to reflect on any form of problem solving, but I try.
INSIDE THE BOX
Like Angela (of EYFD fame), thanks to you, Edward, for your influential contributions.
Personally, as of today I am redundant (after 23 years working for NHS in UK, specialising in mental health).
I stood out in the crowd and clashed with deficient managers who could not appreciate the best of team dynamics. To make a good team the right mix is required…backed up by responsible leadership, managed change for the better and the best evaluation and learning possible of successes and failures. A bit of madness helps – as proven by history.
Still planning my pastures new but set upon bringing the best of what and who I know together, I will keep tuned to all that you illuminate, learning and deliberating as I go, including making sure I have the tools to make the right things happen.
Other esteemed friends of mine, from the worlds of NLP, CPS, technological solution innovation and those who promote sustainability as a form of salvation allied to survival, agree that we haven’t much time left to make the right things happen.
Aiming not to sound God-like (which is always difficult if mounted on the proverbial high horse), I’m aiming to see if little insignificant me and my big ideas can make something good happen, for the world we live in and for those of us who recognise the risks faced by us all, beings who inhabit the world we think we know but about which only nature has the full grip.
I note the upcoming CPSI event (21st – 24th in Boston) and wish I could attend. Next year I plan to be there. Could not we make something happen in UK, hold a Six Hats convention or whatever, spread the word where it matters and will be heard, keep focus upon the main issues threatening us all…join up the best minds to develop best solutions, make something real happen where it matters.
Let’s fix the issues / face up to the risks inside the box (in the world we inhabit) and direct our best tools inwards.
Losing some of Malta back to the ocean fires up my imagination, which yells back at me…do something.
Individuals,organizations,nations not only do all of them need to do Out of the box thinking but even within the box or at the edge of the box !-literary laterally-go out of the building get some fresg air and return with fresh ideas. Our ministers know this fact well and that is why ,perhaps,they make frequent foreign trips( along with the ”yes’ secretaries,ofcourse).