Free Software – Edward de Bono’s Meeting Accelerator

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Value Sensitivity

Edward de Bono’s Message 

At what point do you most enjoy a feast. It could be in anticipation. It could be in the sense of occasion as you start eating. It could be in retrospect as you look back with wonder on something that was less wonderful at the time.
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Creative Task

 

Edward de Bono’s Message

If you spend a lot of time thinking about things in a creative way then the time is not wasted even if specific ideas are not used. You build up in your mind a reservoir of concepts and possibilities that can then be applied to different situations.

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Innovation Equals Collaboration

I had an interesting discussion with a client recently. We were talking about definitions of Creativity and Innovation.   A definition I would use is that Creativity is about generating new unexpected ideas and Innovation is about taking the best of these and implementing them.

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Possibility

 

Edward de Bono’s message

As so often happens language is short of many words. We need a simple word which indicates the following: “What you say is not wrong. I do not disagree with it. But it is only one possibility (explanation, perception, etc.). We need to be aware of other possibilities and even to look for them. Here is one other possibility.”

That is quite a mouthful and a simple indicative word would have a high value. Our thinking habits are so obsessed with ‘right/wrong’ that ‘possibility’ always gets insufficient attention. The reasons for this are obvious because our thinking habits are all judgement based.

An economic down turn means we need an innovation upturn

Are you playing your part to ensure we successfully achieve the economic down turn that is predicted?

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Value Sensitivity

 

Edward de Bono’s Message 

I am becoming more and more aware of the huge importance of ‘value sensitivity’. We are good at detecting danger and at detecting why something will not work. We are poor at discerning value. Nowhere in our education or experience is there any training in value sensitivity. Yet without value sensitivity creativity is a waste of time. The key process of ‘movement’ demands value sensitivity. The assessment of a newly fashioned idea demands value sensitivity. The extraction of key concepts demands value sensitivity.

Representative Thinking

Edward de Bono’s Message 

As I have indicated before, representative bodies cannot put forward new ideas. By definition, the role of a representative body is to represent the thinking of those it represents. By definition ‘new thinking’ does not yet exist so it cannot be representative. So there is a need for an independent body to generate and provide a platform for new ideas. Once such ideas become visible they can then be discussed and considered. Worse still, representative bodies cannot see this deficiency in themselves and so make no effort to set up such a body. As readers of these messages will know, I intend to set up such a body.  

..the Six Hats is such a very simple concept

 

Edward de Bono’s Message

Again and again, all over the world, I am meeting people who have been using the ‘Six Hats’ method of parallel thinking and finding it useful. What continues to astonish me is that for 2,400 years we have been satisfied with ‘argument’ as a way of getting anywhere. Those who have been using the Hats find that when they go back to the argument mode it is so primitive, slow, crude and full of ego-plays.

Yet the Six Hats is such a very simple concept. Why did it not come into general use hundreds of years ago? It is true that some understanding of brain chemical balances provides the logical basis for the Six Hats method, but the empirical use of the method provides more than ample justification for its use.  The sad answer is that the guardians of intellectual process in society are so enamoured of the critical mode that there has been no effort to develop constructive modes of thinking.

..new ideas and business..

 

Edward de Bono’s message

All businesses start out with an idea. The idea may not be very original. The idea may copy exactly what someone else is already doing and aim for a share of the market.   The idea has to provide value for the proposed customer. The idea has to be feasible. Finally, the idea has to be profitable. 

But once a business is up and running then new ideas are seen as a risk. The psychology of risk taking suggests that as soon as there is something to lose then people become very risk averse.  Most corporations could double their profits with a good idea. Once a corporation is running effectively, with skilled people’, a distribution system and a productive capacity then is the time to welcome new ideas. Problem-solving, efficiency and new idea creation are all very different activities. Only the first two are taken seriously.

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