Dr Edward de Bono at Creative Innovation 2010 - "Re-thinking the future"

Summary

Edward de Bono discusses how poor thinking, not climate change, is the biggest problem facing humanity. He explains that our brains are designed to form routine patterns, making them less effective at creative thinking. De Bono critiques the historical reliance on logic and argumentation, especially by institutions like the church, and highlights the need for more value-creating, design-oriented thinking. He suggests integrating design projects into education and employing techniques like challenge, concept extraction, and provocation to foster creativity. He concludes by advocating for a 'Palace of Thinking' to generate innovative solutions for global issues.

Takeaways

• 🧠 The biggest problem facing humanity is not climate change, but poor thinking.
• 🤔 People are unaware that their thinking is not as good as they believe it to be.
• 🔄 The brain is designed to form and follow patterns, which is efficient but can limit creativity.
• 🩺 Most thinking involves recognizing patterns and applying standard solutions, which works well but isn't enough.
• 🏛️ Greek logic and the Church's influence have shaped a thinking system focused on truth and logic, but it lacks creativity and value creation.
• 💡 Creativity involves breaking away from established patterns to create new possibilities, which is often neglected culturally.
• 👨‍🏫 Education should focus more on creativity and design, encouraging students to engage in weekly design projects.
• ⚡ Techniques like challenge, concept extraction, provocation, and random word generation can help break away from traditional thinking.
• 🛠️ These techniques for creative thinking can be learned and applied deliberately; they are not magical or mysterious.
• 🌍 De Bono advocates for a 'palace of thinking' to collect and promote new ideas and solve world problems with creative meetings.

Q & A

What does Edward de Bono identify as the biggest problem facing humanity?

Edward de Bono argues that the biggest problem facing humanity is poor thinking, not climate change. He emphasizes that most people don't realize how flawed their thinking is.

Why does Edward de Bono believe that the brain is designed to form patterns?

De Bono explains that the brain is designed to allow incoming information to organize itself into routine patterns, which helps us function efficiently in daily life without constantly analyzing every decision.

What does de Bono mean by the term 'Abner'?

The term 'Abner' coined by de Bono means 'excellent but not enough.' It highlights that while existing thinking systems may be effective, they often fall short in areas like creativity and design.

Why does Edward de Bono think traditional thinking methods are not enough?

De Bono believes traditional thinking is effective at analyzing and solving standard problems but fails when it comes to creating new possibilities and generating innovative solutions.

What role does creativity play in thinking, according to de Bono?

De Bono emphasizes that creativity allows for new ideas by breaking away from established patterns. It’s about finding novel connections between concepts, much like how humor works by making unexpected, yet logical, jumps.

How does Edward de Bono view the thinking system developed by the church during the Renaissance?

De Bono argues that the thinking system developed by the church focused on truth, logic, and argument to support dogma, which stifled the need for creative and perceptual thinking. This legacy has limited our capacity for creative problem-solving.

What example does de Bono give to demonstrate the power of challenging conventional thinking?

De Bono mentions how in the 1970s, he challenged the conventional method of drilling oil wells vertically. By proposing horizontal drilling, a technique that became widely adopted, oil companies could extract three to six times more oil from a single well.

What is the purpose of the 'Six Thinking Hats' method?

The 'Six Thinking Hats' method, developed by de Bono, is a tool for parallel thinking. It allows individuals or groups to explore different perspectives on a problem simultaneously, rather than through argument, which traditionally pits one idea against another.

What is Edward de Bono's proposed solution to improve global thinking?

De Bono suggests creating a 'Palace of Thinking,' where new ideas can be collected, promoted, and developed. The palace would also host creative meetings to address global issues and generate new solutions for world problems.

How does Edward de Bono distinguish between errors in logic and errors in perception?

De Bono highlights that most thinking errors (90%) are not due to faulty logic but rather poor perception. This distinction is important because even flawless logic can't compensate for flawed perceptions in decision-making.

Outlines

00:00

🧠 The Problem of Poor Thinking

Edward de Bono begins by challenging the common belief that climate change is humanity’s biggest problem. Instead, he argues that poor thinking is a more significant issue, and even worse, people fail to realize the limitations of their thinking. He explains how the brain works by forming patterns, which allow people to perform routine tasks without actively thinking through them, like getting dressed. De Bono recounts how he described this mechanism in his 1969 book *The Mechanism of Mind*, which gained support from leading physicists.

05:00

🌍 The Evolution of Thought and Its Limitations

De Bono contrasts the thinking developed in Western culture, particularly through the influence of the church, which focused on logic and argument to prove heretics wrong. This system, while excellent for finding truth in science and technology, lacks in fostering creativity and innovation. He highlights that culturally, societies have failed to develop thinking systems for creating value. Most errors in thinking arise from faulty perceptions, not logic. De Bono coined the term 'Abner,' meaning excellent but not enough, to describe this gap in human thinking.

10:01

🔄 Creative Thinking and the Importance of Design

De Bono emphasizes the need to teach creativity and design thinking, explaining that traditional thought systems are excellent for analyzing existing situations but not for creating new possibilities. He shares examples of creative solutions, such as a child’s inventive dog exercise machine, to demonstrate how design is an essential but neglected part of thinking. He explains that creativity involves breaking away from existing patterns and structures, and suggests that every child should engage in weekly design projects to foster these skills.

15:01

🔥 Humor, Creativity, and Pattern-Breaking

De Bono discusses the role of humor as a significant behavior of the human mind, which is based on asymmetric patterns—moving from one point to another in unexpected ways. He uses jokes and anecdotes to explain how both humor and creativity involve breaking conventional thought patterns and arriving at surprising, yet logical conclusions. De Bono introduces different creative techniques like 'challenge,' 'concept extraction,' and 'provocation,' which are designed to disrupt habitual thinking and generate new ideas.

🌐 Practical Applications of Creative Techniques

In this paragraph, De Bono elaborates on how creative thinking techniques can solve real-world problems. For example, he describes challenging the traditional approach to drilling oil wells, which led to a new method of horizontal drilling that is now widely used. He also recounts how a provocation about factories downstream of themselves inspired new legislation to reduce water pollution. De Bono emphasizes that these creative processes are not mystical but can be formally learned and applied to generate innovative solutions.

💡 The Need for New Thinking in Global Issues

De Bono concludes by stressing the need for structured creative thinking to address global problems. He recalls an attempt to establish a group at the United Nations for generating new ideas, which failed due to the reluctance of representatives to think outside of their national interests. He proposes the creation of a 'Palace of Thinking' to promote innovative ideas and foster discussions on world issues. De Bono believes that improving thinking systems is essential for addressing complex challenges like climate change.

Keywords

💡Creative Thinking

Creative thinking is the process of generating innovative ideas that go beyond traditional patterns. Edward de Bono emphasizes that poor thinking, rather than climate change, is humanity's biggest problem. Creative thinking involves challenging existing thought patterns and finding new solutions, as illustrated by his call for 'design thinking' as a means to create value in education and beyond.

💡Pattern Recognition

Pattern recognition refers to how the brain organizes information into familiar sequences to manage everyday tasks efficiently. De Bono explains that the brain works by forming routine patterns, which allows us to function, such as in language use. However, this reliance on patterns also limits our ability to innovate, as we often default to standard solutions rather than exploring new possibilities.

💡Logic

Logic is the structured process of reasoning based on established truths and patterns. De Bono argues that while logic has been effective for scientific and technological advancements, it is insufficient for creative endeavors. He contrasts the logic-based thinking developed by the church during the Renaissance with the need for thinking that generates value, highlighting that logic alone cannot address complex, dynamic problems.

💡Perception

Perception is how individuals interpret and make sense of the world around them. De Bono explains that most thinking errors are not due to flaws in logic, but to faulty perceptions. He stresses that changing perceptions is essential for improving thinking, as perceptions shape the patterns we use to process information. An example from the script is how the church's fixed dogmas shaped limited ways of thinking.

💡Design Thinking

Design thinking is a creative problem-solving approach that focuses on creating value through thoughtful innovation. De Bono advocates for incorporating design thinking into education, where students should have weekly design projects to stimulate their creativity. He argues that current thinking systems are excellent but not enough for designing new possibilities, using a child’s invention of a dog exercising machine as an example.

💡Challenge

A challenge, in de Bono's framework, is a method of blocking conventional thought processes to encourage exploration of alternative solutions. He gives the example of oil drilling, where the industry traditionally drilled vertically until challenged to explore horizontal drilling, which led to more efficient oil extraction. The challenge is a way to stimulate creativity by questioning what is assumed to be optimal.

💡Provocation

Provocation is a technique used in creative thinking where deliberately incorrect or absurd ideas are proposed to break traditional thought patterns. De Bono explains how provocation led to innovative solutions in real-world problems, such as when he suggested factories should be built downstream of themselves, leading to legislation that forced companies to manage their pollution more responsibly.

💡Six Thinking Hats

The Six Thinking Hats is a parallel thinking method developed by de Bono that encourages individuals to look at problems from multiple perspectives, rather than relying on argument-based thinking. It is a structured way of exploring creative and critical aspects of an issue simultaneously. This approach has been widely adopted, even in high-level economic meetings, demonstrating its effectiveness in fostering comprehensive solutions.

💡Cultural Thinking Limitations

Cultural thinking limitations refer to the societal and educational focus on logic and argument, rather than creativity and value creation. De Bono critiques the Renaissance thinking system passed down from the church, which prioritized logic for proving truths, over fostering creativity. He argues that culturally, we have not developed thinking systems designed for innovation, which limits our ability to solve contemporary problems.

💡Humor

Humor, according to de Bono, is a significant behavior of the human mind because it relies on asymmetric patterns, where an unexpected shift in perception creates surprise or amusement. He uses humor to explain how creativity works, comparing it to the way jokes create unexpected connections that, in hindsight, make perfect sense. This highlights how breaking normal patterns can lead to creative breakthroughs.

Highlights

Edward de Bono emphasizes that poor thinking is the biggest problem humanity faces, not climate change.

The brain organizes incoming information into patterns, which is essential for survival and language processing.

De Bono explains that 96% of thinking is about analyzing situations and applying standard answers, which is effective but not sufficient.

The Greek thinking system that developed during the Renaissance focused on logic, truth, and argument, largely shaped by the church.

De Bono introduces the term 'Abner,' which means 'excellent but not enough,' illustrating the limitations of existing thinking models.

Culturally, education has not prioritized thinking for creating value, which limits creativity and design capabilities.

He argues that while logic is important, perception plays a bigger role in thinking errors—90% of errors are perception-based.

Humor arises from the asymmetry of patterns, and this same asymmetric thinking is a key driver in creativity.

Creative thinking involves shifting from one pattern to another, making the process logical in hindsight but unexpected initially.

De Bono presents the idea of 'challenge,' which involves temporarily blocking an idea to explore alternative solutions.

He shares the example of horizontal drilling, which became a breakthrough in the oil industry after challenging the traditional vertical drilling approach.

De Bono discusses concept extraction, using the 'headlight parking' example to demonstrate how a simple concept shift can solve problems creatively.

Provocation, another method, allows you to state something completely wrong in order to generate creative solutions, as seen in the river pollution example.

He advocates for parallel thinking over argument, using his 'six thinking hats' method as a structured approach to problem-solving.

De Bono proposes the creation of a 'Palace of Thinking' to collect and promote innovative ideas and hold creative meetings to address global issues.

Transcripts

Edward de Bono is genuinely a man who

needs no a little introduction one of

the world's leading authorities on

creative thinking so without further ado

over to you Edward most of you will have

been persuaded or informed let's say

that climate change is the biggest

problem facing humanity that's not true

the biggest problem is our poor thinking

now there's only one problem bigger than

that which is that we don't realize that

our thinking is not as good as we

believed it to be now why is that so

there are a number of reasons the first

reason is how the mind actually works

one day a fella gets up in the morning

and he has eleven piece of clothing to

put on so he sets his computer to work

out in how many ways could get dressed

computer takes 40 hours non-stop

processing that's not surprising because

11 pieces of clothing you actually have

39 million nine hundred and sixteen

thousand eight hundred ways we getting

dressed the maths are very simple it's

eleven times ten times nine times eight

and so on if you were to try one way

every minute of your waking life you

need to live to be 76 years old doing

nothing else at all except trying ways

of getting dressed

now that wouldn't be very convenient

fortunately for us the brain doesn't

work like that the brain is designed and

the the whole purpose of the brain is

designed to allow incoming information

to organize itself as routine patterns

that is the purpose for the brain so we

set up the pattern we recognize that

this is a getting-up pattern and we just

go through it and that's how we manage

to survive in life that is how language

works because language will have a word

and a word opens up a pattern and that

is excellent and so on

I describe this all in 1969 in a book

called the mechanism of mind the leading

physicists in the world professor Mario

got a man who got his Nobel Prize for

discovering the quark read the book was

very enthusiastic he commissioned a team

of computer programmers to simulate what

have said in the book and said yes it

works exactly as you predict and he's

been a great supporter ever since so

that's the way the brain works forming

patterns using patterns then let's look

at another aspect imagine a doctor and a

clinic and the patient comes in the

doctor takes the history examines the

patient does some tests what is the

doctor trying to do the doctor is trying

to identify a standard illness a

standard situation and once you identify

the standard situation you provide the

standard treatment and I would say 96%

of all are thinking of that sort analyze

the situation identify what it is what

is made up of and then apply the

standard answer now I'm wrong with that

it's highly effective but it's not quite

enough then we come to another reason

which goes back to the history

history of a human race

now when Greek thinking came into Europe

at the time of the Renaissance schools

universities and thinking when the hands

of the church the church did not need

creative thinking the church did not

need design thinking the church did not

need perceptual thinking what the church

did need was truth logic and argument

with which to prove heretics wrong

so we developed a very good thinking

system very good thinking system for

finding the truth and that has stood us

very well indeed in science technology

and so on what we have never done

culturally we have never developed

thinking for creating value to be sure

individuals innovators inventors

entrepreneurs have done that but

culturally it's not there in education

thinking for creating value that's a big

difference in fact it was even worse for

the church because when the church was

arguing

when the church was arguing it would

start with certain dogmas certain

articles of faith our goddess of Lipitor

and so on and if you start with fixed

positions logic is indeed sufficient to

reach a conclusion but in real life we

do not start with fixed positions in

real light we start with perceptions and

no matter how good your logic is if your

perception is an adequate or faulty the

answer will be rubbish and it research

at Harvard by a friend of mine David

Perkins shows that 90% of the errors of

thinking are not errors of logic at all

the errors of perception but this didn't

matter for the church because they

started with fixed dogma

so we developed thinking based on our

patterns routines logic and so on which

is excellent but not enough and that's

why some time ago and I mentioned it

yesterday I had to invent a new word the

new word is Abner Abner means excellent

but not enough

so suddenly maybe excellent but not

enough there may be a chef who cooks the

most fantastic omelette that is

excellent you can't say it's wrong but

it's not enough

so our existing thinking is excellent

but not enough it's raw like saying a

circular saws excellent for what it's

supposed to do but not very good for

cleaning your teeth in other words our

existing system is very good for looking

at looking at what is but not very good

for creating what can be which is where

creativity comes in so culturally we've

never done anything about that if you

stopped from fixed positions to find so

we need to develop or not develop add

because I listen things excellent but we

need to add the ability to design and to

create design is very basic design means

putting together what you have to

deliver the values you want and I

believe that school every child every

week should have a design project

whatever it is and working it I used to

run I think I mentioned yesterday a

design program in an education magazine

and would set a task every week and the

children would make a drawing using

drawings always of designs and one of

the exercises was the dog exercising

machine and most of the youngsters would

have a treadmill and the dog running on

the treadmill and a bone hanging at the

end to motivate the dog but one child

age for the different ideal his dog was

touring by means with string harness

little trolley and on the trolley was a

car battery from which emerged an

electrified prong

and he said if the dog stops the trolley

will run into Megan go again

everyone else was trying to make the dog

exercise this kids that know let's

prevent him stopping and design a very

key part of thinking very neglected so

we have excellent thinking but not for

design not for creativity there's no

magic about creativity the brain for

creative thinking the brain forms

patterns now all patterns are as

symmetric what does that mean it means

you go from A to B but you can also go

from C to a but not from A to C that's

as symmetry of patterns all patent

systems are symmetric now that gives

rise to humor which is by far the most

significant behavior of the human mind

reason is not particularly significant

any sorting system run backwards as a

reasoning system humor depends on a

symmetric patterns you go along here you

get taken here it makes sense typical

example I use is old man of 90 dies goes

down to hell he sees a friend of his

also age 19 sitting there with a

beautiful young blonde sitting on his

name say it says to his friend are you

sure this is hell because you seem to be

having rather a good time the friend

looks up says no he says it's hella

right is that I am the punishment for

her

you know is once you make the jump

totally logical

another example typical blonde joke

blonde finds a sold bottle takes the top

off out comes the genie dresses a belly

dancer and says to the blonde you have

released me after hundreds of years in

the bottle I was grown to one of three

wishes you'd be very rich very wise or

great belly dancer that any hesitation

that blonde says I want to be very wise

next days having lunch with her friends

she says you know today I'm so wise I

realize I made the worst of three

possible choices now exactly the same

process happens with creativity

creativity we're here we'll get taken

here once with an hindsight totally

logical and value in hand side there's

nothing mysterious not magical about it

that various techniques for doing it it

is very very quickly mention them

one of them is very simple you're going

along and you put a block on that we

call that challenge challenge is never

an attack challenge says this is an

excellent idea maybe the best idea maybe

the only idea but for the moment are

going to put a block on it and as a

result start looking else well do an

example 1970s doing work for shale oil

in London and I said when a drill an oil

well you drill an oil well straight down

and have done so for eight years

no problem very satisfactory works well

that's let's challenge that instead of

drilling the wells straight down why not

go down to the oil seam and go

horizontally they said we can't do that

the drill won't go round the corner I

said yes it will if you is a hydraulic

head you pull it round today or almost

every or will is drilled like that

because you get between six and three

times as much oil from this oil well as

from that oil well indeed start all in

Norway has one well going ten kilometres

horizontally but for 80 years everyone

is very happy with that because it

worked wasn't the problem didn't he

thinking about so challenge then there's

concept extraction where we're going

along and we go back and say what is the

concept behind this can we find another

way of the concept example here mayor of

a small town here in Australia said

we've got a problem with commuters they

drive into the town leave their cars

parked there all day

no one can park in order to shop should

we put in parking meters that's

expensive to install them attain as to

what's the concept the concept is to

allow people to realize that their

parking is limited as a way you could do

it in a much simpler way you can park

any way like for as long as you like

provided you leave your headlights full

on

now I'm not going to leave your car

there for one minute longer than you

need to busy run your battery flat so

certain parts of town you just have a

notice saying only headlight parking

here then then there's provocation

provocation really upsets philosophers

and logicians because provocation allows

you to say something which you know is

totally wrong

we call it provocation and then you use

what I call movement to move there once

you're there it makes sense

I give you very simple example one time

I was talking to the California ecology

department about five hundred people and

they said we have a problem with rivers

river flow this way factory puts out

pollution people downstream suffer so as

a provocation I said po the factories

downstream of itself sounds pretty

impossible how can we be here and here

at the same time from it comes a very

simple idea which is that normally you

take in your water and you put out your

pollution we legislate that if you build

a factory on the river your input must

always be downstream of your own output

so you're the first to get your

pollution that is now legislation in 13

countries around the world very obvious

take Warren care and what you put out

because you are going to be the first to

use it then there's another process

that's the last one I didn't mention

which is that if instead of starting

here you start somewhere else you

increase the chance of hitting that

track and use it you cannot choose that

point because it would lie along a

normal thinking so you use chance and

the simplest way is a random word

usually now again that upsets logicians

would say if it's any word and any

subject how can it possibly work but in

the patent system it does work one time

one of my trainers in South Africa

setting up a workshop one afternoon for

a steel company is called just using

this technique they generated 21,000 new

ideas in one afternoon

all these processes can be learnt

applied use quite formally quite

deliberately there's no magic there's no

mysteriousness about them so we can

develop additional habits of thinking

not instead of what we do but in

addition to what we do to generate ideas

one final point again for 2,400 years

we've used argument a always would be

parallel thinking means a and B are

looking the same direction at the same

time but the directions change and for

that we have the six different hats and

so on which is now very very widely used

lost I was told by a Nobel Prize

economist he said lost we cousin wasn't

in the top economics meeting they were

using oh six hats the one final point I

want to make and I'll stop many years

ago at the United Nations I tried to set

up a group to provide some additional

ideas and had various meetings Kofi

Annan when he was Secretary General was

at some of the meetings proved

absolutely impossible they said we're

not here to think we're here to

represent our countries not to think so

that's not going to happen

so someone the world there needs to be a

source for new thinking new ideas so my

project is to set up a palace of

thinking could be here in Australia

which would have two functions

one is to provide a platform to collect

ideas from anywhere and promote the

better ones and secondly to set up

specific creative meetings to look at

world issues world problems in other

words our existing thinking is good for

recognizing past and standard situation

not good for designing new possibilities

so that's why I say that our thinking

the limits of our thing are the biggest

problem faced in the world and if we

improve that we might improve our way of

dealing with climate change thank

you