Above, 2006, Den in Shanghai with senior managers from Du Pont China
The Gateway Includes the Following Systems and Thought Advantages:
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1.Experimental Thinking
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2.Perceptual Master Plans
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3.Tooled Tactics
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4.Practical Programmes
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5.Simple Philosophies
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6.Critical Strategies
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7.Broad Directions
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8.Confident Assessments
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9.Improved Attention
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10.Co-operative Meetings
“I got more ideas in five minutes, using the thinking tools, than in the previous six months thinking about that business problem.” Darren Smith, Making Meetings Matter
Thinkers, Your Time Has Come!
THE FUTURE OF THINKING by Dennis Perrin
It’s something of a challenge to write anything original about “thinking” having read so many of Edward de Bono’s books over nearly 50 years. I am “de Bono biased”. Having been accredited to teach his thinking methods seems now to make the “de Bono trap” ever more personally complete. Yet, despite the best efforts of education to convince us otherwise, the fact is that our basic “thinking software” has not changed since cave-man times. And without good thinking, we all remain trapped by our education; since education does not teach thinking. It only teaches what to think.
We have become ever more sophisticated at bad thinking; with ever more sophisticated weapons, sophisticated crime, clever advertising, sophisticated technology, and sophisticated thinking in the form of well disguised arguments that seek to lead us to a pre-determined conclusion - as in advertising, politics, the media, and education.
But sophistication is not good thinking. Good thinking is simplicity. Good thinking is also exploratory thinking, and attention to values.
The wonders of technology: the values of flight, computers, communications, the media, will be ever more burdensome without the wonder of what trained human thought can achieve. Thinking is available for everyone. It is not too clever for anyone.
While most philosophers persuade us to accept their philosophy as the right one, and psychology tries to show us the real self, what should we expect of de Bono thinking, that is more worthy of attention than other “thinking methods”? Firstly, the Tool Approach to thinking. The de Bono philosophy convinces of one powerful fact. The use of thinking “tools” leads to much better thinking. After a while, the tools become a natural part of natural thinking. It is not about knowing the tools. It’s about using the tools. Because using the tools operates differently to normal thinking, some training is necessary.
The type of thinking that the skilled and practised use of the tools leads to is: Clear, Definite, Broad, Attentive, the Creation of Alternatives, and Confident. This contrasts with most of orthodox thinking, which is: Right, Righteous, Judgemental, Complacent and Arrogant. Another problem with orthodox thinking is that while it has its usefulness generating easy routines, and saves any need for disciplined thinking, it usually leads to thinking and emotional traps. However, the use of tools are specifically designed to escape such emotional traps. Hence, one could only describe the de Bono tools as a de Bono trap with justification, in the same way as one would be temporarily trapped on a ladder that leads to escape. We need the ladder to go somewhere. The ladder is only a tool, but a useful and necessary one.
As it is better to be trapped in a modern house than trapped in a derelict cave, it is much more useful and ultimately more rewarding to be trained into thinking skills, than to remain in the derelict cave of an “unskilled thinker”.
I see the future of human thinking using thinking tools (operating concepts or codes) skilfully as an essential ingredient in human progress. Whether personal, business, social etc., good thinking will be paramount for our future. As with any worthwhile venture, the first step is the most important one.
All Business Demands Resourceful Application
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Wednesday, 28 July 2010
