lateral thinking by Edward de bono

Do children learn how to think in their schools, colleges and universities. It is assumed that when children study mathematics, when they study sciences that the children learn how to think.

Edward de bono:

One psychologist by the name of Doctor Edward de bono disagrees. Doctor Edward de bono claims that just learning science and mathematics does not allow us to think in order to solve problems. We can solve mathematical problems, of course we learned that if something costs eight dollars and you have seven of those you have to do eight times seven to get fifty-six dollars to get the total cost of the product. That much thinking is taught by mathematics.

But what about solving real life problems, what about solving problems like traffic on the roads, what about solving problems like how to deal with security issues when you're trying to cut down on expenses, how to solve the problem of water logging and salinity, do schools teach us how to do that kind of thinking and the answer is no.

Doctor Edward de bono proposes that we need to actively teach people how to think and he did that by looking at the education system.

But then also the business sector and especially at a time when Japan was progressing faster than the western world, he studied Japanese companies and how they made decisions and he realized that in order to innovate, in order to be creative when you make decisions, you need very different kinds of thinking processes than the schools and colleges and universities in the western world taught us.

Example:

For an example, we normally follow the Socratic method. Every problem is solved by using first, what we call the thesis and then we develop an antithesis and then we try to come to a synthesis.

This leads to a binary problem solving, which simply means that, someone thinks of a thought, and they present it, and not only do they present the idea they give arguments for it, but they also give arguments in support of that idea.

There may be somebody in the company or on the leading group of lead representatives or the board of directors who does not like the idea, so they oppose the idea and give arguments against that new idea.

Now it is up to the board to decide whether they want to agree the idea, or they want to reject the idea and that's how decisions are made.

The same process is followed when universities hold debates on top.

So, a proposition is made whether it's a philosophical proposition or some other kind of proposition. A statement is made, and the debaters debate the pros and cons.

One person looks exclusively at the advantages, or the pro argument and the other person looks at the disadvantages or the con arguments and then ultimately there's voting done by the audience or by some group of juries who decide who is right.

Unfortunately, not much creativity can come out of it, why is that. Think about a situation where somebody's come up with a new idea.

Example:

For an example kodak company manufactured not only cameras but also the film that went into the cameras. It was proposed to kodak very early on that they needed to digitize that, because of the advent of computers, because of the changes happening in the mobile phone industry, they needed to catch on. Their counter argument was, which seemed true at that time, that the people who want to preserve their good memories such as their weddings, such as their children's birthday parties and so on, would always like a photo album with hard copies of the photographs on glossy print and glossy paper.

What happened to that kodak which used to be the market leader was beaten to death by these new companies that an integrated cameras into computers then the integrated cameras into iPhones and androids and things like WhatsApp and Facebook and Instagram were used to share the same memories that kodak claimed would always require a hard copy and a physical photo album. Physical photo albums have long been replaced by digital photo album.

Example:

Another example of this is, how communication has changed and has been transformed? When xerox invented photocopy machines they thought that these copies will always be required because documents will always be printed on paper. Once again wrong. Recently I was talking to a friend who said I haven't printed anything in the last three years who prints things anyway, so what we're finding is that even printers may be going out of fashion not quite yet but with time.

So, what Edward de bono taught us that, to innovate we need to allow another kind of process, it can't be a binary for and against because somebody may come up with a brilliant idea and you may think oh this is too radical, we can't follow it.

So, after studying Japanese companies, Edward de bono identified the thinking process of a company like Sony for example. He said several meetings are held for a new product idea.

Example:

So, for instance, in the first meeting everybody comes up with an off-the-wall idea, so they're required to come up with strange new ideas and people are not criticized at that stage. For example, I come to you then I say all cars should be painted yellow. If I say that in a Pakistani company's board or even in an American company's board, if I give them an idea that our cars should all be painted yellow from now on, they probably throw me out they say hey this is a stupid idea.

First stage:

But the Japanese realize that unless you give people the opportunity to come up with strange ideas you cannot come up with innovation so in a Japanese company's board when somebody says all cars should be printed yellow, at this first idea generation stage people say all right so that's idea number one, what's the idea number two and somebody comes up and says all cars should have wings so somebody could write down the idea that all cars should have wings and now a third person comes and says well all cars should have their own parking meters, so somebody could write that down and then, somebody could come up with an idea like cars should drive in reverse.

So, you can see all of these ideas would be considered stupid or idiotic or impractical but doesn't matter.

At the idea generation stage Japanese would say aha and the great thing about this process is that the name of the person proposing the idea is not capped on the on the document on the record.

And this is now something that even western companies American and European companies have started doing we call it brainstorming.

Brainstorming:

And during brainstorming meetings we do not criticize the idea we just say all right generate ideas generate new ideas come on one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten and usually you would come up with something like 50 to 100 ideas. So that's the first stage once you have generated these ideas. 

Second step:

The second step could be where you say which of these ideas could in fact be used and could be beneficial in some way.

Example:

So, if you take the example of all cars should be painted yellow you would say car manufacturers won't require so many different paints and probably cut costs.

Advantages:

You would also look at the choice that the consumer has to make where should I buy a red car or a green car or a yellow car or a white car that choice is eliminated, so that makes the job of the people easier.

You might think oh but that's going to cause a problem but at this stage sorry, somebody is coming up with a problem with it we're saying sorry we're not allowing you here to discuss the problems we're only looking at the advantages and we're only looking at the usability we're only thinking about how to make it work and how to make the best of it so that's the second stage.

Third stage:

Then there could be a third stage.

Disadvantages:

Where you say we're all going to criticize the idea.

Now again you see, the idea now has a collective ownership. So, I don't get offended if somebody, if I was the one who gave the idea that all cars should be painted yellow and somebody else is criticizing it even, I am required now to criticize that so that's the third phase.

And I would say well people won't be able to recognize their cars in the parking lot if all cars are yellow, how am i going to recognize it.

Another person might say that you know consumers like to express their status and that might disappear even if you have like a high-status card but if its color is yellow and it blends in with all other different brands the uniqueness of the brand, the brand may suffer.

You take the pros in a separate meeting and cons in a separate and what is the logic behind it.

Edward de bono analyzed it psychologically and he said yes, even in the typical western binary model we do a pros and cons analysis, but what happens is that our brain goes pro con, pro con, pro con and does not exhaust to the fullest extent the pros and the cons and it use only uses it for a short-term kind of decision make.

Whereas the Japanese companies were fully exhausting in one direction grows and once they've exhausted all the advantages then they will look at all the disadvantage and then they would do another process.

Emotional reaction:

They would say what is your emotional reaction to this. So, somebody might say well you know there's this idea is really appealing in terms of the pros, but I have a gut feeling, I have an emotion, I don't like it.

What happens is, in a western company in an American or a European company, you're not even allowed to talk about your emotions. Emotions were treated as second-rate phenomena to reasoning or intelligence.

Now obviously, things are changing. But the Japanese would allow this space in a separate meeting or in a section of a meeting, where people talked about their emotions, people talked about how they feel, about this particular idea.

Shortlisting ideas:

Now let's say we have zeroed in on some ideas we've really liked so a meeting could be held where we would say okay, we generated these 50 ideas, which two or three ideas could be zero in or so you do that kind of a meeting and now you've separated. Now you want to have another meeting and that is what are the facts that are relevant that we need to find out is there any further research that needs to be done in order to make these ideas execute.

So, somebody comes up with the idea of integrating camera into the mobile phone and some companies say stupid idea we don't like it who the hell is going to put a camera into the phone and is going to use it. Cameras require a very different sort of thing what will happen to the films as the example which gave you earlier.

Now when you're at this stage you have to start doing this research. What is the software what are the platforms that would allow this kind of integration to become useful. So, you start doing research and you find that there is something called Facebook or WhatsApp that would support sharing of photographs in the digital medium, which would replace the film.

And so, you can see that a lot of market research, a lot of information about consumer tastes, a lot of information about consumer habits has to be performed at the stage, in fact a lot of it, has already been performed by these kinds of companies because they know that any information may become useful at any time.

Edward de bono learned a lot about decision making processes, that support innovation.

It is not to say that only the Japanese have mastered the art of thinking.

Thomas Elva Edison and Henry Ford:

We have examples of people like Thomas Elva Edison and Henry Ford who were great innovators. But they were exceptions.

Example:

For an example of Thomas Elva Edison, who single-handedly invented over a thousand new inventions.

Let just mention a few:

• He invented the light bulb without him we would not have an inexpensive light bulb that even the poorest of the poor can put in the household.
• Without him we would not have sound recording before him it was considered impossible to record sound, but Edison not only theorized that it could be done. He invented the first sound recorder, first record player in which the sound could be recorded into a disc and that disc could be played.
• He was also the founder of modern cinema; he knew that our vision has a limitation it runs at 16 frames per second if you do something faster than that we will see it as a film so as that he was also founder of modern film.
• Steam engine had been invented before him true what he did was he made a fuel engine and put it in a carriage that is why it was called a motor car, because it replaced the horse and that is why also we said what is the horsepower of this engine because the engine had actually replaced the horses but that again was this one man called Thomas Edison.
• One day his fiancée Mary came to him and said what kind of inventor are you I made you a cake, I baked you a cake and while I was bringing it it got smushed in the box. Edison spent the next 24 hours inventing wax paper that you find in sweet and cake boxes now to cover it in such a way that it won't be spoiled.

So yes, there was room in the American society, for a unique inventor, for a unique innovator, who was also a great entrepreneur, he did not make a single invention that he did not make money off and he had to make it affordable to consumers that was always his big challenge and that is why he beat all the other inventors of his time because he was concentrated on their viability.

You don't find too many names like Edison in America and in Japan every other person is involved in that kind of innovation and new technology development. The situation is not as crystal clear today. There's not a huge difference today between Japanese firms and American firms.

And the reason for that that the insights articulated by Doctor Edward de bono were picked up by the west. And therefore, you would find that there is a very large number of innovations coming from there as well. Brainstorming is now a household world; brainstorming is something that is taught in American schools.

So, it's no longer a novelty for the west and I would say that trying to actively teach thinking has transformed the world.