Dear Editor,
Recently I have been re-reading once again Edward De Bono’s ‘Lateral Thinking for Management’, published first in 1971, then in 1982 and 1990.
There is an enduring quality to the intent, and content of the book, to which I was again driven, if only coincidentally, as one reaction to the confused thinking in which our leaderships in particular are enveloped.
Among the wide range of advice offered by the author is the following interesting quote:
“You can think very effectively without knowing much about thinking. But if you are not satisfied with your thinking and want to improve it, you must pay some attention to it.”
And just to titillate further curiosity are some selected pointers to ‘awareness’:
“Awareness of the danger of being trapped by a fixed way of looking at things.
Awareness of the danger of concept prisons.
Awareness of the difference between the first and second stages of thinking.
Awareness that adequacy does not preclude a better idea.
Awareness of the need to look for different ways of doing things rather than being satisfied by the apparent best.
Awareness of the dangers of arrogance and righteousness about a particular idea.
Awareness of the need to use ideas in a practical manner and yet realize the need to change them.”
And quite related to our extant environment the following are summarised observations:
“A polarising tendency may be detected in two opposite ways of looking at a situation….”
“The existence of polarising extremes makes it impossible to hold an intermediate position.”
“The important point is to be able to recognise a polarising position when it disguises itself as flexibility but actually shuts out alternatives.”
“A polarising tendency does not only refer to two fixed alternatives. It refers to any number of fixed alternatives which are presented as the only possible ways of looking at the problem.”
In the Preface to this nearly fifty years old publication, the author relates ‘lateral thinking to creativity’. As he puts it:
“The first step is to understand the processes involved in creativity. The second step is to escape from attitudes which inhibit these processes and to use methods for encouraging them. This is the purpose of lateral thinking, which can be learned as a skill and then used in a deliberate manner in order to achieve creativity.”
But who is listening?
Yours faithfully,
E.B. John
