Happy New Year! Edward de Bono on Quality of Life

"the quality of our life in the future will be determined by the quality of our thinking."

           ~ Edward de Bono

By de Bono Consulting

Does Your Company Analyze the Past or Design the Future?

As Dr. Edward de Bono said,

"You can analyze the past, but you have to design the future."

This creates a two part question: 

A. Does your company focus on analyzing its past or designing its future opportunities?

B. Do you personally focus on the past or do you design goals for the future?

We believe you should design your future so you and your company may achieve your desired results. The only thing holding you back from achieving your dreams is the obstacles that you place in front of yourself.

By de Bono Consulting

Edward de Bono Live on Positive TV!

By de Bono Consulting

Have You Ever Heard Of A Simplicity Tool?

Do you have processes that are complicated and hard to follow or execute? Above is a video that gives a brief introduction to the Edward de Bono Simplicity Tool. A few of the benefits of using Simplicity are the following:

• Reduce the duplication of efforts to increase ROI
• Remove age-old roadblocks and barriers, which will increase employee and customer satisfaction
• Free your employees to think through new ideas more quickly, leading them to faster market innovations

By de Bono Consulting

Happy Thanksgiving!

From the de Bono Consulting Team!

The holidays can be a hectic time of the year for everyone and a lot of arguments can arise within family conversations. So during this holiday season when the heated arguments arise, remember your de Bono Training and use it to turn the family arguments into productive conversations. Who knows this might be the best Thanksgiving Season ever. As Edward de Bono said,

"A discussion should be a genuine attempt to explore a subject rather than a battle between competing egos.” 

By de Bono Consulting

Lateral Thinking In Use!

Recently, Michael Geller wrote an article entitled, Creative Thinking Required For Affordable Housing. In the article, Geller talks about the lack of affordable housing in Vancouver due to running out of land and the struggle the city is having with developing more affordable housing. The author Geller is calling out for the city to use Edward de Bono's creative thinking tools.

Geller's favorite de Bono technique is captured in this quote,

"When a fish processing company invited him [Edward de Bono] to advise it on how it could more effectively remove fish from the bones, he suggested it focus on removing the bones from the fish."

Based on this way of thinking, Geller presents several ways of adding affordable housing or as he looks at it, "we’re just not making the best use of the land we already have."

So the questions are raised,

What is your problem?
Will you use de Bono technique's, to find a better answer?


By de Bono Consulting

Where did "Think Outside the Box" come from?

Many people use the famous phrase "Think Outside the Box" in their everyday speech. In fact, you probably use this phrase often when you need to solve a problem and do not have a viable solution in front of you. What process do you use or how do you "Think Outside the Box" within your organization? 

At de Bono Consulting, we like to use multiple different Lateral Thinking Tools to push our thinking outside of the box. However, we are always interested in Other Peoples Views on how to think creatively. So let us know how you think creatively? 

Were you able to connect all 9 Dots using only 4 lines?

By de Bono Consulting

Does Your Brainstorming Sessions Resemble The Big Bang Theory's Changing the World Meeting?

Although the short clip of The Big Bang Theory is funny, there is a very important take away from the video that businesses should think about regarding their innovative or creative thought processes. Every company should ask the following questions and be able to answer them quickly and effectively.

1. How does your team stay focused in think tank groups or brainstorming sessions?
2. How does your team capture the ideas from these sessions?
3. Does that brainstorming process push your team beyond its borders?
4. How long does your process take? Is the process cost-effective?
5. Does your team use or have a process for brainstorming?
6. Most importantly, does your process work?

These are some of the questions, that teams need to ask themselves so that they do not waste their time and money. Six Hats and Lateral Thinking are excellent tools that will keep your team focused on its objectives and expand its creative and innovative solutions. Imagine the possibilities if your team spent more of its time executing your ideas rather than brainstorming for ideas.

de Bono Consulting challenges each team to change their world for the better and by changing their world, they will be changing everyone's world. Is your team changing the world?

By de Bono Consulting

Have Debates Stalled Your Projects, Try Using Your Hats

Everyone has been on a team project where the project stalled due to lack of possible solutions. This problem reminds me of a team project called Synapse that the Defensed Advanced Research Projects Agency and IBM faced. 

How did these scientist find new possible solutions? What brainstorming activity did they use when everything looked hopeless?

According to the New York Times article by Dharmendra S. Modha, the team of 25 participants crowd a room to go through a Six Hats brainstorming exercise. This exercise allowed the team to use a blueprint that removed the teams emotions and tap into the creative possibilities to finish the Synapse project. This blueprint became the standard for all challenges the team encountered in the future. 

Below are the most important takeaways the team took away per the Dharmendra S. Modha:

1. Identify problems and confront them proactively.

2. Under deadline pressure, use a flat management structure, allowing people to contribute ideas rapidly.

3. To sustain morale and keep team members engaged and productive, share credit for successes and learn from failures.

4. Remember that the creative potential of committed individuals, if harnessed properly, has great potential to bring constructive change. 

So the next time you encounter an unsolvable problem, look to the Six Hats for a blueprint to solve the problem.

By de Bono Consulting

Mind Puzzle Answer

Did you solve last Friday's mind puzzle?

The answer:

- Place the horses back to back.

- Have the riders piece positioned horizontally.

- Place the puzzle piece on top of the horses.

Now that you have the answer, give this puzzle to your co-workers and see how long it takes them to solve the puzzle. Do they have creative minds?

Mind Puzzle

Get your creative juices flowing with this mind puzzle! Cut out the three images below. Without cutting or tearing any of the pieces, put the jockeys on the horses. 

How long did it take you to figure out the puzzle? For fun, have your colleagues test this out too!

Can't figure out how the puzzle fits together? Contact us or wait until next Friday to find out!

Creativity creates progress

White Hat

Do you know what each of the Six Thinking Hats stand for? The white hat represents information.

Creative & Innovative Thinkers

Can you relate?

Is this fitting for you? Time to make a change!

Leading Innovation coming to San Diego

Are you looking to give your team the tools to become successful at creating innovative solutions and effective decision making?

de Bono Consulting is offering a Leading Innovation seminar in San Diego on February 17-19. The Leading Innovation seminar offers training in Six Thinking Hats and Lateral Thinking techniques, which can help you and your team apply a systematic method of thinking to make the best decisions faster, smarter, and more efficiently.

The master trainer will teach you the skills to apply the Six Thinking Hats technique of separating thoughts and ideas into six different categories. This technique helps streamline discussions so you and your team can easily redirect and focus on the issues and create the best decision.


You'll also learn the Lateral Thinking method. This method is based on research by Dr. Edward deBono, and trains a person to use creative thinking skills to develop solutions by thinking outside of the box.

Sign up today!