Edward de Bono on BVO

Dr. de Bono was recently on BVO, the Business Voice. In this half-hour interview, he addresses the difference between innovation and creativity, why the business sector has been particularly quick to recognize the importance of thinking, what the internet age means for thinking, and more. Highly recommended.

Creativity Quote of the Day

"Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimension." - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Creativity Quote of the Day

"Anyone can be creative provided they learn and develop their skills." - Edward de Bono

Meetings Don't Have to Be a Waste of Time

I recently had dinner with a friend who wished the new company she works for would incorporate the de Bono thinking systems, specifically Six Thinking Hats, into all of their meetings. She has one weekly meeting in particular that lasts two hours or longer. The group inevitably gets derailed discussing details unrelated to the topic at hand. Arguments ensue and the group leaves frustrated, with no action steps laid out.

We hear this a lot.

Everyone has participated in meetings that are plagued by personal attacks, low energy and boredom, competition, power plays, groupthink, rushed decision making or indecisiveness, and lack of follow through.

You know your meeting is heading in the wrong direction when no one has defined a clear focus. Why are we having this meeting? How long will the meeting last? How much time will we spend on each part of the agenda? How will we ensure everyone participates? Who will take what action after the meeting? These are the types of "Blue Hat" questions we ask at the beginning of meetings that use the Six Thinking Hats process.

When used as a meeting management tool, Six Thinking Hats gives teams a process that directs everyone towards the same objective. In Six Hats meetings you "unbundle" your thinking so you can focus on one type of thinking at a time (idea generation, etc.).

Six Hats meetings are particularly effective in neutralizing employee rank. There are also frequent requests for every person to contribute, which ensures you get the best thinking from everyone, even individuals who tend to be more introverted. Oftentimes clients will report that their typical meeting times are reduced by 50-75% once their teams are trained in the Six Hats process.

Six Thinking Hats can be used with all levels, and helps teams get to the right solution quickly and with a shared vision.

We'd love to hear from you!
What frustrates you most about meetings? What strategies have you used that resulted in more productive and effective meetings?

Use Six Thinking Hats for Success in Facilitating Virtual Meetings

Does your organization use virtual meetings to save time and money?

Recent research by CWT Travel Management Institute reveals that while the use of virtual meetings is on the rise, many people feel that virtual meetings cannot match the quality of face-to-face meetings in terms of attention and interaction between participants.

Using Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats® to facilitate meetings offers improvement in both of these areas.

Click to read: Use Six Thinking Hats for Success in Facilitating Virtual Meetings

Quote of the Day

"If you wait for opportunities to occur, you will be one of the crowd."
- Edward de Bono

Innovation Week April 4-8, 2011

Make 2011 the year you invest in innovation training to help boost your organization's productivity and profits. Join us at the de Bono Consulting corporate headquarters in Des Moines for the following training seminars.

April 4: Lateral Thinking
Deliberate, systematic process that sparks creative thinking
7 Lateral Thinking tools lead to innovation in process, product, and problem solving.

April 5: Six Thinking Hats
Organize and maximize individual and team thinking
Learn how to enhance meeting effectiveness by methodically channeling group attention in six key directions. Six Thinking Hats is our most popular course and will quickly become an indispensable organizational tool!

April 4-5: Course in Creativity
Combines and integrates Lateral Thinking & Six Thinking Hats
Learn powerful methods that will enable you to lead effective meetings, rigorously evaluate ideas, manage risks, maximize opportunities, and drive innovation.

April 5-8: Focus on Facilitation
Learn Advanced Facilitator Tools & Become an Accredited de Bono Facilitator
Focus on Facilitation is the optimal application course for leading group innovation.

Visit our de Bono Events Calendar or call 866.621.3366.

Innovation: Tubeless Toilet Paper from Kimberly-Clark

Kimberly-Clark estimates that the 17 billion toilet paper tubes produced each year in the U.S. generate 160 million pounds of trash. According to a recent USA Today article, the company will launch tube-free Scott toilet paper. This innovation removes an unnecessary element of their product to help the environment and reduce material costs.

Quote of the Day

"Companies can't predict the future, but they can build organizations that will survive and flourish under just about any possible future." - Lowell Bryan

Lowell Bryan is an author and director at McKinsey & Company

Halloween 2010: Top Costumes, History, Myths, More

Did you know . . . There are some 36 million potential trick-or-treaters (children aged 5-13) in the U.S., according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

National Geographic News presents the facts on the history of Halloween, highlights this year's most popular costumes for adults and kids, and features fun stats on record-breaking pumpkins.
Click to get the white hat info you need to amaze your friends at this year's Halloween party!

Share your creative costume ideas by clicking the comments link below.

Edward de Bono's Idea to Replace Parking Meters

Edward de Bono argues that if you want to shorten the time people park in one spot you should simply legislate to require them to keep their car headlights on whenever they’re parked. No need for meters, easy to police, and you’re guaranteed they will keep their stay nice and short!

Contribute your thoughts about this idea by clicking the Comments link below.

The Need For Innovation Skill Development

Once a month MSEL (Master of Science in Executive Leadership) at the University of San Diego provides a forum to the community featuring exceptional guest speakers presenting information on a variety of relevant and stimulating topics. Barbara Stennes, de Bono Consulting's CEO, has more than 15 years of experience working with teams motivated to increase results through innovation. Barbara will present "The Need For Innovation Skill Development" at MSEL's event on November 9.

Barbara will provide tips on how to identify barriers to innovation and provide an interactive overview on thinking skills such as: Six Thinking Hats, Lateral Thinking, Power of Perception, and more.

MSEL PRESENTS Barbara Stennes:
Tuesday, November 9, 2010: 8:00 am –9:00 am
Check‐in and breakfast begin at 7:15 am
University of San Diego
Mother Rosalie Hall Room 102
www.sandiego.edu/msel

Event Details: The Need For Innovation Skill Development
Register Online by Friday, Nov 5: Register Online

de Bono Global: South Africa Events

de Bono Consulting CEO and President, Barbara Stennes, will meet with Edward de Bono at the Annual International de Bono Thinking Systems Distributor meeting, October 11-13 in Cape Town.

Dr. de Bono will also be speaking at the Progress Conference in Cape Town on October 14. The Progress Conference will feature ways to leverage the minds of your employees, colleagues, and customers to facilitate PROGRESS.

Innovation Week: Get Certified in Lateral Thinking & Six Thinking Hats

We've received a lot of requests recently from trainers who'd like to certify in more than one of the de Bono Thinking Systems without having to travel to multiple certification events. To meet this need, we've put together an intensive week-long event, November 1-5, which will provide the learning and credentials required to train your employees in our 2 most popular programs, Lateral Thinking and Six Thinking Hats.

This new certification event combines core content from de Bono tools, methods, and frameworks to foster a comprehensive understanding of how the thinking systems work together and separately.

Click to learn how you can certify in Lateral Thinking & Six Thinking Hats November 1-5 in Des Moines, or call 866.621.3366 for more information.

Bonus: Attendees will also learn the Focus on Facilitation tools at no additional charge!

New Case Study: Emerson Scroll Compressors LLC Plant Gets Measurable Results

The Challenge: Growth Creates Communications Roadblocks

The Solution: Teach and Apply de Bono Communication and Problem-Solving Skills to Rekindle Honest Interaction Between Managers and Employees

The Results: Emerson Scroll Compressors generated ideas that were good for the environment & their bottom-line within the first year:
- Reduced scrap by 20%, resulting in an annual savings of $48,000
- Saved the plant $130,000 in utility costs in one year

Total Savings: Read the new de Bono case study . . .
Plant Managers Use Innovative Communication Tools to Tap Strengths of Straight-Shooting Workforce

de Bono Events: September Virtual Training Series

Our September training calendar is packed with great opportunities for you to learn Edward de Bono's Thinking Systems - without having to leave your desk.

Simply spend 2 hours with us one day a week, for three consecutive weeks.

Visit the links below or call Natalie Jenkins at 866.621.3366 to learn how these powerful thinking systems can help drive business strategies and innovation at your organization.

Six Value Medals: September 1, 8, 15
Learn 6 tools for values-based decision making that will help you scan for values, prioritize, and ensure that top values are addressed every step of the way. The perfect tool for choosing which creative ideas will deliver the desired value.

Six Thinking Hats: September 7, 14, 21
Six Thinking Hats is a thinking management tool that opens the door to innovative thinking, thorough decisions, easier problem resolution, improved communication, and more efficient and productive meetings. Learn specific techniques that will keep your meetings focused, efficient, productive, and results-oriented.

Power of Perception: September 15, 22, 29
10 thinking tools will help you become a strong and confident decision maker. Learn to accurately weigh risks against rewards, and uncover hidden opportunities.

View all de Bono training events.

Defining Learning Transfer

In their recent newsletter, Fort Hill Company defined Learning Transfer as the "process of putting learning to work in a way that improves performance . . . it takes place over time, involves multiple steps, and is influenced by a number of factors; it is not a 'one and done' event."

Read the complete article.

New de Bono Case Study: Plant Managers Use Innovative Communication Tools to Tap Strengths of Straight-Shooting Workforce

Using the de Bono thinking tools leveled the playing field between supervisors, engineers, and frontline workers at the Emerson Scroll Compressors LLC plant in Ava, Missouri.

Communication improved and positive energy began to flow. The de Bono thinking systems are now used for idea generation whenever they encounter something they don’t know how to deal with. The tools are embedded in various lean manufacturing processes such as Six Sigma and Total Preventive Maintenance.

The Six Thinking Hats methodology is used routinely in performance reviews of hourly workers and in so many other applications that it's difficult to track all of the results that can be attributed to the use of this practical and innovative problem-solving system.

Read the complete de Bono Case Study.

The Creativity Crisis

The need for proven creativity tools and techniques is greater than ever . . .For the first time, research shows that American creativity is declining. Read the Newsweek article that discusses what went wrong and how we can fix it.

Read The Creativity Crisis

Thinking as One Key to Organization Health - An Interview with de Bono Master Trainer, Lynda Curtin

Recently de Bono Consulting, interviewed Lynda Curtin, one of only 37 de Bono Master Trainers worldwide and the product development manager on the highly acclaimed Focus on Facilitation workshop, regarding her upcoming involvement with the Health Work & Wellness Conference, Thinking Organization’s Succeed!

The Health Work & Wellness Conference was established in 1997 to bring together a community of like-minded individuals interested in creating positive, healthy change in their organizations.

Lynda, your keynote “Power-Up Your Organization’s Thinking” is opening the Health Work & Wellness Conference September 30th in Vancouver, Canada. One does not normally make the connection between Thinking and Health Work & Wellness, what can you tell us about the connection?

I was thrilled when Deb Connors, President of Health Work & Wellness contacted me to discuss keynoting this conference. She set the theme of the conference to be "Thinking Organizations SUCCEED!" As de Bono practitioners this is our main focus--equipping people to become excellent lifelong thinkers. Organizations are made of people. People think. What could be more rewarding than to work with a group of people emphasizing thinking quality as a working concept for organizational health?

I see that you are also conducting a breakout session titled “Strengthen Your Innovation Instinct with Six Thinking Hats®” on October 1st. Why do you feel it is important to learn new tools that promote effective thinking skill development like the Six Thinking Hats for organizational health?

Healthy organizations depend upon the ability of their employees to be effective thinkers. This means employees are able to think broadly, clearly, thoroughly, creatively, and critically about any challenge they are faced with. It means employees are able to suspend their biases and explore each challenge with an open-mind before deciding on a solution or course of action. It means they are not locked into one way of doing things. It means they are willing to listen to and include the thinking of others not just their own thinking.

de Bono's Six Thinking Hats is one thinking tool that encourages effective thinking. It's been around for 25 years. I suppose this classifies it as a new tool in the area of leadership and management development. As time moves forward we learn what we didn't know and this often leads to the development of new tools and the improvement of old tools. If we aren't learning new tools how do we expect to continue to be successful and satisfied?

What do you say to people that say they already know how to think?

It's interesting--no one has ever confessed that to me. But, if they did, I would likely ask them: "How do you know?" "Where did you learn to think?" "What thinking tools do you use?"

Two of your de Bono colleagues are presenting case studies at the conference. Michael Campbell is presenting Optimal Decision Making With Six Value Medals and Stuart Morgan Symmetrical Thinking: Achieving Innovative Collaboration Through Maps, Models and Stories. What do you find most exciting about these particular case studies?

I am particularly excited about Michael Campbell's case study application of the Six Value Medals tool. Searching for value is a huge challenge in most organizations today--and finding new value that no one else is leveraging is one of the key factors in the search for value--competitive edge. Everyone is asking, "What's the value?" It's such a big question and it's vague. It can be difficult to answer. de Bono's value screen with the Six Value Medals tool is enormously helpful in directing thinking attention to help find value from a variety of angles.

Stuart Morgan is doing great work in industrial design. I am very interested to learn more about how he has integrated Focus on Facilitation and Six Thinking Hats into his overall process. I think this is one of the strengths of de Bono Thinking System tools. They easily compliment and strengthen current processes and approaches. His team won an innovation 2009 award which I am sure was very satisfying for them.

Lynda, you have been involved in teaching and applying thinking skills to business since 1992, which makes you a real pioneer in the innovation skills arena. What are the biggest changes you have seen over the years regarding innovation in business, and where do you see it heading in the future?

When I started out in 1992 businesses, for the most part, weren't focusing on creativity and innovation as a key driver of business success. There was a huge emphasis on Quality. Well, as de Bono practitioners we knew that Quality was impossible without creativity and innovation. Most businesses have now caught up with this thinking. There is a tremendous focus on innovation today for a wide variety of reasons. The challenge in many companies continues to be the "how." How do we become more innovative? The intention is there. The tools are lacking. So, this is a big change. de Bono Thinking Systems methods certainly help move innovation along.

In the future I think we will see a shift to Robust Thinking which encompasses all aspects of thinking, not just critical and creative thinking. Deb Connors has recognized the need to explore, learn about, and discuss this shift with her conference focus on organization health requiring effective thinkers--Thinking Organizations SUCCEED!