Edward de Bono's Weekly Message

Property Market

When the property market is falling buyers tend to wait until it falls further. Why buy now when you can get a lower price in a few months' time? So the market falls further because some people need to sell and lower their price.
We could create a new type of contract. You sell at today's price but contract with the buyer that in a year (or two years) if the house price index has fallen by a further twelve per cent then you refund that twelve per cent to the buyer. There is now no point in waiting. So the market stops falling and you may not have to refund anything. This could be a new type of contract which anyone could be free to use.

--Edward de Bono

Thinking to be a Problem

Thinking to be a Problem

Because we often consider 'thinking' to be problem solving we do not think much about matters which are not problems. If there is a wide open road ahead of us we do not stop to consider the side roads. This is what I call 'blocked by openness'. Many things continue because they are reasonably satisfactory so we never think any more about them. A classic example is democracy which is full of faults and limitations but can never be challenged. I can think of at least four ways in which democracy could be greatly improved.
Whose business is it to think about things which are not problems?
--Edward de Bono

Edward de Bono's Weekly Message- "truth paste"

truth paste

In my new book I introduce the concept of 'truth paste'. Tooth paste is used to make the teeth appear brighter. Truth paste is used by writers and journalists to make their work seem 'more true'. Truth paste may include references to authorities, references to research etc. Another form of truth paste is the use of adjectives. Almost all adjectives are subjective - the writer's personal opinion. If you say that something is yellow that can be tested with a spectrometer. If you say something is attractive, clever, childish, devious that is all a matter of opinion. Writer's can, of course, have opinions so long as they do not pretend what is written is more than an opinion.

Edward de Bono

Edward de Bono's Weekly Message- "Six Frames: for looking at information"

Six Frames: for looking at information

In the previous two messages I focussed on the suggestion that information was not enough. There was a reason for doing this. Now, or in the next few weeks, a new book of mine will be published. The title is 'Six Frames: for looking at Information'.
It is only rarely that information is complete and an answer to a question we have. Usually we are surrounded by information and have to extract from it what may be valuable to us. So ways of looking at information become more important. Without them we may be misled by information. Without them we may not extract the full value that is available in the information.
In a way the Six Frames are as fundamental as the Six Thinking Hats which are now so widely in use from the most sophisticated meeting to Stone Age culture.
Before you buy the book (published by Vermillion Press, London) figure out what six frames you would choose. Then see if your choice matched my own.

Edward de Bono

Information

Information

I have mentioned this before. I am still on the subject of information. Many corporations believe that it is enough to collect all data on their computers and then to analyse this data. This sets strategies and makes decisions. The process can be very competent and relieves executives of these complex tasks. But there is serious danger. The danger is that you remain stuck in the old concepts and stagnate.
Creativity is needed to look at the data in different possible ways. Once again this is the huge importance of perception. As I have suggested before, poor perception and excellent logic may be worse than excellent perception and poor logic.
Information is not enough. Information may indeed give us an answer. But is this the only answer or even the best answer?
While we put more and more technical effort into the excellence of our computers we make almost no effort to improve our handling of information.

Edward de Bono's Weekly Message 8.18.08

Youth Crime

I have recently had serious meetings both in London and Johannesburg with people concerned with youth crime.
There are two things which everyone needs. They are 'significance' and 'achievement'.
In today's world the only way a youngster can get these is through crime. There is the significance of belonging to a gang or showing off to your peers. There is the immediate achievement of crime: stolen goods, graffiti, a broken window.
There is very little opportunity for positive achievement. Schoolwork is not enough. Sport is not enough. Learning to play tennis in the hope that one day you might win at Wimbledon is too remote. There is a need for achievement as immediate as that of crime.
In my next message I shall outline a project.

Edward de Bono's Weekly Message 8.11.08

'Creativity'

In 2009 the theme of the European Union is going to be 'Creativity'. The 'Palace of Thinking' outline in my previous messages would fit directly into this theme. As an exhortation creativity is almost useless. When specific techniques and skills are applied it becomes possible to generate new ideas in any field.

So I want all of you who read these messages to help me in making it happen. There is an urgency in the matter both because I am getting older and because the Palace needs to be functioning for the year of Creativity in 2009.

Your role, at this point, would be to put the concept before those who could make it happen.

--Dr. Edward de Bono