Receptive minds - WIP - Father of lateral thinking

Automotive Design & Production, Dec, 2002 by Gary S. Vasilash

Edward de Bono, the Father of lateral thinking, believes that because the world is too much with us, when we attempt to do some creative thinking there is a tendency For us to be so deeply within the ruts that we have worn down through our daily living that we often can't manage to see beyond the walls of our own devising. So he suggests that what we need to do is to get out of that quotidian mindset. His recommendation is something abracadabra-like, but not quite as complicated. "Po!" Say the word [syllable, really] and let your subconscious know that you're in serious creative thinking mode, that you're going beyond the binary yes-no thinking that undergirds many mental limitations.

Roger von Oech, author of A Whack on the Side of the Head and A Kick in the Seat of the Pants, clearly, thinks that in order to get out of one's mental rut something a little more, well, extreme is needed than a "Po!" He actually goes back to the pre-Socratic philosopher Heraclitus For sayings that he explicates From the point of view of creativity circa right now in Expect the Unexpected or You Won't Find It, which is now available in paperback (Berrett-Koehler; 166 pp.; $12.95]. As your remembrance of pre-Socratic philosophy may be a bit vague, you've undoubtedly heard or read a line From Heraclitus in discourses on change. He's the guy who said, "You can't step into the same river twice." As von Oech explains in this context, "we need to continually review our assumptions and make sure that the strategies we employ are appropriate to the problems and opportunities before us." After all, if things are always changing, then behavior that might have been appropriate may no longer hold.

Thirty sayings are examined, ranging From "Knowing many things doesn't teach insight" to "Your character is your destiny," From "That which opposes produces a benefit" to "On a circle, an end point can also be a beginning point." The illustrations by George Willett, who also inked von Oech's previous two books, are worth the price of the book.

If you are managing a team or are involved in a group that needs to increase its level of creative thinking, then I'd recommend that you make sure that everyone on your team gets a copy of Expect the Unexpected or You Won't Find It.

One more thing: "Po!"