Joo Hock on Perspectives can be very empowering

Wow! Edward de Bono posted on OIA's blog. Wonderful. DeBono's is one of those authors whose books I've been reading and recommending to my friends, but some of them tell me that DeBono put them to sleep, hmmm... I'm surprised and I wonder why? Perhaps his style is "dry," but he's substance.

Because I do find that he's really good. What he shares make good sense, especially in the field of creative thinking, lateral thinking, in fact DeBono coined the term lateral thinking, brilliant guy.

De Bono shared that perception is more important than logic.

Nicholas Negroponte (of MIT) said: Most engineering deadlocks are not solve by engineers. Why? Because Perception is more important than IQ!!

I found that his thoughts on thinking parallels Buckminster Fullers practices on thinking.

How so?

Well, Buckminster Fuller (Bucky) saw "things' at many level of perspectives, or put in another way, he has many ways of perceiving a thing.

Take a human being. He described us as a 28 Jointed Biped. Then an Astronaut on Board Spaceship Earth, then subsequently a Unique Behavioral Pattern Integrity.

Now how many other ways can you perceive or describe yourself?

1. A human be....
2. A Spir.... be....
3. A bundle of prog....
4. A bundle of exper.......
5. A cybo...
6. A transcei....
7. A Ver...
8. An Evolut...... Pro....
9. A Func.... of Uni.......
10. As Syntr......
11. As Min..
12. An ener.... eve...
More? What could you add?

Now all these newer ways of seeing ourselves is lateral thinking, for me at least.

But so what?
Well it's very empowering. When we see ourselves differently, we will think differently, and we can do differently.

Otherwise if we keep seeing the same way, well we continue doing the same things. Talk about insanity Ha Ha!

Reminds me of Eliyahu M. Goldratt's TOC (Theory of Constraints) In order to remove the bottleneck, sometimes it's not the physical contraints, it's the policies, the mindset, or the perception, the perspective that has to change.

Edward De Bono - Atlas of Management Thinking

'I believe that in 100 years' time people will look back with incredulity at the primitive nature of our thinking today'

Recommended reading:
This is the first book to be written deliberately for the right side of the reader's brain.

Research work on the brain has suggested that our usual thinking, dominated by language and logic, takes place in the left side of the brain. The right side of the brain works in images, whole patterns and undefined feelings - all of which cannot be verbalised. This non-verbal type of thinking often works as what is loosely called 'intuition'.

Verbal descriptions of complex management situations are necessarily lodged in the left side of the brain. In order for us to be able to use the right side of the brain we need a repertoire of non-verbal images. That is precisely what this book sets out to provide. The images provided by drawings in this book enrich the perceptual map of the executive. The images allow him to add some right-brain thinking to his usual left-brain thinking. This makes it easier for the executive to recognise situations in a flash instead of having to build them up piecemeal.

Atlas of Management Thinking is another of Edward de Bono's pioneering books, and has become a standard work for anyone concerned with the management of decision making.

With this book as your guide, you pay keener attention to thinking as a skill and gain a clear perception of your surrounding. It is written specifically to stimulate the right -- intuitive -- side of your brain, the side that deals with the abstract and is not logical. Dr de Bono illustrates, then clearly and descriptively defines and gives examples of a vast array of business terms.