Thinking and Creativity the True Driving Forces Behind Entrepreneurship
Thinking is important because it’s how we produce creative ideas. Creative ideas are the fuel that drives entrepreneurship. However, for most people the concept of thinking seems alien. Most people in western cultures have never been taught how to think. In fact, the opposite is the case. Much of the western education establishment revolves around retention and regurgitation. This educational philosophy is anti-entrepreneurial.
Going through an education system that undervalues creativity and spending your working life within the operational system of a large business is not ideal preparation for starting a new innovative business. However, if you can keep an open mind and focus on creativity you can make some serious leaps forward.
This is also a key tenant of enjoying the freedom of starting your own business. Here is a very interesting interview by entrepreneurship advocate Yanky Fachler with Dr. Edward De Bono. It originally appeared in Business Plus magazine and I have kindly been allowed to republish it on this blog.
Interview by Yanky Fachler with Dr. Edward De Bono.
Edward de Bono is a medical doctor with professorships at DCU, the University of Malta, and the University of Central England. In his 82 books (which have been translated into 41 languages,) de Bono expounds his deliberate thinking methods – applications that emphasise thinking as a deliberate act rather than a reactive one. He coined the term ‘lateral thinking’, and is the founder of CoRT, the Cognitive Research Trust, which produces and promotes material based on his ideas. de Bono works with governments, corporations, organisations and individuals, and was appointed EU ambassador for thinking for the Year of Creativity in 2009. During a visit to Dublin in early March 2009, Dr de Bono gave an interview to BusinessPlus columnist Yanky Fachler.
YF: You claim that Western thinking focuses more on “what is” than “what can be.” How does this work in a business context?
EDB: Our ability to think is our most important and most neglected human skill. Neither the early philosophers, whose thinking was based on analysis, judgment and knowledge; nor the church-run schools and universities that developed logic solely as a tool to prove the heretics wrong – were interested in developing perceptual thinking. Thinking is based on what is happening in the human brain. We need to focus more on teaching tools that empower people to have more creative ideas. My ideas have particular resonance in the business community because business is motivated to say “How do we do better?” Where business has a special role is in provocatively pushing boundaries beyond “what is” and coming up with unconventional solutions based on “what can be.”
YF: Your methods are part of curriculum of some schools in over 20 countries. Why are they not mainstream in every school in every country?
EDB: In today’s highly competitive world, it’s not enough for schools and universities to produce people who can solve problems and make decisions. It is concepts and initiatives that are going to give competitive advantage. In any organization, real change and real innovation is doomed to failure unless someone at the top is prepared to personally champion change. In Venezuela, every school-aged child must do two hours of thinking per week throughout his or her primary education. Why? Because the Minister of the Development of Intelligence is a former professor who admired my methods. In China, thinking courses are being introduced to thousands of schools on a pilot basis. Eventually, hundreds of thousands of schools in China will be teaching my methods. I’m afraid that the west has become complacent, while the east has more energy for change. I predict that Europe will turn into a vast tourist attraction for visitors from China who will queue up to see what happens when you refuse to embrace fundamental changes in the way we teach thinking.
YF: So what should the west do?
EDB: One of the problems with our democracies is that parliaments don’t attract enough professionals such as architects, engineers and scientists. These people rarely enter politics because if they are not elected the next time, they cannot go back to their job. As a result, our parliaments are filled with lawyers, teachers, trade unionists and journalists. These people, who can always resume their old job, are very good at talking but have no practice in constructive thinking. Nothing will change attitudes in the west until thinking out-foxes talking.
YF: Robert J Steinberg in Handbook of Creativity attacks your focus on developing and understanding creativity, saying that it is at the expense of testing the validity of your ideas about creativity. How do you respond?
EDB: It amuses me that Steinberg and his ilk get so hot and bothered about all this. In my experience, people who are obsessed with testing rarely develop any original, operational tools of their own. My ideas on creative thinking have been empirically proven all over the world. In countries where these ideas have been introduced, genuine change and improvement have taken place.
YF: Several recent business books focus on irrational behaviour. You claim that more mistakes are made by people jumping to the wrong conclusion than by behaving irrationally. Are these books barking up the wrong tree?
EDB: We jump to wrong conclusions because of our inability or unwillingness to venture beyond the normal way of looking at things. This is the main cause of the kind of blocked thinking that leads to mistakes. My issue with many of the people who write about irrational behaviour is that their examples are so often based on hindsight. When something doesn’t turn out the way we expected, we call it irrational. But if the idea works, we call it genius.
YF: You have said that language can be a barrier to human progress because it allows dangerous myths to become enshrined. What is your view on storytelling and fables as popular management tools?
EDB: Language is the summary of history – which is why we get stuck when we want to describe something that doesn’t already have a word for it. Traditionally, we have associated creativity almost exclusively with artistic creativity, and only rarely with creative thinking. It’s the same with design. We associate it with graphic design, but not with putting things together so that they work. There is a difference between dangerous myths and useful stories and fables. When stories and fables are used to illustrate ideas, they can become excellent management learning tools.
YF: Many people are exhorting us to out-think the current recession crisis. As the world’s expert on lateral thinking, what is your take on this?
EDB: I am not convinced that the recession is as straightforward as many people assume. If you ask me, 50% of the recession is due to media hype. 30% is genuine. And the remaining 20% is game play. Major employers that have delayed shedding jobs because they were afraid of what this would do to their share price, suddenly have a legitimate excuse to get rid of thousands of employees. The wisdom of the ages is now accessible at the touch of a button. Knowledge acquisition is now a given. This is a time to generate new ideas by teaching people how to improve their thinking skills. Information is not enough.
YF: Dr. de Bono, I’m sure you have encountered the comment that de Bono is passé, he’s yesterday’s man. How do you respond to this?
EDB: There will always be naysayers, begrudgers and belittlers. People whose judgment I respect support my work. I don’t waste my energy thinking about people who attack me without fully understanding my concepts. I believe that I have shown that if you can see things differently, you can make a big difference. No one can seriously argue with the practical research and results of my work. And it’s hard to escape the conclusion that jealousy and vested interests lie partly behind such comments.
YF: Finally, what message do you want to deliver to the readers of BusinessPlus?
EDB: The inadequacy of our thinking is the biggest barrier we face today. It’s bigger than climate change, it’s bigger than our economic woes. Business must avoid the temptation to slip into reactive mode. Business must proactively focus on thinking up new solutions that fit more successfully with the psychology of customers. Let me give an example. Seventy per cent of plane crashes are caused because of the inability to get instant extra lift. So I suggested to Boeing engineers that they should build planes that land upside down, because this will give downward trust. From this impossible, provocative idea came the idea of a normal plane with two small wings upside down. When a plane needs extra lift in an emergency, you retract the small wings or flap them up. Boeing is now looking into this idea. All businesses should be asking provocative questions and seeking unlikely solutions. Thinking is our ultimate resource. If we want to raise the ability and potential of the workforce, we need to teach people how to think.
