“Creative thinking is a skill that can be learnt and is based on motivation and not talent,” says professor Dr Edward de Bono, the man who coined the phrase ‘lateral thinking’ and is a leading authority on creative thinking, innovation and the direct teaching of thinking as a skill.
According to him, one can train creativity like we can train mathematics or learning French, and like any other skill, some people will be better than other, like in tennis or skiing or cooking.
Presently touring India and sharing his principles on thinking by way of holding day-long workshops in Delhi and Bangalore, de Bono is all set to hold a similar workshop in Mumbai on Friday.
In fact, de Bono stresses that children should be encouraged to think creatively as this will enhance their performance tremendously. “Teaching my methods of thinking (perceptual and lateral) increases performance in every subject by 30-100 per cent,” he says. He gives the example of China where five provinces are conducting a pilot project in schools based on de Bono’s teachings. If they like the results, China will be putting it into four million schools.
Likewise, there is lots happening in India as well, and they are much more ready than the West and adopt ideas and implement them if they sounds good, feels de Bono.
The Maltese born physician who is the author of the best selling book Six Thinking Hats and The Use of Lateral Thinking, mentions the “lack of design” in schools today. He elaborates: “Schools need to incorporate designs which put in what you have in order to deliver the values you want to.”
Talking about the corporate world he says that they are good in information analysis but lack the ability to introduce new concepts. “Newer concepts will help them save a lot of time and money,” adds de Bono.
