Edward de Bono

And it's also lateral thinking.

I read an amazing book- Um, by Edward de Bono called, um, You Are Right-- I'm Right and You Are Wrong, and it's all about logical thinking and the problems with that and how lateral thinking.

Some people have more lateral thinking, where they connect things up, and I find a lot of ADHD and dyslexic people do.

Um, and that's different way and it will solve different problems.

This is so hard here.

Why is this so difficult? But then if you step back and you understand, well, okay, it's a bit like De Bono's black hat, you know, six thinking hats.

The black hat was the negative critique hat.

It's like they're all wearing black hats.

But I think that's where we'll leave it for now because we've probably got a few more other things to talk about.

But this effort heuristic and the social media-ness of our lives is here, and I think if you use it intentionally and deliberately, like Edward De Bono says, "Design is deliberate." Like you can use it to your advantage, I think personally.

Yeah.

I mean, what you describe it obviously as let's say 15, 20-year-old phenomenon.

I realized that, uh, this little shop that we opened wouldn't provide an income, uh, for us to live on.

And so thank- thanks to Edward De Bono, the lateral thinker, who, uh, Pauline and I had, were big fans of, um, he said many interesting things, but one of the things he said was, "The job always changes you, and you never change the job." And so we were thinking, "Well, how did that apply to us?" And then we realized this little shop full of clothes that were quite specific and probably a little bit too advanced for a shop in a provincial town, city, um, we wouldn't be able to survive on.

So I worked Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday earning money doing styling, photography 'cause I could take photographs because of my dad.

This is your wheeler-dealer sense.

And as you were doing that, it made me think about one of my favorite books is Lateral Thinking by Dr.

De Bono.

And the concept of, you know, the value of things that are irrelevant, you know, and usually in a closed system, you're sort of always stuck with the same answers.

You're getting, you know, if you think about it as a closed system, law firm or closed company, if all of the answers are quote unquote relevant, you're not going to get very creative answers.

I forget his name.

Is it Edward de Bono? Or was it Six Hats or something? Yeah.

Thinking Hats.

Yeah.

Hey there, and welcome back to 7-Minute Books.

I'm Sam, and today we're cracking open Edward De Bono's lateral thinking, a little book that's been messing with how I see my own brain all week.

So, Sophie, why don't we keep digging the same hole deeper?

Hey there, Sam.

That's exactly the question, because De Bono says that's what most of us do all day.

We get really good at digging one hole, but we never stop to ask if we're digging in the right spot.

This book is about how to pick a better place to dig.

That's how we get through the day without relearning how to tie our shoes.

And it occurs to me as you're talking about, and I do a similar thing where I have what I call my AI interns and give them different personalities.

So I'm playing very much around the sort of Edward de Bono thinking hat type logic and devil's advocate thing.

I always have someone that's got to bring a contrarian viewpoint to the mix.

So building that idea of cognitive diversity, which in smaller organizations, you might not have the full range of, I mean, often organizations don't tap into it, but you may not have the full range of different experiences that are there.