CoRT Thinking Lessons

8/9/2019 CoRT Thinking Lessons

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Edward de Bono

Edward de Bono is regarded by many as the leading

authority in the field of creative thinking, innovationand the direct teaching of thinking as a skill. He is

equally renowned for his development of the SixThinking Hats technique and the Direct Attention

Thinking Tools (D.A.T.T.) framework.

Edward de Bono is the originator of the concept -

and formal tools - of Lateral Thinking, which is now

a part of language enjoying an entry in the OxfordDictionary.

Dr. de Bono was born in Malta. He was a RhodesScholar at Oxford, holds an M.A. in psychology and

physiology from Oxford, a D. Phil in Medicine, a

Ph.D. from Cambridge, a D. Des (Doctor of Design)from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology; an LL.D. from Dundee. He

holds professorships at the Universities of Malta, Pretoria, Dublin CityUniversity, and the University of Central England. The New Univeristy of

Advancing Technology in Phoenix, Arizona appointed Dr. de Bono Da VinciProfessor of Thinking in May 2005.

His techniques and work focus on improving the elements that constitute aperception and the formal design and application of the frameworks required

towards innovative and creative action. One may easily say that all the

recent (past thirty years) focus on thinking, on creativity, on innovation, on

frameworks beyond 'x-storming' etc has taken its lead from Edward deBono's work.

Whereas Rene Descartes propounded "cogito ergo sum' (I think therefore I

am), Edward de Bono proposes 'ago ergo erigo' (I act therefore Iconstruct/ act). It is not enough to sit, (talk) and think: Action, together

with an intentional design of the thought process, is required to

constructively advance towards results and change.

He has written 70 book with translations into 40 languages and has been

invited to lecture in 58 countries.

His methods are now mandatory on the school curriculum in many countriesand widely used in others. These countries include Australia, New Zealand,Canada, Argentina, U.K., Italy, United Arab Emirates, Ireland, Spain,

Portugal, The Baltic States, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Singapore,Malaysia, India, China, U.S.A., Russia. It is compulsory in all schools in

Venezuela. In Malta there is a model show-case for the de Bono Thinking

Tools within the national Education Department.


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The appeal of Dr. de Bono's work is its simplicity and practicality. It can beused by four year olds and by senior executives; by Down Syndrome

youngsters and Nobel Laureates.

His instruction in thinking has been sought by many organisations: Boeing,

BT (UK), Nokia (Finland), Mondadori (Italy), Sanofi (France), Rolex(Switzerland), Total (France), Siemens (Germany), 3M (Germany), Ericsson

(Sweden), NTT (Japan), GM, Kraft (Switzerland), Nestle (Switzerland),

Bouygues Construction (France), Bosch (Germany), Goldman Sachs, Ernst &Young and many others.

Dr. de Bono acts as advisor to various Governments, cities, regionalGovernments and global organisations dealing on a macro level with diverse

topics including economy, unemployment, social policy, recidivism, pensions,health care, finance, transportation, education, conflict resolution, judicial

processes, foresight scenario design etc.

Dr. de Bono was the Chairman of the Council of Young Enterprise Europewhich had a membership of 1,500,000 youngsters across Europe, Israel and

Russia who set up mini-businesses whilst at school.

Dr. de Bono established the World Centre for New Thinking which acts as

a platform and channel to make visible New Thinking from any source.Democracies and representative organisations, due to their nature, cannot

put forward new ideas. By definition "new ideas" are not representative ofexisting thinking. They are therefore high risk. Such organisations may be

perfectly capable of having new ideas but cannot risk putting them forward.

The specific function of the World Centre is to focus directly on new ideasand new possibilities: "hypothesis development."

CoRT Thinking Lessons

CoRT stands for Cognitive Research Trust. The programme was designed for

schools and is now widely in use throughout the world: Australia, CanadaNew Zealand, Japan, Malaysia, Malta, Singapore, South Africa, Italy, UK,

Ireland, U.S.A. Venezuela, Philippines, Russia etc.

Research has been done by Michele de Bene at the University of Verona,

Professor John Edwards at James Cook University, Australia and research isongoing by Sandra Dingli at the University of Malta in collaboration with a

team of teacher-researchers from the Department of Education in Malta.There is a specific conference room on my web site for teachers to discusstheir experiences (www.edwdebono.com).

The majority of mistakes in ordinary thinking (outside technical matters) aremistakes in perception. Our traditional emphasis on logic does little for

perception. If the perception is inadequate no amount of excellence in logicwill make up for that deficiency.
http://www.worldcentrefornewthinking.org/http://www.worldcentrefornewthinking.org/


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Perception is a matter of directing attention. If you are not looking in theright direction it does not matter how clever you are, you will not see what

you need to see.

The terms 'right' and 'left' are spatial directions. North, south, east, west are

also spatial directions. You can ask someone to 'look left' or to 'look south.'That instruction indicates a 'direction.' You look in that direction and see

what you see.

The CoRT programme is divided into six parts of ten lessons each. The first

part deals with 'broadening' perception. The fourth part introduces specific

creative-processes.

In the first part the 'attention-directing tools' include: PMI, for a systematic

scan of the Plus points, the Minus points and the Interesting points; OPV, forattention to Other People's views; C&S for a deliberate focus on the

consequences and sequel of a choice or action. The acronyms are necessary

in order for the 'instruction' to exist in the mind as an 'operating concept'.Mere attitudes have no identity. These very simple tools are very powerful in

their effect and can totally change initial judgements and perceptions.

The programme has been in use since 1972 with different cultures, ages and

abilities. It has been used in Gifted Education programmes and also withDown's Syndrome Children (by Susan Mackie). I myself have taught some of

the tools to 5,300 children from all sorts of schools, one morning in a sportsstadium in Johannesburg and to 2,400 school children one morning in Malta.

David Perkins, professor of Education at Harvard University has this to sayabout the CoRT programme in his book Outsmarting the IQ (NY, Free Press,

1995):'In designing for the practical teaching of thinking Edward de Bonorepeatedly emphasizes the importance of robust material that can be put

into place easily. This is certainly one of the features of the CoRTprogramme.'

'CoRT fairly transparently addresses the thinking defaults identified in theprevious chapter: hasty, fuzzy and sprawling thinking.'

'The four intelligence traps are vast; they make room for all kinds ofmishaps and a diversity of sorts of thinking. Nonetheless, CoRT plainly

touches on all four.'

'Intelligence can be taught by CoRT.'

These comments are particularly relevant since it was Professor Perkin'swork which showed the huge importance of perception in thinking.

Language And Human Evolution

Language has been a most important step in human evolution.


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Language is now the biggest barrier to further evolution.

This situation is not unusual in self-organising systems which reachtemporary states of "local equilibrium."

Language is an encyclopaedia of ignorance. Words get formed andfrozen into permanence at a relative stage of ignorance. That forces us

to perceive the world in an old fashioned way.

Perception is by far the most important part of thinking. Most errors of

thinking are errors of perception. If perception is faulty then noamount of logical excellence will give a useful answer.

Lateral Thinking

Creativity (in terms of new ideas and new perceptions) is not a mystical giftbut a learnable skill. The formal and deliberate processes of lateral thinkingare all based on a consideration of the behaviour of information in a self-

organising system, such as the nerve networks of the human brain - forwhich we should be most grateful. They also form asymmetric patterns: the

route from A to B is not the same as the route from B to A.

The formal techniques of lateral thinking include: provocation and

movement; challenge; concept fans and concept triangles; random entry,

etc. They are so powerful that in one afternoon on company (under theguidance of Carol Ferguson in South Africa) generated 21,000 ideas using

just one technique. In Singapore, Peter and Linda Low ran a workshop fromwhich came eight patents.

For formal training in the method, please contact distributors listed underwww.debonothinkingsystems.com

Parallel Thinking - The Six Thinking Hats

This framework is now very widely used around the world. It is used by top

executives at some of the world's largest corporations (Siemens, Bosch,

British Telecom, Prudential, ABB, 3M, Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia etc.) and byfour year-olds in school (Clayfield College, Brisbane, and the Low's School in

Singapore). Simon Batchelor, on an aid mission to Cambodia, found himselfteaching the framework to Khmer Villagers to get them involved in Water-

drilling projects.

It is an alternative to traditional argument and is far more constructive. At

any moment all thinkers involved are thinking in the same 'direction.' The

direction is indicated by one or other of the six coloured hats. For example,
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the White Hat requires an attention to information: what do we have; whatdo we need; what is missing. The Green Hat demands a focus on 'creative

effort.' When the Green Hat is in use everyone makes a creative effort: newideas, alternatives, modifications of an idea, possibilities, provocations, etc.

Experience has shown that Six Hat thinking is much more powerful andconstructive than argument or discussion. It is also very much faster.

Meeting times are reduced to one quarter or even one tenth.

The Six Hats method gets rid of egos, which are such a problem in

traditional thinking. It is no longer a matter of defending an idea or attacking

an idea. If you want to show off you do so be performing very well undereach hat.

The Six Hat method is based on a consideration of how the brain chemicalsdiffer when we are being cautious and when we are being positive. This

chemical pre-sensitization is a key part of brain function. You cannot

sensitize in all directions at once - so there is an absolute need to separateout the modes of thinking.

For formal training in the method, please contact distributors listed under

www.debonothinkingsystems.com

Six Action Shoes

The starting-point for this framework was a lunch in London with some

senior police officers. It was difficult to train people to deal with a variety ofsituations: paperwork; looking after a lost child; traffic duty; armed crime;

domestic disputes; major disasters and crises, etc.

The Six Action Shoes separate action into six basic styles: such as 'routineaction'; 'crisis action'; 'entrepreneurial action', etc. The action pattern foreach style can be learned. It then becomes a matter, in training, of

identifying the style - when you have to, you know what to do.

Unlike the Six Hats the Action Shoes can be combined. There may be a crisis

situation with high human values.

A formal training course is being prepared.

The de Bono Code

Suppose you were not allowed to use the word 'tomato'. If you wanted atomato you would have to describe it.

it is round and red

it could fit into the hand

much used in salads

the juice makes a good drink
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makes a sauce for spaghetti

often grown in greenhouses

may be dried in the sun

How much easier to have the word 'tomato'.

Suppose you could not use the word table:

a horizontal platform

raised above the ground so you could sit on a chair and use the

platform

used for eating off

usually has four legs but sometimes just one central leg.

to be found in houses

How much easier to have the word 'table.'

Words are codes which allow us to unlock and communicate complexsituations. We could indeed describe such situations but that is very differentfrom 'preceiving' them instantly.

We do have words for 'things' but language is poor in words for complexsituations. The fact that we can describe situations with lots of words but

that is not the same as perception.

So the "de Bono Code Book" sets out eighteen different codes for complex

situations. There are negotiating codes, youth codes, meeting codes, projectstatus codes, travel codes, relationship codes etc.

It may be difficult for a youngster to say to his or her parents: "Mum, I amin deep trouble. I need your help and advice. But I do not want the usualsermons, preaching and 'I told you so'. Can we work on this together? Can

we discuss it? Can you help me?"

Some youngsters might find that awkward to say. How much easier to say:

"Mum, I have an 8/1 here."

There are 257 codes which become an 'inter-language' for international use

(among other benefits such as compression for m-commerce).

See debonocode.com
http://www.debonocode.com/http://www.debonocode.com/

CoRT Thinking Lessons

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