Edward de Bono

Edward de Bono is a truly fascinating and impactful educational figure. Believing that teaching the ability to think was being neglected in education, he created and promoted ways of thinking, which were outside the traditional, step-by-step, developmental thinking process. Instead, he offered what he coined lateral thinking and later went on to establish parallel thinking. The former embraced an outlook toward considering markedly different possible tracks to bring forth new conceptual understandings, which could emerge independently of purely logical thought, akin to the discontinuity found in some types of humor, while the latter stood for generating multiple views from differing perspectives on a topic concurrently with the sole purpose of moving overall comprehension of the topic forward. A thinking tool he created for utilizing this parallel thinking process is called “the six thinking hats.” In this thinking tool, each hat represents a unique view on the topic, which the “wearer” would utilize when investigating the domain in question. Forever linked to the promotion and development of thinking and thinking systems and tools to enhance people’s ability to think more creatively, broadly, and effectively, only time will tell how many of the thinking systems, tools, and approaches de Bono designed will become as ubiquitous, and as widely employed, as something like the pro-con list (i.e., decisional balance sheet).