He is equally renowned for his development of the Six Thinking 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 Oxford Dictionary.
Dr. de Bono was born in Malta. He was a Rhodes Scholar 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 City University, and the University of Central England. The New Univeristy of Advancing Technology in Phoenix, Arizona appointed Dr. de Bono Da Vinci Professor of Thinking in May 2005.
His techniques and work focus on improving the elements that constitute a perception 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 de Bono's work.
Whereas Rene Descartes propounded "cogito ergo sum' (I think therefore I am), Edward de Bono proposes 'ago ergo erigo' (I act therefore I construct/ 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 countries and 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.
The appeal of Dr. de Bono's work is its simplicity and practicality. It can be used 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, regional Governments 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 Europe which 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 of existing 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 ideas and new possibilities: "hypothesis development."
