Edward de Bono’s Effective Thinking Course

• http://www.edwdebono.com/course/ index.htm
• Part 1: Basic Thinking Tools
  • 1. Are you a thinker? This section looks at your self image as a thinker and at thinking skills
  • 2. P.M.I .
    • Analysis of Plus, Minus and Interesting points.
    • This is a powerful tool for considering new ideas
  • 3. A.G.O .
    • The examination of Aims, Goals and Objectives.
    • A.G.O . is used to clarify thinking , for example, when considering new initiatives
  • 4. CAF
    • CAF involves a structured process to the Consideration of All Factors.
    • It is often used when considering situations prior to developing ideas.
    • CAF helps ensure that no possibilities have been overlooked.
  • 5. O.P.V .
    • O.P.V . is an extension of CAF that gets you to consider Other People’s Views.
    • Almost any thinking activity involves other people, at least indirectly: choices, decisions, plans, and so forth.
    • O.P.V . tries to get the thinker inside the heads of those involved.
  • 6. FIP
    • FIP is a basic tool like the others.
    • It provides a deliberate instruction to you (or to others) to focus directly on priorities (in general or at a particular moment).
    • FIP stands for First Important Priorities.
  • 7. A.P.C .
    • A.P.C . is another of the convenience tools that we can use with ourselves or with others in order to direct our minds to carry out some task.
    • A.P.C . involves looking for the Alternatives, Possibilities or Choices (whichever is appropriate) in that situation.
  • 8. C.& S.
    • " C" stands for Consequences,
    • " S" stands for Sequel.
    • Doing a " C&S" means focusing upon and spelling out the consequences that might arise from a decision, course of action or change of any sort.
• Part 2: Thinking Situations
  • 1. Plan and action:
    • Getting things done, making something happen, implementation, carrying something out.
    • Thinking is involved not only in arriving at a decision but also in carrying it out.
    • Planning is usually an essential part of getting something done.
  • 2. Decision and evaluation:
    • Judging the value of an option.
      • Is this worth doing?
    • Making decisions and making choices.
    • Why decision making can be so difficult.
    • Decision-making as necessity and opportunity.
  • 3. Problem-solving and design:
    • Finding solutions to problems, and designing solutions to problems.
    • In a sense any design task is also a problem-solving task because there is something to be achieved and no obvious way of achieving it
  • 4. Coping and organising :
    • Coping with confusion and mess.
    • Creating order out of chaos.
    • Organising different elements so that the whole works- a common enough real-life situation.
  • 5. Negotiation and conflict:
    • Two party situations.
    • Each side trying to get what it wants.
    • This extends from win/win or mutual benefit negotiation to argument and conflict.
  • 6. Communication and persuasion:
    • The transfer of information.
    • The transfer of perceptions.
    • Getting other people to see what you want them to see.
    • Clarity of communication.
    • Opening up perceptions in persuasion.
  • 7. Exploration and discussion:
    • Making a map of the situation.
    • Getting as much information as possible.
    • Investigation, hypothesis and hypothesis testing.
    • Explanation: what is going on?
    • Discussion with the purpose of exploring a situation: different information and different views.
  • 8. Opportunity and initiative:
    • "Greenfield" thinking.
    • Much of our thinking is reactive: we are forced to think about something.
    • In this Section we look at initiatives: we set out to think about something because we want to.
    • Looking for opportunities.
• Part 3: Creativity and Lateral Thinking
  • 1. The need for lateral thinking:
    • Realising the need to improve the quality of our thinking.
    • Application of thinking to different areas.
  • 2. Basic level creativity:
    • The cure for arrogance and the deliberate search for alternatives: concepts and explorations.
    • The mechanics of new routes.
  • 3. Judgement and movement:
    • The difference between perception and processing.
    • Patterning systems, and the concept of idiom, humour , logic and lateral thinking.
  • 4. Escape:
    • The first technique of lateral thinking.
  • 5. Stepping stone:
    • The second technique.
  • 6. Random juxtaposition:
    • The third technique.
  • 7. The treatment of ideas:
    • Constraints, shaping, using and harvesting.
  • 8. Focus:
    • How to define the creative thrust.
    • The creation of idea sensitive areas for the generation of creative thinking.