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Short story: The doggy follows a butterfly and finds a bigger bone hidden
in another place.
Longer version: Poincare's dog smelled the red bone on the other side of the I-shaped
black fence. Then a strange attractor in the form of Lorenz the butterfly draw doggy's
attention. The movement of the butterfly makes the dog forget the bone and fence at once.
Doggy followed the spiral and illogical path without knowing that the direction was
'wrong' or thinking what will come out of it - and surprise! Doggy found a huge hidden
bone. 'Big Bones of Wisdom' extracted from the story:
- We should be prepared to treat even a 'bad idea' or 'silly remark' as a provocation -
even from the most unlikely or incorrect ideas something useful may come out if a movement
effort is made.
- The butterfly could symbolise the random input technique - the simplest of all
creative tools.
- A small provocation can lead to surpringly great results - something simple that
seems illogical, irritating or unimportant can have powerful effects.
- The Butterfly Effect - in this type of systems even small deviations can result in
large changes (a butterfly flapping its wings in Rio might 'cause' a tornado in Texas).
©Jukka Kukkonen & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1997
The dog was walking along one day when he was confronted by a fence. Behind the fence
lay a big juicy bone.
The dog turned 180 degrees, and kept on walking...
20000 miles later he reaches the bone.
Moral: You may require a global perspective, and to confront many other obstacles,
before you reach what you set out to achieve. Never give up.
©Steve Smith & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1997
The dog was walking along one day when he was confronted by a fence. Behind the fence
lay a big juicy bone.
The dog went up very close to the fence. He looked harder and harder and harder at the
fence. He went to one end and the other. Eventually he noticed a hinge. And after a little
pushing, the gate opened. The bone was delicious.
Moral: The harder you push, and the harder you examine the situation, the more likely
your chance of success.
©Steve Smith & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1997
The dog was walking along one day when he was confronted by a fence. Behind the fence
lay a big juicy bone. The dog tried very hard to get the bone, but it was no use. The bone
was inaccessible.
The dog immediately declared the benefits of vegetarianism, and has ignored the bone to
this day.
Moral: If you do give up, pursue a constructive and beneficial course of action anyway.
Some things are not meant to be.
©Steve Smith & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1997
The dog was walking along one day when he was confronted by a fence. Behind the fence
lay a big juicy bone.
The dog immediately picked up the page of this book, and folded it along the fence. The
dog was then adjacent to the bone, and gobbled it all up!
Moral: Sometimes in a two dimensional world you've got to think in three dimensions to
succeed.
©Steve Smith & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1997
Once upon a time there was a dog, who spied a big juicy bone behind a fence. Try as he
might, the dog couldn't reach the bone. So he moved as close as he could and waited and
watched and watched and waited.
Eventually, the bone unzipped itself and out sprang a second dog !! The second dog
explained "I wanted to meet new and exciting dogs, so I disguised myself as a
bone" The first dog laughed, and unzipped itself. Inside there was a cat, who purred,
turned and walked away, grateful for the presence of the fence.
Moral: Don't trust your perception and the basic appearance and assumptions of any
problem. Things can change rapidly. A solution you seek might end up revealing a problem
seeking you! (Failed gambits are like this).
©Steve Smith & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1997
The dog longingly looked at a bone on the other side of the fence. He drooled and
looked and looked and drooled.
In fact, he became so fixated with the bone that he wasted away to scrawny shadow of
his former self. At that point he could squeeze under the bottom rung on the fence to
reach the bone. Under he went ! He gobbled it all up, and became so fat that he couldn't
return to his own side of the fence.
Moral: Some thoughts consist of one-way stepping stones. Be aware of any "point of
no return" in your creative implementations!
©Steve Smith & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1997
The dog hungrily approached the bone on the other side of the fence. After a determined
effort, the dog eventually reached the bone, only to find it was made of wood! The farmer
built his fences from the bones of his former dogs who died in the process of seeking his
wooden bones...
Moral: There are traps as the result of all thinking. Identify the trade-offs and the
traps, the compromises and the alternatives. Obvious targets may be not the ultimate goal.
©Steve Smith & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1997
Once upon a time a hungry dog spied a bone behind a fence. Try as he might, he could
not get past it.
Nearby were six coloured hats. He put on a white one. He realized that he was a dog,
there was a fence between him and a bone, he had six hats, and he felt hungry.
Next he tried a red hat. He instantly felt mad and frustrated. "Why can't I get
the bone?" "Why can't the bone be on this side of the fence?" "Why is
there no food for me to eat?" Who put that stupid fence there, anyway?"
Next the dog put on a blue hat. "I'm certain that I should try each of these hats
on in turn. There will be a way to resolve my hunger, get past the fence, and get the
bone, if I can just think it through!"
Then the dog wore the black hat. "I don't think I am ever going to get that bone.
It can't be reached with my short doggy legs", he said.
The yellow hat was next. The dog put it on and considered how good it would be to
succeed in getting the bone. It would taste very good indeed.
The green hat was next. It was just the right size. He tried to dig under the fence but
the topsoil was only inches deep, and rock lay underneath. He dug everywhere, but to no
avail. He stood back and looked at all the hundreds of piles of topsoil. The green hat
felt very tight. He pushed the piles all against the fence to form a mound. He climbed the
mound, went over the fence and munched on the bone like happy dogs do.
©Steve Smith & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1997
Once upon a time there was a little bone who spied an old dog behind a fence. The fence
seemed secure enough but the bone wasn't so sure, and really wanted the dog to go away.
The bone was very afraid of being eaten by the dog. "I must think laterally"
said the bone.
The dog eventually read myriad stories at the de Bono website about how it could get to
the bone. The dog implemented the website wisdom, passed the fence and came towards the
bone, closer and closer. The dog was salivating. The bone prayed. "I must think
laterally" said the bone.
The dog got closer, its large teeth clearly visible. The bone became more visibly
agitated. "I must think laterally " said the bone, shaking all the way to its
epiphyseal plates.
Just as the dog was about to swallow the bone, the bone did what all bones do as a
final act of brutal retaliation against their predators. "I must think
laterally" said the bone.
The bone then lodged itself in the dog's throat... Laterally of course!
Moral: You can teach an old dog new tricks, but Lateral Thinking and "pointing the
bone" will work every time.
("Pointing the bone" is an Australian indiginous native curse which spells
bad luck for the "pointee")
©Steve Smith & Edward de Bono Creative Team 1997
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