EDWARD DE BONO'S MESSAGE
5th October 1997

Education Concepts, Northern Ireland, TOPP and Six Hats Notation

I am sorry that it was not possible to give you a message last week.

Last week I was a speaker at the TED NY Conference which was focused on education. The quality of technology was excellent but the educational concepts were old fashioned and disappointing. Easier access to more and more information is useful but far from the answer. There is even the danger that the very abundance of information may reduce thinking ability even further. This through the belief that somewhere there is information which will provide the answer or tell you what you should be thinking. As usual the technology is far ahead of the concepts of use.

From time to time the notion is put forward that 'feeling' is what really matters and that thinking is left-brain and less important. This is very dangerous. Almost all man's inhumanity to man has been fuelled by 'feeling'. It is true that logic cannot change feeling but perception does and can. Thinking is not only concerned with logic - in fact this is a small part of thinking. Frameworks like the CoRT programme, DATT and the Six Hats are more concerned with perception.

It is also important that from an early age children learn to think. It is not enough that an elite tells them what to think and feel. No matter how well meaning that elite might be.

So my overall impression was that education has such a very long way to do to make the best use of human potential.

The Design Conference on Northern Ireland has now moved into the Inner Ring for dialogue and discussion amongst those taking part. At the same time the Outer and Middle Rings remain open for anyone to put in constructive ideas and suggestions.

Later in the week, in another area - and slightly tongue in cheek - I am introducing a new political party. Just as the Design Conference on Northern Ireland may be the first time the Internet has been used to help in a political process, so this may be the first political party launched on the net. The party is TOPP which can mean 'Tired of Politics Party'. You will be invited to make suggestions, to join the new party and to spread the message of the new party in anyway you can.

The Six Hats method is now becoming very widely used indeed. It speeds up discussions and makes them far more productive. Suggestions have been made with regards to simplified symbols for the hats. The following are the official shorthand symbols:

• hW = white hat
• hR = red hat
• hB = black hat
• hY = yellow hat
• hG = green hat
• hH = blue hat

It is true that these symbols do not carry across languages but many international signs such as Kodak, Apple, Ford stay in the language of origin.

Edward de Bono
3rd October 1997
Sydnet, Australia