EDWARD DE BONO'S MESSAGE
23rd February 1998

"Thinking Clubs 6"

Notes on the Thinking Clubs continue...

Thinking Clubs (6)

What is there to think about?

Every Club should keep a log book of 'things to think about'. At every meeting, or in advance, members of the club can suggest items for insertion into this log book.

FUN ITEMS: Fanciful and imaginary. What would happen if we had eyes at the back of our heads? What if dogs could be taught to talk? These items are the most fun. There are no right or wrong answers. They are also the best for practising the thinking tools - since there is no prior knowledge. Attention also stays on the thinking process itself since the content is not important.

NEWSPAPER ITEMS: items taken from a newspaper. These could be from the day of the meeting itself or any other day. The item has to be framed so that it can be thought about in an active way.

NEW IDEAS: members would imply, suggest, 'areas' where they would like some new ideas. Suggesting such areas is also part of the thinking process. A special 'Creative Hit List' can be kept of iddeas that specifically require creativity. "We need some new thinking here".

PERSONAL PROBLEMS: members can bring along their personal problems so long as they do not mind others thinking about them. Members who do this should be prepared to answer questions that might be asked.

WORK PROBLEMS: if members are agreed then the thinking clubs can also be used as a 'think tank' for the benefit of the members and the organisation for whom they work. All members should be agreed upon this.

LOCAL PROBLEMS: Local or community problems can be brought along - sometimes with the person of the body which owns the problem. Members can even set up a 'task force' to deal with a local problem.

WORLD PROBLEMS: these tend to be heavy (poverty, ecology, injustice, etc.). They can certainly be part of the thinking of clubs but only part. The purpose of the club is not to solve all the world's problems but to enjoy thinking. Large world problems need to be broken down into sub-problems or smaller focuses. It may arise that a member does not want to invite thinking on a subject but just to make a speech giving his or her own view.

ASSIGNED TASKS: from time to time I shall invite thinking clubs to work on tasks that I shall assign. There is no obligation to do so. Sometimes the output from these assigned tasks may be compiled into a report. There may even be competitions.

SELECTION: The selection of items to be brought about at a session may be made in different ways:

1. urgent and topical items that require immediate attention.
2. items which most members afree upon.
3. a random selection

The random selectiion is important because a thinker should be challenged to think about anything at all. The items in the log book can be numbered and then a number drawn from a bag. This allows selection from a small range of items, for example 'fun' items.

Edward de Bono
22nd February 1998