Palace for our thoughts Down Under

Edward de Bono, the creator of lateral thinking and the Six Thinking Hats technique, is coming to Australia. De Bono is a regular visitor Down Under. He says it’s his favourite country and at one point he owned an island off the coast of Queensland. “I like the people – they’re open, they have a sense of humour and they like new ideas,” he says.

In 1999, de Bono wrote the book Why I Want to be King of Australia (Penguin Books, 1999). He has not quite reached that lofty ambition, but in the meantime he has been crowned king of Geraldton and Margaret River in Western Australia and Launceston in Tasmania.

I interviewed de Bono a couple of weeks ago – by phone, he was at home in Malta – and it was the first time I have spoken to him since I wrote the book, Rethink: The Story of Edward de Bono in Australia (John Wiley, 2006). He was in fine form.

We had a wide-ranging discussion, but I could sense that he was especially engaged when I mentioned that my children studied the Six Thinking Hats at primary school and had been very keen followers. De Bono’s thinking techniques are often associated with business – and it’s certainly where most of his wealth has come from – but he has a particular passion for children’s education. When he visits Australia he never fails to make time in his schedule to fit in at least one school visit.

During our conversation de Bono was interested to know whether my boys had kept up their interest in the Six Hats and was disappointed when I told him that secondary schools are not as keen as primary schools on de Bono’s tools and techniques. “That’s a pity,” he said. “It’s important to have continuity.”

But de Bono, who wrote his seminal The Use of Lateral Thinking (Jonathan Cape) in 1967 and made his first visit to Australia the following year, had something else on his mind. He believes Australia should be the home of an international clearing house for “new ideas and new possibilities”.

The body, which would be known as the Palace of Thinking, would collect ideas from around the world, commission task forces to apply creative thinking techniques to world issues and publish the best ideas to encourage discussion and, ideally, action.

“Australia would be an ideal site for the Palace of Thinking because it is a country open to new ideas,” de Bono says.

Such a grand name for this new institution is not a coincidence: de Bono believes it’s important that the body be housed in a dedicated building and an imposing one at that.

“There is no point in having a back office on the 11th floor of an office tower,” de Bono says.
“It has to be an iconic building that says this is a serious place dedicated to designing and putting forward new ideas.”

De Bono says it is not necessary to construct a new building – an existing building, such as a museum or stately private residence would suffice. He suggests the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne, which de Bono says could become the Palace of Thinking whenever the body is in session.

Tasmania would be another possible location.

“Imagine what an opportunity it would be for Tasmania to be known around the world as the place ideas come from,” de Bono says.

Wherever the location, the Palace of Thinking would give Australia, “a unique and significant place in the world as a focal point for new thinking”.

The idea for a Palace of Thinking is not new. In 2008, de Bono suggested his native Malta as the site for the body, but the idea floundered for lack of funding. He has also flagged the idea in Australia on previous visits, but now, at 78, he is keen to see his cherished concept come to fruition.

De Bono says he will raise the idea when he visits Melbourne in November for the Creative Innovation 2011 conference, at which he will be a headline presenter. He was also a presenter at last year’s inaugural Creative Innovation conference, also held in Melbourne.

If government is cool on the idea of a Palace of Thinking he hopes that a “generous individual” or foundation may be attracted to the concept.

That’s not such a far-fetched possibility. Melbourne is the home of the de Bono Institute, founded in 1996 with an $8.5 million endowment from the Andrews Foundation.

The founder and executive producer of the Creative Innovation conference, Tania de Jong, says de Bono’s participation at the conference is a coup.

“For anyone in business or involved in managing change, this is a huge opportunity to hear firsthand one of the world’s brightest minds and to participate in a master class with the absolute master of creative thinking,” she says.

Do you agree? Write and tell me your views.

BRW

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