Conference given a lesson in creative thinking

The education system wastes about two-thirds of the talent in society, according to Dr Edward de Bono, one of the world's leading authorities on creative thinking.

Speaking in Dublin yesterday at a conference on civic society organised by The Wheel, a network of community and voluntary groups and individuals, Dr de Bono likened the education system to a pyramid, saying that the top one-third of pupils went on to higher learning. "And the rest leave school with nothing, except the sense that they're not very bright. And yet they are. They are good thinkers if they are given the chance."

He referred to his involvement in a UK programme for unemployed teenagers. About five hours had been spent teaching these young people "how to think", and this had increased their employment fivefold, Dr de Bono said. "A year later, 90 per cent of those youngsters were still off the unemployment register. Now that is very significant. If five hours could do more for these youngsters than 10 years of education, then perhaps there's something missing in education."

These teenagers had left school thinking that they were stupid. Yet, once they realised that they were not, their self-confidence improved and they got jobs.

Dr de Bono reached international prominence after he introduced the concept of "lateral thinking" - a more creative way of thinking. He has written 68 books and has made two television series.

Nothing was more fundamental than our thinking ability, he told the audience. The quality of our future depended directly on the quality of our thinking. However, the relationship between intelligence and thinking was not as direct as people believed. "Thinking is a skill, intelligence is a potential, and there are many highly-intelligent people who are very bad thinkers."

He said that these people used their intelligence to form a view and then spent all their energy defending that viewpoint. The quickest reward for being intelligent was in proving other people wrong, as this was immediately satisfying, he said. Someone with a slower mind might reach a better conclusion because they took more time to think about an issue.

One of our most traditional habits of thinking was to argue our point of view until someone won, Dr de Bono said. This was "extremely inefficient".

Promoting the value of parallel thinking, he said that this involved everyone thinking in the same direction at the same time. When people moved away from argument and everyone used his or her intelligence and thinking faculties in parallel, very different results could be achieved.

Dr de Bono's concept involves the use of six different-coloured hats to indicate the mode of thinking. The simplest remark in an argument was always a negative or critical one, he said. However, if the six hats were used, the criticism could only be made during the "black hat" phase.

He had taught this method to the heads of the peace committees in South Africa before elections there. The participants had always started with the red hat (emotion), where people expressed their feelings. "Then they could get on with their meeting," he said.

The conference continues today in Jurys Hotel, Ballsbridge. Speakers include Father Seán Healy, of the Conference of Religious in Ireland; Mr Dermot McCarthy, secretary-general of the Department of the Taoiseach; and Mr David Begg, ICTU general secretary.