EDWARD DE BONO'S MESSAGE
19th January 1997

Creativity can be used for very serious matters: such as design improvements in democracy. Creativity can also be used for much less serious fun matters like the design of riddles or jokes for six year olds. The creative processes, however, remain the same.

Contrary to what many people believe, and hope, the creative process is not natural to the human brain. The brain is specifically designed to be 'non-creative'. If it were creative the brain would be utterly useless. It would be impossible to get up in the morning or to function at all.

With only eleven items of clothing there are 39,916,800 ways of getting dressed. To go through these and to sort them out would take a lifetime. We do not need to because the brain simply switches us into the appropriate routine. That is the basis of perception and of action.

Because creativity is not 'natural' the various 'release' approaches to creativity, such as brainstorming, are very weak. We need to develop a skill in the more formal processes (as described in my book SERIOUS CREATIVITY published by Harper Business in New York and Harper Collins in London). From time to time I shall review some of these processes here so that registered members of the Team can refresh their understanding of them.

Because the processes of deliberate creativity are not natural there is a need to practice them. Riding a bicycle is not at all natural but once we have learned to ride a bicycle then it becomes easy. One of the key purposes behind the formation of the Edward de Bono Creative Team^TM is to provide a framework within which to develop creative thinking habits and skills both as a 'hobby' and also as a 'professional' qualification.

In my experience there are a lot of people who think that they are much more creative than they really are. Such people have the motivation to be creative and so spend more time on creative efforts. They are, however, much too ready to rely on their 'natural' talent. This results in a low level of creativity with variations around a known theme - rather than any fundamental change of concept. People in advertising would reply, perfectly correctly, that they are not advertising to the public but to their clients who are rarely ready to accept really new ideas."

Edward de Bono