Here is a design task for the Creative Team and for others.Gangs tend to be negative because negative matters show easier achievement. You break the glass in a window: there is evidence of your achievement. You steal money: there is money in your hands. So youngsters who need "achievement" tend towards negativity - possibly because this is the only mechanism of achievement. People often attack ideas because that is their only means of achievement if they are not able to have ideas themselves.
So the design task is to design "positive" gangs. What immediate and small achievements cab be designed? I know that the 'Boy Scouts' was a successful movement in this direction but the movement is not attractive to all youngsters.
Perhaps we should construct a catalogue of 'do-able' positive actions which can show immediate achievement. Just the feeling of doing the right thing is not enough for my purpose. The achievement must be visible to the 'do-er'.
So think about it. I do have some ideas of my own but am not satisfied with them.
The school in the U.S.A. that encouraged 'random acts of kindness' was moving in the right direction.
Please send you submissions by email to edwdebono@msn.com with the subject: 'positive gangs'. The submissions will be published on the website anonymously.
Edward de Bono
30th August 1998
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