EDWARD DE BONO'S MESSAGE
13th April 1997

Bonto Appraisal

Still more bontos are published today. Thank you for sending then in. You may continue to send them in - see Creative Team - and periodically they will be published on this site.

Some of the bontos are very good. In particular I want to acknowledge the contributions of Jim Duthoit and Paul Scott who have both been very energetic. One of my favourites is by Paul Scott:

Once again I want to emphasis the huge importance of the structure. Many of the entries did not follow the tight bonto structure:

1st line: action
2nd line: reason behind the action
3rd line: result of the action
4th line: general philosophical reflection

In many of the entries the final line was directly related to the "story". While these may have been very good they were not pure bontos. The fourth line must be able to stand on its own as a general philosophical reflection on life as in:

In some case the rhyming was not quite good enough. In almost all case, including my own, the syllables and beat were not right. This aspect needs much more work.

Many people are somtimes confused that I write both about creativity and also about structure and discipline. The two are not as contradictory as many assume.

First of all a bonto does not exist as a separate identity unless it retains the structure of that identity.

Secondly, creativity to fit a tight structure is a greater creative achievement - and also gives a greater sense of achievement and success (the main purpose behind the bontos). If "anything goes" then you have not achieved much.

Please now direct your thinking to the "challenge" set for this month. The challenge is to suggest, lay out or design new professions that are going to be needed in the future.

(An architect is a "living space" designer. In the future we shall need a totally new profession called a "work/value designer". At the moment we leave it to entrepreneurs to design work and so provide employment. Big companies are downsizing. Government budgets do not permit expanded work forces. Domestic service is no longer an option. So job creation comes from the work design of entrepreneurs.

An entrepreneur has to have motivation, courage, risk taking, energy, people management, financial management etc. There are some people who would be able to design businesses but have not the ability or dedication to run them. Such a "work design" profession would show that value could be created if A was put together with B with C as an option. Just as an architect designs a house so the work or value designer would create value which people would be willing to pay for. Other people would then pick up and run with the design. A good work designer might design 50 businesses a year.)

Creativity is a matter of motivation, technique, habit and practice. So keep the practice going.

Edward de Bono
11th April 1997
Seychelles