EDWARD DE BONO'S MESSAGE
20th July 1997

"..there should be more time.."

This message comes from the Philippines where I had a good meeting with President Fidel Ramos yesterday and gave a seminar today.

It maybe that I shall repeat myself from time to time in these messages since they are informal and not pre-planned in advance. I do not read through all the previous messages before writing the current message.

There are several important things that I intend to announce via this page before the end of the year. I have been travelling so much that I have not had the time to focus on matters which need serious attention. As I come to the end of rather a long tour od Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines there should be more time. On the tour I have become increasingly impressed by the way in which the simple framework of the Six Hats (parallel thinking) has been taken up by both adults and children. It provides a real alternative to the traditional very limited argument system which is only concerned with "what is" and does not have the constructive capability to design "what can be".

At this moment I do not have a clear idea as to how much members of the Team, or other visitors to the site, want to be involved in projects. I would like to think that in time there could be a powerful team with energy, ability and motivation. If this were the case then many aspects I have in mind could be delegated to those who might be interested. Let me know your thoughts on this(edwdebono@msn.com subject:thoughts).

I have no doubt that there are many very bright people out there. The difficult question is how intellectual ability gets translated into effective motion. What are the routes and the means? Perhaps this could become a focus task in the future.

Meanwhile the focus for the month is on the design of the curriculum of the new profession of 'work designer'.

Edward de Bono
17th July 1997
Manila, Philippines