EDWARD DE BONO'S MESSAGE
27th October 1997

Provocation

One of the toughest tests of creativity is to see if you suprise yourself. Many moderately creative people can turn up new alternatives and new ideas - but they really suprise themselves. Such ideas are usually formats borrowed from other ideas or the assembly of sub-ideas. To set out to have new ideas about a specific subject and then to suprise yourself with an idea that you have never thought of before is very much harder. In fact it is virtually impossible to do unless you use some of the specific tools of lateral thinking, such as provocation.

I suspect that only a minority of visitors to this site are currently aware of the deliberate processes of lateral thinking. Those that are aware should use the process more deliberately. There is no need to lay out the thinking steps - it is enough to share the final new idea.

There are several ongoing topics of this site and visitors are encouraged to challenge and practice their thinking on these topic.

Edward de Bono
25th October 1997
Australia