Edward de Bono is one of my heroes. In my opinion, he is the world's greatest creative thinking educator.

I have written about Edward de Bono and his 'Six Thinking Hats'...'Six Thinking Hats' is an extremely helpful tool for sorting out your thinking and for communicating with others about thinking.

Here's a picture-summary:

Edward de Bono's 'Six Thinking Hats'

I have a de Bono section in my library. My goal is to collect and red all his books. That's a challenge because he has been prolific, writing well over 50 books. I have just completed reading de Bono's 'Six Action Shoes', (1991). 'Six Action Shoes' is an extremely helpful tool for sorting out your actions and for communicating with others about actions.

Here's a picture-summary:

Edward de Bono's 'Six Action Shoes'

These thinking and action tools provide excellent ways to Seek Simple....a Spirited Leaders' philosophy. When thinking can be summarized in 6 ways...that's seeking simple. When action can be summarized in 6 ways...that's seeking simple. And, that's why Edward de Bono is so amazing. He has been able to unleash his genius [and help others do the same] because he is the master in simplifying before choosing how to think, simplifying before choosing how to act, and knowing when and how to be creative. In other books, he illustrates exactly how to be creative. [Our recent thought post 'Taking Curiosity to Creativity' contains de Bono's signature contribution - lateral thinking.]

Now, Seek Simple is one of Spirited Leaders' core philosophies...another is:

Business Contains Only 3 Things: People, Process, & Situations

Much has been posted about People, Process, & Situations.

Now we will show how Edward de Bono's Six Thinking Hats and Six Action Shoes can be incorporated.

Business Contains Only 3 Things: People, Process, & Situations. 

Here's the picture...

A snapshot in time during your business day - that's what we mean by Situations. That snapshot will contain people [at least 1, you] and it will contain process [at least 1, your thinking]. Process either involves People or machines/mechanisms/tools [designed by People]. For the time being, let's concentrate on the Processes performed by People. There are only 2 types of Processes performed by People: Thinking and Action. If we embrace de Bono's tools, the Processes performed by People have 12 components: 6 ways of thinking and 6 ways of taking action.

In any Situation, People can decide which of the 12 things they will perform.

Here's the picture...

Those are good questions to ask!

[That's Seeking Simple and finding it.]

[That makes for one very Good Habit.]

About Tools & Business Improvements

It started with rocks and sticks. In our early days, we used them to do work.

We needed them to perform what our bodies could not do. We used tools to make work easier and less risky. We used rocks to injure prey. We used rocks to scrape the meat off bones. We used rocks to open shells. We burned sticks to keep us warm. We burned sticks to protect ourselves from animals.

We used sticks & stones to make spears for hunting. 

We used sticks to support us when our legs were injured and we used sticks as spears for fishing. 

Later we used rocks and slings to hunt prey from a distance. We used sticks to create bows and arrows for protection and hunting.

Tools have played a major role in our lives...in summary, 5 ways:

1. Making them,
2. Exchanging them, 
3. Putting them to good use, 
4. Maintaining them, &
5. Upgrading them [as technologies and our bank accounts allow].

Thought Tweet #734 I'm annoyed by that cliché, 'skin in the game'. I want to hear about skull in the game.

The Thinking Behind The Tweet

Let's forget about putting money in & getting that pound of flesh and set our sights a bit higher...that is, let's concentrate on kilograms of neurons packaged in open-minded skulls. It is time we started to recognize the attributes delivered in the form of thick skin and thin skulls.