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.

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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.

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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. 

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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.]

Thought Tweet #732 "...the parasites live where the great have little secret sores."

The Thinking Behind The Tweet

According to history or legend, when the great Henry Ford was caught in a very compromising situation he said, "Never complain, never explain". We cannot believe everything we read, so - perhaps Henry Ford was never in that compromising situation and even if he was perhaps he never said that never-never quip. And, perhaps Henry Ford was simply making timely use of the wisdom expressed earlier by the great British statesman, Benjamin Disraeli?

Regardless, Disraeli or Ford or both, "Never complain, never explain" makes for an interesting story-example of what makes great men great.

PS: "...the parasites live where the great have little secret sores."

Many people have a negative impression of Friedrich Nietzsche. I'm not one of them. Just after Disraeli's death, when Ford was a young man, Nietzsche wrote those words. ['This Spoke Zarathustra'...written in 4 parts, during the 1880's]

Thought Tweet #727 You know you are a leader when you feel confident in the face of confrontation.

The Thinking Behind The Tweet

You know you are a leader when you have confidence in situations of conflict.

[Bearing in mind...even the best of leaders have bad days along with their good days. For example, read the biography of Lord Admiral Nelson.]