Think!: Before It's Too Late: Twenty Three Reasons Why World Thinking is So Poor [Paperback]

No doubt, De Bono has coined a number of useful concepts for creative thinking (e.g. the 'six thinking hats'), and short summaries of these are included in the book. But the bulk of the discussion consists of endless stories about how the world became a vastly better place through de Bono's techniques. The author claims, without a hint of irony, that humanity in its entirety (!) had failed, throughout the past 2,400 years (!), to be creative; and that the wheel of progress only started to turn again when de Bono started his work. De Bono might have given us a few nice creativity tools, but to confuse them with a World History of Great Ideas is preposterous.

At a time when we're celebrating man's astonishing achievement of landing on the moon 40 years ago, the father of lateral thinking has written a new book that challenges all of us to take our own `giant leap' - not into some cold, dark void but in our innate ability to think.

It's not difficult to imagine that the physical intricacy of the human brain, with its complex network of rivers and canal systems is similar to the topology of the moon. And no less challenging to navigate, too.
Dr Edward De Bono may not be a household name to many, yet his contribution to the understanding of why we need to re-wire the way we think is no less impressive or significant than the achievements of Neil Armstrong and the astronauts of Apollo XI.

"Changes in perception will change emotion and therefore behaviour. If your perception changes, you have no choice: your emotions and behaviour change too," De Bono writes. And of course our own perception of space exploration changed forever on the 21st July 1969.

According to the documentary I've just watched on BBC 4, and as hard as it is to believe, the US public got bored of manned lunar landings and as a result NASA pulled the plug on any further expeditions to the moon after Apollo XVII in 1972.

In comparison, de Bono's journey into the power of `thinking about thinking' has taken the best part of half a century, created an enormous library of books on the subject of lateral thinking, a formidable arsenal of powerful tools that help problem solving - I hate the term `brainstorming' - plus a Foundation in his name. And the work continues to this day, all around the world.

I was fortunate to meet De Bono recently at an international soccer forum rather than at some plenary session at Davos (which perhaps sounds a tad more impressive!).

Nevertheless, it's perhaps a mark of the portability of his approach to creative thinking that created a path to the door of hundreds of world famous football clubs as well as their sponsors eagerly seeking new ways to make more money and beat the credit crunch; a session that I chaired at Wembley Stadium that explored how clubs and brands could get more creative in their sales and marketing efforts.
What's surprising, perhaps even baffling, is how simple and easy it is to use these lateral thinking tools.

Perhaps we need to stop long enough to consider someone else's POV (point of view)? The danger is to take things for granted. "We are so smug and satisfied with our existing thinking that we cannot see how poorly it serves us in the area of human affairs, creativity and design. More and more argument will not produce better ideas," observes De Bono.
I would tend to agree that critical analysis has its place but an over emphasis one style of thinking over all others can leave the mind paralysed to see beyond this inherent limitation on our ability to think and problem solve.

And that's not the same as saying our existing thinking is bad. It's seriously inadequate to deal with the challenges that face all of us today. In his new book, de Bono explains how easy it is to make that giant leap in our creative thinking.

Think! Before It's Too Late is a précis of all of De Bono's most revolutionary ideas regarding lateral thinking and tools for creative thinking, including The Six Thinking Hats and The Six Value Medals. De Bono, who has worked with major corporations in the world, such as IBM, Du Pont, British Airways and Ericsson, examines why we think the way we do from a historical perspective and uses some of his famous thinking techniques combined with new ideas to show us how to change the way we think.

If we strengthen our ability and elevate the power of how we think - then anything is possible.

This is probably the worst book de Bono has written, but that doesn't mean it's without merit. The good: it's a handy summary of his thinking methods. And it's arguably better to read of ideas such as the Six Thinking Hats in a chapter rather than an over-long book (and many of his ideas are potentially a great aid to businesses in particular).

The bad: the stunning amount of self-love shown throughout the book. He effectively crowns himself the King of modern thinking with some very hazy arguments that aren't backed up by proper evidence, even going so far as writing a whole chapter about how fantastic he is and what prizes he's won. Plus he continually repeats his points.

But what really spoils it for me is that it feels like a huge advert for his courses, seminars and website.

In short, there are some really good ideas in here, but you have to fight to extract them.