I find his book, “Serious Creativity: Using the Power of Lateral Thinking to Create New Ideas,” to be a fantastic resource for this. In it, he introduces his Six Thinking Hats as one of many lateral thinking tools and techniques.

I particularly like his Provocation technique to provoke new ideas through purposeful discontinuous thinking, as it forces people to think “outside the usual boundaries of ‘reasonableness’ … established by our experiences.” It’s a temporary “madness,” if you will. Provocative statements establish the starting point from which you work back to new ideas or concepts.

A few examples he gives are:

- Cars should have square wheels.
- Planes should land upside down.
- Letters should be closed after they have been posted.
- Estimate the height of a tall building by putting it on its side, walk along its length, and remember to count your steps.

And, I appreciate how he provides clear and simple ways to provoke. For example,

— Escape — You cancel, negate, drop, remove, or deny that which we take for granted. E.g., “Restaurants offer food / Restaurants do not offer food.” From this can come the idea of a restaurant that instead offers room where people can bring their own food into the elegant surroundings.

— Reversal — “I drink orange juice for breakfast / Orange juice drinks me for breakfast.” From this can come the idea of a shower head that offers different scents you can choose to scent the water you immerse yourself in during your morning shower.

— Exaggeration – “There are not enough police to patrol an area and keep watch.” Exaggeration: “Police have six eyes.” From this came the idea of enlisting people in the neighborhood to help keep an eye on things, and thus the Neighborhood Watch program. This is a real case De Bono was involved in.

– Distortion – You take normal arrangements and change them. E.g., Letters are closed after they receive postage. This can lead to the idea that if you don’t want to pay the postage, your letter will remain open for a direct mail advertiser, who can insert their mailer and pay the postage for you.

– Wishful Thinking – “My plane waits for me if I’m stuck in traffic.” From this can come the idea that all flights are scheduled half an hour ahead of the actual departure time, and if you arrive late, you can still board, but you pay a surcharge; or you get a discount if you check in early; or, you are automatically re-booked for the next flight.

And, I wholeheartedly agree with De Bono hat organizations need to have what we might call a Chief Concept Officer and to have a Creativity Center that drives creativity throughout the organization, supported by Creative Process Managers and Trainers.

There is a real need for this, but given the nature of so many organizations, perhaps the best way to approach this is to hire an outside firm to train them in these matters, and then help them manage and drive the creativity and innovation they need to survive and thrive.