Edward de Bono is internationally known for his work on creativity and as the originator of the concept of lateral thinking. His academic background is in psychology and medicine, and he has held faculty appointments at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, London and Harvard. He is a prolific author and has taught thinking in both business and academic forums.
Taking de Bono's ideas laterally
De Bono’s work has had a significant effect on my thinking since the late 1960s. A key contribution has been his articulation of the brain as a self-organizing system; and, in my view, many of the more appealing theories on the dynamics of organizations (eg as set out by the Stacey school) are consistent with the ideas that he has been advancing for many years. The more that I have developed my thinking on organizations as networks of ongoing, self-organizing conversations, the more parallels that seem to exist with de Bono’s many writings on the brain and lateral thinking.
Links to emerging theories on organizational dynamics
Today, de Bono is thought of primarily as an author and teacher of creative thinking techniques. However, as suggested below, the principles of ‘brain dynamics’ that underpin his writing and teaching provide some equally important insights into the dynamics of organizations, if managers and organizational specialists are prepared to look for them.
The key aspects of de Bono's thinking that resonate with the Informal Coalitions view of organizational dynamics include:
- the mind as a self-organizing, pattern-making and pattern-shifting system;
- the inadequacy of the notion of linear cause and effect in self-organizing systems;
- the criticality of initial conditions to the final outcome that emerges;
- the crucial effect that the sequence and timing of arrival of pieces of information has on the outcome;
- the patterning effect of language;
- recognition that there is no outside agent controlling the patterns that emerge through this pattern-making process;
- the tendency towards polarization in self-organizing, patterning processes;
- the importance to the creative process of random stimulation (analogous to Stacey's emphasis on the importance of deviance and eccentricity).
Edward de Bono's theories on the ‘mechanism of mind’ provide some interesting and provocative parallels with emerging thinking on complexity, emergence and self-organization in organizations. Those who wish to take organization dynamics seriously would do well to reflect on them.
Comments