New thinking needed

Mar 16 2007 by Edward de Bono Print This Article

A World Council for New Thinking is being formed as an independent source of new ideas.

The council will be an independent body with its own voice, rather than a think-tank or advisory body. Therefore, the ideas put forward will not be subject to politics or censorship.

I have already enlisted six Nobel Prize-winners for this venture. Also automatically eligible to join the council are presidents of universities and editors of major newspapers.

As well as the council, there is a League of New Thinkers, open to everyone. People can give thought to new ideas and put them forward. If these ideas prove to be consistently good, they might receive an invitation join the council itself. You can find details on www.worldcouncilfornewthinking.org.

While there is a need for new ideas internationally, there is also a need on a national basis, for precisely the same reasons. Therefore, there can be National Councils for New Thinking in individual countries to fulfil this need.

Dragan Sakan and the New Moment organisation have co-operated in setting up one such council in Serbia.

National Councils can be a powerful platform for new ideas and also provide training in the skills of lateral thinking. They can also conduct public opinion polls to test the response to new ideas.

Rather than the councils having power to enforce or implement the new ideas, their role will be to giving thought to new ideas, producing them and making them visible. The new idea enters the public domain and registers as an alternative.

Once theses new ideas have been made visible then they might be copied, borrowed or used directly. They could be modified and then used.

The values and concepts behind new thought and ideas could influence thinking on an issue even if the idea itself is not used.

The idea might appeal to the public so much that they put pressure on politicians to adopt it. Opposition parties might ask why the government is not putting the idea to use.

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About The Author

Edward de Bono
Edward de Bono

Edward de Bono (1933-2021) was a leading authority in the field of creative thinking. Over 35 years after the publication of his first book, "The Mechanism of Mind", the basic principles he outlined are now mainstream thinking in the mathematics of self-organising systems and in the design of neuro-computers. His many subsequent books have been translated into 26 languages.