Crisis as a spur to Creativity

At the end of October Edward De Bono was invited to speak in Cork as part of a creative film forum. I was fortunate to attend this talk in which he presented an entertaining overview of his life's work in the field of creative thinking.

In the talk De Bono explained his theory of Parallel Thinking. De Bono defines Parallel Thinking as a thinking process where focus is split in specific directions. When done in a group it effectively avoids the consequences of the adversarial approach. In adversarial debate the objective is to prove or disprove statements put forward by the parties (normally two). However, in Parallel Thinking, participants put forward as many statements as possible in several parallel tracks. This leads to exploration of a subject where all participants can contribute, in parallel, with knowledge, facts, feelings etc. Crucial to the method is that the process is done in a disciplined manner, and that all participants plays along and contributes in parallel. Thus each participant must stick to the specific track. The approach is best encapsulated in De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats.

Humans instinctively seek pattern-making and system-forging and this, De Bono argues, can be explained through neurology. The brain is involved in the parallel processing of information by simultaneously processing incoming stimuli and linking these to stored memories. A crisis disrupts existing patterns as it forces a person to seek out and forge alternative routes to problem-solving and in this sense, De Bono argues, crisis becomes a powerful spur to creativity.

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