Edward de Bono Seminar

Last week, the Edward de Bono Institute at the University of Malta held The Edward de Bono Seminar for the 13th consecutive year. The first seminar was held in July 1993. Around 70 people from 11 countries participated in this year's seminar, which was conducted by Professor Edward de Bono himself. Professor Joe Friggieri, Head of the Department of Philosophy at the University and chairman of the Arts Council, delivered the opening address.

Seminar participants heard Professor de Bono speak about human thinking and why he claims that the human brain is designed to be "brilliantly uncreative". The main question which Professor de Bono dealt with concerns possibilities and designing for the future. Technological and social change are all around us and are causing us to re-think traditional ways of doing things. It is increasingly the case that successful methods used in the past will no longer continue to be effective.

Creativity and innovation are increasingly being attributed a great deal of importance due to increased competition, particularly since they involve adding value to either a product, a service or a process. But how can this be done? Professor Edward de Bono motivated his listeners to seriously consider moving from regular problem solving situations towards designing the future and unleashing their potential for creativity. This can be done by means of particular methods which release everybody from the ruts into which thinking sometimes falls and which point towards fresh solutions and new ways of thinking.

Born in Malta, Professor de Bono graduated in Medicine from the University of Malta. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, is an MD and Ph.D., and has held appointments at Oxford and Cambridge, the University of London, and Harvard University. He has written over 70 books which have been translated into 38 languages.

Professor de Bono is the world's leading authority on conceptual thinking as the driver of organisational innovation, strategic leadership, individual creativity and problem solving. For the past 35 years his exclusive tools and methods have brought astonishing results to organisations large and small worldwide and to individuals from a wide range of cultures, educational backgrounds, occupations and age groups.

Professor de Bono has been credited with developing thinking techniques that are simple, practical and powerful. His methods are being implemented in organisations of all sizes because of their simplicity and their power to change thinking behaviour, increase productivity, foster team-building and evoke profitable innovation.

In Malta, his work is used by both management and workers in large organisations and SMEs, by government departments, lawyers, University students, teachers, children with behaviour problems, children with special needs and children in state, private and church schools.

Professor de Bono's special contribution has been to take the mystical subject of creativity and for the first time in history to put the subject on a solid basis. While his methods are based on a fundamental understanding of how the brain handles information, de Bono's 'powerfully simple' thinking techniques can help one to make good decisions, solve problems, challenge assumptions and produce practical improvement in one's personal, professional or social life. As he himself says, "If you do not design the future, someone else will design it for you."

For more information about Edward de Bono Institute contact Dr Sandra M. Dingli on tel: 2132-3981 or e-mail: instituteofthinking@ um.edu.mt.