A Creative Approach to School Business Management?
The December 2009 issue of the School Business Management News highlighted the work of The Edward de Bono Foundation with an article on " A Creative Approach to School Business Management?" This email newsletter was sent to 20,000 schools by Manchester Metropolitan University's Centre for Innovation and Enterprise.
An excerpt of the article follows:
"...Some schools are finding inspiration by training their staff in Dr Edward de Bono’s creative and constructive thinking methods: the Six Thinking Hats and CoRT. But before you can think about ‘getting staff to be creative’, it is important to understand what true creativity is. Bob Rawlinson, Chief Executive of the Edward de Bono Foundation UK, defines it as follows:
Creativity means ‘designing the way forward’: that creativity is needed for change, improvement and ideas, and that without creativity there is only repetition and routine. In, fact creativity is as close to the heart of business as you can get...." Read the full article> (opens in new window).
Foundation quoted in one of world’s top academic computing Journals
One of the world’s top two academic computing journals - the CACM (Communications of the Association of Computing Machinery), has published an article quoting the Foundation this month. The article “Are we losing our ability to think critically” begins with several quotations from Dr. Adrian West, echoing the de Bono philosophy, followed by work from leading academics in the area of thinking and technology. The article was written by Sam Greengard, past president of the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and appears in the July 2009 issue of Communications of the Association of Computing Machinery (CACM).
Dr Edward de Bono receives honorary Degree from MMU
On 20th July 2009, Dr. Edward de Bono received an honorary degree from the Vice Chancellor, Professor John Brooks of Manchester Metropolitan University. The event took place as part of the graduation ceremony for students from the Institute of Education at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.
After receiving the degree, Dr. de Bono gave a short speech on the topic of “Operacy” – the importance of thinking about doing, which is a key to success in the world outside academia.
Robert Rawlinson, Chief Executive of the Foundation and Tom Farrell, of the Foundation in Ireland also took part in the proceedings. The event was also attended by members of The Edward de Bono Foundation UK who are developing a range of projects incorporating Dr de Bono’s work.
"Crunch or Lunch" at the House of Lords, April 2009
On the 9th April, Dr de Bono, an official EU Ambassador for the European Year of Creativity and Innovation headed up a pioneering step-change event to invited guests at the House of Lords, that aimed to see the beginning of a ‘Thinking Evolution’ ultimately designed to help bring about a world shift.
Guests included Ervin Laszlo, Hungarian Philosopher and founder of the Club of Budapest, Will Travers, CEO of the Born Free Foundation and other business, political and education leaders. The event was a charity benefit for the Right to Dream project in Sierra Leone, was filmed by Positive TV and organised by Biscuit PR. Dr. de Bono gave a presentation, and led a facilitated session on ways of bringing about a positive change in the world, using the random word technique of Lateral Thinking.
For more information visit our dedicated page at Creativity and Innovation European Year 2009.
European HR Directors Business Summit
At the European HR Directors' Business Summit in Birmingham, over 500 HR Directors from around Europe and as far afield as Egypt and Australia, gathered to hear Dr. Edward de Bono, regarded as one of the World's most outstanding thinkers, give the key note speech explaining how serious creativity and constructive thinking methods and skills are vital throughout an organisation in order to enable companies to deal more creatively and constructively with potential problems and issues.
Dr Edward de Bono with other thought leaders at the European HR Director's Summit, January 21st 2009
Video Interviews from the HR Summit, January 2009
Interview with Dr. Edward de Bono
Robert Rawlinson, Chief Executive of the Foundation, interviewed at the European HR Directors Business Summit, Birmingham, between 21st-22nd January 2009.
De Bono Training with Pauline Stewart
Pauline Stewart, a UK Ambassdor for the Foundation based in 
Bedfordshire, is one of the UK’s strongest and most vocal advocates for the advancement of women. Having delivered Leadership and Development within the Public, Private and Voluntary Sector mainly with the theme of developing human potential, Pauline has become a certified instructor to deliver De Bono Thinking Systems. Pauline specialises in the Public Sector and instrumental in the development of new programmes to be delivered within the Police Service.
Latitude Client Summit
Adrian West, Research Director presented an engaging and entertaining introduction to the de Bono tools at Latitude's 2009 Client Summit in London in March. The presentation was well received as a welcome lateral addition to online marketing and related topics, as it had been in 2007.
European Year of Creativity and Innovation 2009
Dr. Edward de Bono has been appointed an official EU Ambassador for The European Year of Creativity and Innovation 2009 which was launched on 7th January 2009 in Prague. The results of a round table discussion for the launch with nine Ambassadors, including Dr. de Bono, came to the "unanimous consensus that investment in education and in the skills and creative capacity of Europe should be the top priority of EU institutions and governments."
2009 CIPD Scottish Conference: "Switched on"
The Foundation was invited to present for the first time at the 2009 CIPD Scottish Conference. Helen Fraser, Learning & Development Executive, delivered a workshop entitled "Switched On Thinking: Serious Creativity for Successful People Management" on Thursday 12th March at this conference for members of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in Scotland. The conference runs from 11th – 13th March in Dunblane and “Light bulb moments aplenty are assured from the great line-up” said Karen Lally, Chair of the CIPD Scottish Partnership.