This is the second lot of five points that I find astonishing.  We spend $60 billion on a space station.  In the UK the government spends £200 million on a new art gallery, £450 million on the unsuccessful Dome, £100 million on a face-lift for the British Museum.

All these things are worthwhile and I do not consider them a waste of money.  But how much do we spend on improving human thinking?  Don’t point at schools and universities.

• How little attention education pays to real thinking – even though thinking is the most important of all human skills.  How out of touch education is with the real world.
• How these new (26 years old) thinking methods have been used across a very wide range: from Down’s syndrome children to Nobel laureates; from illiterate miners in South Africa to top executives in major world corporations.
• How education wastes about two thirds of the talent in society. These are youngsters who are not good at the academic game but are excellent thinkers – if given the chance.
• How totally out of touch the press and the government has been to what is going on – and what is possible.
• How our traditional thinking has been good for dealing with things (science and technology) but has been very poor at dealing with human situations (conflicts, disputes etc).  How “what is” thinking cannot deliver the values of “what can be” thinking.

Edward de Bono, 24th December 2000

About the Author: Dr Edward de Bono is a world leading authority on thinking skills.  Creator of the famous Six Thinking Hats ®, Lateral Thinking and many other workshops, he has authored over 80 books published in 35 languages. Holst is Dr Edward de Bono’s partner in Europe. Click here for more information about Dr de Bono and his tools. Learn to change how people think. Add Dr Edward de Bono’s tools to your portfolio & become a certified de Bono trainer. [traininglist slug=”lateral-thinking”] [traininglist slug=”six-thinking-hats-accreditation-3-days”] [traininglist slug=”six-thinking-hats”] [traininglist slug=”lateral-thinking-2-days”] [traininglist slug=”power-of-perception”] [traininglist slug=”power-of-perception-2-days”] [traininglist slug=”focus-on-facilitation”]  ]]>