THINKING

EDWARD DE BONO

THE PROBLEM

People do not have to be taught to walk or breathe and it may seem unnecessary to teach them how to think. But with thinking we aim for excellence. Can we improve the ability to think by training?

The traditional view is that thinking is simply "intelligence in action". Since intelligence is supposed to be an innate ability determined by genes or a combination of genes and early environment, it would seem as impossible to improve thinking by training as it is to improve intelligence. My own experience and experiments, however, lead me to agree those who hold that thinking is not the same as innate intelligence but a separate skill. If intelligence is the car, then thinking is the way it is driven.

At Harvard I engaged some of the senior academic staff in tackling problems which most people can solve in twenty to thirty seconds. Some took eleven minutes, others gave up. These failures were due to an insistence that problems had to be solved by moving forward from one right step to the next.

In terms of logic these people were right; in practice they were ineffective. Readiness to go back and try a different approach is a problem-solving strategy that is part of the skill of thinking and not a reflection of innate intelligence. Indeed, highly intelligent people are often more reluctant than others to use this strategy because they have more confidence in the correctness of their original steps.

I once tried out some special thinking exercises on a group of hundred people all of whom had IQs of over 148. Their use of thinking strategies was indistinguishable from other less endowed groups, and just as limited.