The Milliner's Tale

On Thu 11 May I attended a CPD course in The Ministry of Truth (JMH) entitled “Creative Thinking and Learning: An Introduction to de Bono” Although initially devastated that The Edge hadn’t turned up, it proved to be a very interesting experience. I arrived at reception at exactly the same time as one of the other delegates and we made our way up the stairs to the location – Conference Rooms 1 + 2. In true problem-solving style we took one door each in an effort to track down the exact location of the course and discovered that we were in the same room. So that’s how it was going to be?

The course tutor, Cath Currie directed the delegates through a variety of tasks designed to give an experiential taster of the two principal themes:

1. Edward de Bono’s “Six Hats” (published by Penguin)
2. CoRT

“Six Hats” encourages a discussion group to avoid a scattergun approach in favour of spending a fixed (and hopefully short) amount of time on each of six thinking styles. The idea is to unravel the tangled strands of the subject under discussion.

“CoRT” – coined from Cognitive Research Trust – focused on the first of six 10-lesson blocks put together by de Bono in 1972. Using “directed thinking” and “thinking tools” the aim of this particular block is to broaden thinking.

One of the things which impressed me was that the handouts – visible from the outset – contained all the “slides” of the Powerpoint presentation. Delivered from the temptation to scribble during the course, this meant that a y-chromosome uni-tasker such as myself could concentrate on listening.

While immediate follow-up in the workplace is probably more applicable to those teaching big classes, where group discussions feature, I can see possibilities for an instrumental instructor in organization of thought and planning in addition to e.g. staff meetings.

One of the intentions of CoRT is to encourage exploration as opposed to judgement. I noted, in a non-judgemental way, that all the delegates were from the primary sector.

More at:

enquiries@positivepd.com (where Cath Currie can be contacted)

http://www.edwdebono.com – theofficial de Bono website (containing a list of publications such as “Six Thinking Hats”)

http://www.edwdebono.com/cort/debonocort.htm - a direct path to a comprehensive description of CoRT