Serious Creativity: Using the Power of Lateral Thinking to Create New

Ideas (1992) by Edward de Bono is a book that is really interesting to read. It

establishes the concept of creative thinking in a new way. In this book, the

author introduces a term that he invented called ‘Lateral Thinking’ in which it

refers to solving problems using apparently illogical methods. He also believes

that creative thinking or lateral thinking as an important skill that everybody

should have alongside the normal methods of thinking.

In the first part of the book, de Bono discloses the importance of creative

thinking. De Bono explains that creativity is really needed in areas where

problems or tasks needs to be solved in which other approaches have failed,

areas where improvement is necessary, and areas where new ideas offer

opportunities, advantages and benefits. He also highlights that creative thinking

is essential in various fields such as in government and administration,

economics, education, crime prevention and many more. He also put forward his

opinions on misperceptions that many people have about creativity. The author

firmly believes that a person’s level of creativity is not only a natural talent but

could be enhanced through special training. In describing lateral thinking, he

says that lateral thinking is highly concerned with exploring multiple

possibilities and approaches in doing things.

The second part of the book equips readers with systematic techniques

and methods in using lateral thinking to generate new ideas. One of the methods

that de Bono introduces is a method called the Six Thinking Hats whereby it can

be used by a group or individual to quickly explore a subject. Another method

discussed in this book is the creative pause in which a person can pause for a
moment and try to think about alternatives in doing what you are doing. This

method is to train a person to put more creative effort in building up creative

skills. This book also mentions that focus as an important tool being creative in

which there are two types, simple focus and purpose focus. Simple focus is a

conscious effort to think about a new focus point while purpose focus is thinking

on a specific assigned purpose or task.

One other method of creative thinking is to stop and look for alternatives

in doing things. The logic behind this is that the more alternatives the you

generate, the higher the possibility of coming up with an alternative that is

better than the previous one. Furthermore, there is also a method called the

Concept Fan in which it can be used to generate alternatives. De Bono also

mentions that the provocation technique is a fundamental aspect of lateral

thinking whereby there are two stages in this process. The first stage is to set up

the provocation and the second stage is to use the provocation to generate a

valuable idea. However, in order to use this technique, the person must have a

skill that the author calls movement in which it is a process of thinking of a way

to move forward from a provocation. The author provides very systematic

techniques in setting up provocations and using movements. Other techniques

also mentioned in this book is he Random Input method and the Sensitizing

technique which are also effective ways to generate creative ideas.

The last part of the book concerns on how creative thinking can be

applied. In this part, de Bono covers topics such as how to establish creativity in

an organization, who is responsible for the creativity in an organization, how to

train in mastering creative techniques and which techniques should be used in

different situations. This part also discusses how to evaluate the ideas generated

from the techniques mentioned whether the ideas are good, bad, feasible, usable

or unworkable.

In conclusion, I think this book has a serious potential to take the reader’s

creativity to the next level. This book is also a very comprehensive guide to

generate and apply new creative ideas as it gives a very systematic approach in

creating ideas. With these information at hand, anyone could train themselves to

be creative. I believe this book should be taught as a subject and it should be

made a required university course so that we could produce more creative people

in the future.