Think! by Edward de Bono Page A

design thinking and perceptual thinking should also be included.
    Truth may prevent stupid and nasty things from happening, but truth in itself does not make things happen. For that we need design thinking.
    I would suggest that every university course has a foundation year with two main subjects. The first of these would be thinking. This would include my thinking (practical creativity) and any other approach that is operational rather than descriptive.
    The second subject would be the state of the world and society. It is not enough for anyone to know a particular subject in great depth while remaining ignorant of the world around them.
DESIGN
    Analysis is wonderful but it is not enough. Knowledge and analysis may give us the road map but then we have to design our journey. Where do we want to go?
    Design means putting together what we have in order to deliver thevalues we want. Design is all about the real world. Design is all about the world outside schools and universities. How do you design your career? How do you design your life? How do you design a car park? How do you design a political manifesto?
    Right from the beginning, students should be set simple design exercises. These need not be relevant to the subjects they are studying. The purpose of these exercises is to develop the thinking skills of design. The exercises may include designing a bus; designing a holiday resort; designing a sport for old people; designing a café; designing a car park; designing a new type of examination.
    Design brings in aspects of action, practicality and value.
    You can analyse the past but you have to design the future – or else you will just fall into it.
THESIX VALUE MEDALS
    Universities and all educational institutions completely ignore value. It is assumed that everyone knows about

current values and that this will therefore guide their thinking, behaviour and designs.
    A very important operation is to be able to extract 'value' at every point. What is the value here? For whom is there a value?
    The value may indeed be hidden in a lot of negatives, but you need to identify that value.
    In the end creativity has to show value. Being different for the sake of being different is not creativity.
    Values may seem intangible, but they do need more direct attention.
    In my book The Six Value Medals, I look at six different types of value:
    Gold Medal: Human values – the things that matter directly to people, both positive and negative: praise, achievement, humiliation, and so on.
    Silver Medal: Organisational values – whether the organisation is a corporation or a family unit. This involves the purpose and mission of that organisation. How do the values help or impede that purpose?
    Steel Medal: These are the quality values. Whatever something is supposed to be doing, how well is it being done? Steel has certain quality requirements.
    Glass Medal: Glass is a simple substance, but with

creativity much can be done with it. So the Glass Medal is concerned with innovation and creativity. What is new?
    Wood Medal: Ecology values. This is ecology in its broadest sense and not just nature. It includes the impact of any action on the world around.
    Brass Medal: Brass looks like gold but is not. This medal is concerned with perceptual values. How will something be perceived? Something worthwhile might be perceived badly. Something less worthwhile might be perceived more favourably. We may wish it otherwise but we need to pay attention to perceptual values.
    The book includes methods of carrying out and displaying the results of a 'value scan' so that people can compare their own subjective scans and focus on the points of disagreement.
    Universities should look at teaching values.
    It is also important to identify under what circumstances the values would be present. How durable would these values be?
    In the end, 'value' is the currency of creativity. If creativity does not deliver value it is a pointless