Farewell to the Lateral Think-king

Edward de Bono’s fame was so recognised that he reached the ‘Madonna’ level of name recognition. By simply saying ‘de Bono’ you could conjure up in your mind a phrase like "I don’t want to be a black hat but…”.

De Bono died last week, aged 88, after a life in which his work recognised him as a true Creative Champion.

Originally studying Medicine, he excelled at psychology and physiology at Oxford University in England.

Edward de Bono held faculty appointments at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge (where he helped to establish the university's medical school), London and Harvard.

The originator of the term 'Lateral Thinking', he wrote a staggering 85 books with translations into 46 languages. He taught his thinking methods to government agencies, corporate clients, and individuals, privately or publicly in group sessions.

His seminal work - ‘Six Thinking Hats’ - was published in 1985 and featured the associated idea parallel thinking provided a means for groups to plan thinking processes in a detailed and cohesive way. The content of that book has been turned into courses and tools for people to use the world over.

He was a true giant in challenging existing philosophies in thinking and creativity in general, and is well worthy of the title ‘Creative Champion’.