Edited Transcript from:
Professor Edward de Bono, M.D., D.Phil., Ph.D
KPXQ, 1350 on the a.m. dial
“The Parenting Hour” with Professor William Maxwell
April 16, 2005, 1:00 - 2:00 P.M.
Stories of the Power of Teaching Thinking from de Bono
With relevance to Law Enforcement and to Sports Teams
Maxwell: Welcome to the Parenting Hour. I am Professor William Maxwell here in Phoenix.
This week’s guest on the telephone is perhaps the world’s most famous scholar and thinker, Professor Edward de Bono. Professor de Bono, welcome and good afternoon?. How are you and where are you?
De Bono: Good afternoon. I happen to be in Buenos Aires. Normally, I am in London, England. Recently, I was in India, meeting with the President of India. Before that I was in China.
Maxwell: This program is called “The Parenting Hour.” This morning, about 5:00 a.m., I visited your website. The first item there was “Starting bedtime stories for children Incorporating Edward de Bono’s Thinking Tools and Frameworks.” Could you talk about that for a moment?
De Bono: Thinking is the most fundamental skill and the most neglected skill. I will give you an example of how powerful it can be. In London, England, there is a centre, the Hungerford Guidance Centre, which is a school for children too violent to be taught in the ordinary school. They stab the teacher, set the school on fire. Twenty years ago, the principal, Dave Lane, started teaching my thinking program to these very violent chldren. He’s now done a twenty-year follow-up which showed that the rate of actual convictions for those taught thinking skills is only 1/10th of the criminal convictions of those not taught thinking. That is a 90% reduction of criminality in these very violent children, a powerful effect just from teaching thinking, not attitude, just thinking.
Maxwell: That is an amazing story which I will share with Sheriff Joe Arpaio, the world’s most famous sherrif, who finds different ways for discouraging people from coming back to prison.
De Bono: I will tell you a story that is directly related to what you just said. There is a teacher in New Zealand who showed that the rate of return to prison, recidivism, after teaching them thinking was one-quarter of what had happened before. Again, from just teaching thinking.
Maxwell: What is amazing to me is that these successes are not publicized.
De Bono: I will tell you a completely opposite story: Two years ago, the captain of the Australian National Cricket team came to see me. He wanted to find better ways for playing cricket.. I gave them a short seminar. They won twenty-one straight one-day matches and seventeen straight test matches. The captain wrote me a letter, “It all started with your seminar.” I did not teach them how to bowl or how to hold the bat. I taught them the general principles of thinking, challenge assumptions; to think laterally; to consider all one’s options; to admit that help is needed. I can’t imagine for one moment the English Cricket Team coming to me for assistance.
Maxwell: Let the English be defeated, then. The purpose of a defeat is to tell you that you are not thinking properly.
De Bono: Nokia, a small paper company in Finland, came to me some years ago. Their main product was toilet paper. I gave them some suggestions. Today, Nokia manufactures 38% of all mobile telephones in use in the world.
Maxwell: Yes. Back to the Australian Cricket Team. Did they beat New Zealand, their main rival.
De Bono: I’m sure they did. Two days ago I had a call from John Edwards in Western Australia. He started coaching the Australian Rules football team, the Eagles. Since he started coaching them, using my methods, they have won every game.
Maxwell: May I share your stories with Phoenix’s professional sports teams? We are inviting all of them to hear you in two weeks.
De Bono: Yes, of course. Here is another story. Unknown to me, Rob McClain, the most famous coach in the Commonwealth, started using my system. He won 85% of all his matches. In an interview in the Australian Financial Review he attributed his successes to my thinking skills training. He even formed a club of coaches and sent them throughout Australia to teach my system.
Maxwell: Great stories. Thank you, Professor de Bono.
*******
Note: Professor de Bono comes from a family of five generations of physicians in Malto who originated in Italy. He entered the University of Malta at fifteen, earned his medical degree at age twenty-one and was a awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University. He has three doctoral degrees, one from Malta, one from Oxford and one from Cambridge. He is the author of 65 books on thinking and travels constantly promoting the necessity and benefits from deliberately teaching thinking skills. He has been consulted by more than half of the Fortune 500 companies and has taught at Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard universities. Many scholars think that de Bono will rank in history alongside Pythagoras, Aristotle and Francis Bacon. He is being invited to Phoenix by the University of Advancing Technology and will be awarded the Leonardo da Vinci Medallion for Distinguished Contributions to the Teaching of Thinking Skills.. W.M.
Revised: April 17, 2005
File: Transcript of de Bono Interview, de Bono Visit | 
