Dive in & discover the transformative power of these literary gems!
Edward de Bono
This extremely simple tool not only increases efficiency in discussions and decision-making, but also encourages openness and trust among colleagues, resulting in happier team, a rise in productivity, and decisions which almost make themselves.
'An inspiring man with brilliant ideas. De Bono never ceases to amaze'
Sir Richard Branson
The Mechanism of Mind presents Edward de Bono’s original theories on how the brain functions, processes information and organises it. It explains why the brain, the ’mechanism’, can only work in certain ways and introduces the four basic types of thinking that have gone on to inform his life’s work, namely ‘natural thinking’, ‘logical thinking’,’ mathematical thinking’ and ‘lateral thinking’. De Bono also outlines his argument for introducing the word ‘PO’ as an alternative to the word ‘NO’ when putting lateral thinking into practice.
Lateral thinking is all about freeing up your imagination. Through a series of special techniques, in groups or working alone, Edward de Bono shows how to stimulate the mind in new and exciting ways.
Soon you will be looking at problems from a variety of angles and offering up solutions that are as ingenious as they are effective. You will become much more productive and a formidable thinker in your own right.
I read this three times. The first time I wondered why Edward had written it, the second time I got it, but the THIRD time I really got it because I was working with a client that was struggling to define value beyond profit. It’s one of the books that I most recommended when doing de Bono work and training. I think this book is undervalued and underread. If anyone is operating in the world of ESG today, this book will provide a refreshing lens on how you could be reporting value. If you deal with a customer, then this is a must.
Nicola Tyler
Lateral-thinking guru, Edward de Bono's How to Be More Interesting guides you through over 70 thought exercises to encourage you to use your imagination, bring the most interesting parts of you to the fore and to captivate all who you meet.
'An inspiring man with brilliant ideas. De Bono never ceases to amaze with his clarity of thought.'
Richard Branson
In Simplicity, lateral-thinking guru Edward de Bono shows us how to bring clarity into our increasingly complicated lives. Through his ten rules of simplicity, he encourages us to be creative and break down the complex into manageable and recognisable parts. By making the complicated simple, you will free up time, reduce stress and make better decisions.
Transform your thinking!
Is the way you think like the colour of your eyes – something you are born with and cannot alter? Or is thinking a skill that can be improved with practice, like swimming, tennis or cooking?
In this practical book, Edward de Bono lays out some simple but powerful tools with which we can optimize our thinking, decision making and problem solving. Most of the errors of thinking are errors of perception and that is precisely where these tools help.
Edward de Bono had the ability to convene medicine, philosophy and psychology to provide us with insights and concepts to steer us in the right, or at least a better, direction. He often found it frustrating to deal with human ego, where the need to be right would often outweigh the need to make the right decision. This book is best read as a trilogy, along with Parallel Thinking and Six Thinking Hats.
Nicola Tyler
'NO is the basic tool of the logic system. YES is the basic tool of the belief system. PO is the basic tool of the creative system. In the past, ideas have always lived longer than people. Once they were established, ideas would be changed only slowly and over several generations. But today technology and science have so speeded up the rate of change in the world that for the first time ever people actually live longer than ideas. This means that for the first time people need to change their ideas within their lifetime in order to keep up with the world.'
The world is full of problems and conflicts. So why can we not solve them? According to Edward de Bono, world thinking cannot solve world problems because world thinking is itself the problem. And this is getting worse: we are so accustomed to readily available information online that we search immediately for the answers rather than thinking about them. Our minds function like trying to drive a car using only one wheel. There's nothing wrong with that one wheel - conventional thinking - but we could all get a lot further if we used all four.
Thinkers
One of the most recent books I’ve recommended is by Adam Grant. He seems to have the edge on the modern, making complex messages accessible. In this book he suggests that every now and again, and more often than we might like to think, you need to STOP and Think Again. Don’t let your mind trick you into thinking you are right, maybe you are wrong. And that’s ok. Grant’s work is super easy to read, digest and apply.
Nicola Tyler
One of my most favorite books ever. I read it in my 20’s and have never forgotten the lessons. I think every young and future leader would benefit from the fundamentals of Eric Berne’s Transactional Analysis Model of the ego states of Parent, Adult and Child. Some might say this is out of date, I say it’s foundational. Thomas Harris makes Berne’s work (originally written up in games People Play) accessible, understandable and applicable.
Nicola Tyler
For more than 20 years I’ve been asking leaders “when was the last time you attended a decision making course, read a book on the subject, an article event?” I was shocked by the response. Despite leaders being rewarded for excellent decision making, we have done little to build the muscle and apply the tools. There are more decision making books I could recommend, but this one provides great insights and tools. It’s an oldish book now, yet still so relevant, if not even more so, in our world of AI and information overload.
Nicola Tyler
In Eat, Sleep, Innovate, innovation expert Scott Anthony and his impressive team of coauthors use groundbreaking research in behavioral science to provide a first-of-its-kind playbook for empowering individuals and teams to be their most curious and creative—every single day.
Fun, lively, and utterly unique, Eat, Sleep, Innovate is the book you need to make innovation a natural and habitual act within your team or organization.
Ned Herrman was a scientist and an artist. At the time of his research there was a huge focus on left and right brain theory. His work took him into the world of the Sperry Triune brain Model. Wiring up his kids to complete his research he developed a tool, and a model for assessing thinking preferences. Out of this came the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument, a profoundly accurate and insightful approach to identifying thinking preferences and styles. This book outlines his research and takes a deep dive into the thinking preferences, providing typical profiles of roles.
Nicola Tyler
Love him or hate him, L. Ron Hubbard was a genius. I’m not a scientologist, but I have to admire the work of great minds. In this book, Hubbard talks about the need for understanding, citing that if you come across a word that you don’t understand, stop, look it up, get its meaning and then move on. If you don’t, he urges, then everything else is taken out of context. If there’s only one Hubbard book you read, make it this one. And you don’t need to commit to scientology to get value from the read.
Nicola Tyler
Eventually it all comes down to Execution. I read this when we brought Dave Norton to South Africa. I didn’t want to read it, but I did. And it’s great - it’s a well structured framework for GSD (Getting Strategy Done), highlighting some of the pitfalls and many of the tools to turn ideas into results. Business results. Do keep in mind that they are lovers of the Balanced Scorecard, so if that’s a framework that you love, then this is a book that you just might love too.
Nicola Tyler
I always thought Alvin Toffler sounded like a rock star. He was probably one of the first people to be called a futurist, anticipating the future and suggesting what might happen. He published this book in 1970, the same year that de Bono published Lateral Thinking. He suggested that the illiterate of the 21st century would not be those that could not read or write, but those that had the ability to learn, unlearn and relearn faster than anyone else. Oddly, it’s all about undoing habits and creating new ones. The very stuff that de Bono wrote about in lateral thinking, about pattern breaking, is what Toffler suggested we need to be able to do today. Hand in Glove. Read this, and read Lateral Thinking. Nicola Tyler
When team leaders meet a challenge, they often spend more time dealing with their people than dealing with the challenge. They can’t get their team to row in the same direction—or row at all. In Good Team, Bad Team, a ground-breaking primer for leaders, Sarah Thurber and Blair Miller share their decades of experience building, facilitating, and leading thriving teams alongside pioneering research from the fields of cognitive diversity and creative problem-solving. Effective team leadership isn’t mind-reading—it’s good science.
This has become a stalwart of strategic thinking. The book provides a host of case studies and insights for how businesses and brands can reposition themselves out of Red Ocean (competitiveness) into Blue Ocean (differentiation). Don’t swim where all the fish are, swim where there is space to swim. Interestingly the framework presented in this book requires that the readers DO lateral thinking, so it’s a great complementary book to those leaders looking to think differently.
Nicola Tyler
If I was ever going to have a professor crush, I think it would have been on Feynman. He developed the atomic bomb. Not sure if we should love him or hate him for that. He was an atom splitter. A genius. A brilliant academic and physicist. And, toward the end of his career, he had a series of layman lectures transcribed, and that’s what ended up in this book. The tenets for learning are immense. I read it, made notes, and highlighted. I defamed my book because it was so intense. If you don’t like writing in your books I suggest you buy two copies of this. One for prosperity and one to scribble in. I’m pretty sure you will want to scribble.
Nicola Tyler
Love this book. Simple, practical although I felt at times there were too many words. Tumult suggests that a good strategy needs to solve a problem, and the book is all about how to go about finding, defining and solving the problem. It’s a great book for all the strategy lovers out there, and will add value to anyone who’s really deeply involved in…well, problem solving. This is one angle on strategy, there are others. This is well worth the time investment.
Nicola Tyler