proactive thinking

The software of Western thinking was designed by the GG3 about 2400 years ago. The GG3 were the ‘Greek Gang of Three’. These were Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.

Socrates was very interested in dialectic or argument and believed that this was a good way of exploring a subject. From him came our obsession with argument as a way of reaching the truth. We use argument in court, in Parliament, in negotiation, etc., etc. It is, in fact, a very crude and primitive way of exploring a subject, which has many in-built faults and limitations - in addition to the way that it can be manipulated.

THE SIX HATS METHOD

The ‘parallel thinking’ of the Six Hats method which I developed in 1985 is now increasingly in use. I was told by a Nobel prize economist that it was used at the top economics meeting in Washington. I was also told that it had been introduced into the highlands of Papua New Guinea (perhaps the most primitive place on earth).

The method reduces meeting times to one quarter or even one tenth of their usual time. Each person at the meeting is challenged to use his or her thinking fully rather than just adopting a position. Juries in the US are starting to use the method and reach unanimous decisions very quickly.

Plato was influenced by the mathematician Pythagoras and believed that, just as there were ultimate truths in mathematics, so there should be ultimate truths everywhere else. This obsession with the truth is very limiting, as it restricts the important function of ‘possibility’. Plato did not believe in democracy because the Athenian democracy was heavily taxing his family, one of the rich land-owning families in Athens.

BOX LOGIC

Aristotle introduced his ‘box logic’. From past experience you created categories, classifications and other sorts of ‘box’. You then judged whether something fitted into a box or not.

So Aristotle believed that men had more teeth in their mouths than women, because with horses the stallion had more teeth than the mare. Although he was married twice, he never asked either of his wives to open their mouths so that he could count their teeth. He did not need to - he ‘knew’.

When Greek thinking came back into Europe via the Arabs in Spain at the time of the Renaissance, schools and universities were run by church people. They did not need perceptual thinking because all perceptions were fixed as dogma.

They did not need creative thinking, either. They did not need design thinking. All they needed was logic, truth and argument to prove the heretics wrong. So that became the culture of Western thinking - and it remains so to this day.

STANDARD ELEMENTS

We analyse a situation and identify standard elements. We then understand the situation and also know what to do about it. This is very similar to a doctor in a clinic who examines a child with a rash. As soon as the doctor can put a name on the condition he knows the probable course of the illness, the likely complications - and the treatment.

Although individuals might practise it, the Western culture of thinking is lacking in design. Architects, graphic designers and fashion designers might practise design, but it is not part of general education. This is a very serious fault in education.

In conflicts, what is often needed is not more judgment, but designing a way forward to benefit both parties. Indeed, there should be a ‘court of design’ to which people in dispute could go, which would help them design a way forward.

A NEW RELIGION

My latest book is called ‘H+ A New Religion?’ (published by Vermilion Press in London, part of Random House). This is a religion in the sense that Buddhism is a religion. There is no new god-system or other-world structure.

H+ can be used in conjunction with any existing religion or belief system: Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Taoism, etc.

Many religions are about ‘sins’ and the things you should not do. Today that aspect is adequately taken care of, both by the law and existing religious systems. So H+ is about ‘positive action’.

In one survey. 94% of youngsters in the US said that achievement was the most important thing in their lives. There is plenty of scope for major objectives - like aspiring to win at Wimbledon or to be elected to Parliament. But society is very poor at providing opportunities for small achievements. So instead of ‘sins’ there are ‘pons’ (derived from ‘positive sins’). These are small acts to help others or to help the world.

Each person sets a small agenda of pons to carry out each day, etc.

H+ stands for Humour, Happiness, Health, Help, Hope and Human.

It all started with a realisation that no existing religion emphasises humour as such. Yet humour is a key lubricant of life.

Humour is the best antidote to despair and arrogance.

Humour illustrates the possibility of switching perceptions and seeing things in a different way, etc., etc.

REVELATION AND DESIGN

Traditionally new religions are revealed to suitable people in some mystical process. This is very different from design. To be sure, the subsequent evolution and implementation of a new religion may involve a great deal of design - even if it is not always consciously seen as design, but rather as ‘the right thing to do’.

Without in any way detracting from the above process, we can also accept the process of design.

The parameters of design might be:

… simple to understand… simple to operate… satisfying… leading to increased self-esteem… leading to achievement… helpful to the world… helpful to other people… easy to spread

‘LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR’

Now it is true that most religions have helpful attitudes such as ‘love your neighbour’. But there is a huge difference between attitude and action.

You can sit in a corner with the right attitudes, committing no sins, and you will get to heaven. In itself that does not help the world very much.

There is usually not enough focus on action. There are, of course, individuals who do turn the attitudes into action - missionaries, nurses, etc. That is not, however, a universal requirement.