My influences: Edward de Bono

It must have been around 1970 that Management by Objectives (MbO) became a fashionable management strategy. The idea was that the manager of a team would be set objectives for his team and then he would agree with his staff individual objectives which, if achieved, would lead to the team over-performing. The clever bit was that, in agreeing objectives with an individual the manager would ensure that the staff member's ambitions were reflected as much as those of the business. My employer took it seriously and it worked well.

The process of setting and reviewing objectives took place during an annual objective setting round with quarterly reviews. At the time it was a common theme that I was seen as being not particularly creative. My boss asked me to look for an appropriate course and make a proposal for funding; I was aware of Edward de Bono's Lateral Thinking ideas, so I found a course he was running in London, made the necessary funding application and, to my surprise, it was agreed.

I turned up at the venue to discover there were about 24 of us attending a three-day (I think) event. It's a long time ago and I don't remember much of the detail except for the concept of "random juxtaposition"; if you were stuck with a problem you closed your eyes, opened a dictionary randomly, pointed a pencil onto the page and were then honour bound to make a connection between the problem and the word you'd selected. I don't remember the problem I'd been given to solve but I'll never forget the word; it was "custard". There were some other methods too but I don't remember them.

At lunchtimes; we sat on tables of 8, I think, and Edward sat on a different table on each day. The man was an ideas freak - everything that anyone said stimulated an idea and a forty-minute conversation generated a bewildering number of ideas.

I carried on using the random juxtaposition technique for a while, and then it stopped being necessary. After a while it was my creativity, not the lack of it, that was the problem, and it still is. Keeping focus on what I'm doing is a constant challenge but I have a much more interesting life than I would have otherwise.

I owe Edward de Bono a lot, and it was a real privilege to have had the opportunity of spending time with him.

https://www.debono.com/