CONTACT BY EMAIL: CLICK HERE

ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS

A 2020-22 SOT enterprise solution has enabled a government client to create startup science-business assets in Victoria.

Announcement by the Victorian Minister for Agriculture:  

“We are excited to announce that Smartsense AgTech will be the first startup based in the dedicated incubation hub here — helping to rapidly improve the use of digital sensing technology across the agriculture industry”.

•••

In a three-year x10 Thinking project (2020-2022), School of Thinking was sought by the Department of Agriculture to help design a growing range of innovative startup science-business assets for the Victorian State Government.

Specifically, the project – called AVR x10 – created the science-business incubation hub at AgriBio which has designed nine proposed startups to accelerate commercialisation pathways of their IP assets.

The first is Smartsense AgTech, a new business with technology that asks, “What if farms in Victoria were ten times smarter?” It will offer commercial solutions to that question including camera drones for use in photographing soil, earth, water, plants, crops, and agricultural products. It will focus on rapidly improving digital sensing technologies used across a range of agricultural sectors including dairy, horticulture and grains.

There will be more AVR x10 start-ups to follow.

Minister Thomas announced the State Government is providing $7.5 million funding towards the x10 start-ups that will support “a major development for Victoria’s agtech industry”.

Working in collaboration with Professor German Spangenberg, Head of AVR at AgriBio, Dr Michael Hewitt-Gleeson of School of Thinking led three 10-week semesters of x10 Thinking for the senior scientists and commercial managers that produced a range of innovative outcomes including the creation of the science-business incubation hub at AgriBio.

Professor Spangenberg has summarised in his letter to Dr Hewitt-Gleeson: “Thanks for all your amazing work in delivering a fantastic AVR x10 project. It has been a genuinely transformative initiative that will have lasting impact – I see the excitement of our AVR scientists in discovering their entrepreneurial skills, learning from each other, getting to know colleagues. Indeed, 5 start-up pitches in Term 1 alone is an exceptional achievement! And more to come in Term 2! Thanks again for making all of this possible”.

CONTACT BY EMAIL: CLICK HERE

ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS

In 1980, the School of Thinking invented the idea of ‘Thinking Instructors’ – that thinking can be taught as a skill by teachers who have been taught to do so.

In recent years we have claimed that SOT has disseminated ‘half a billion lessons’ and that there are now ‘over 5 million teachers of thinking worldwide’.

Recently we have upgraded these statistics. We can still claim over half a billion lessons but the deliberate teaching of thinking skills by qualified teachers has now risen significantly. We can now claim that there are well over 9 million teachers of thinking in the world and that ’teaching thinking’ is one of the fastest growing trends in education.

Thank you for your support and continued interest in the School of Thinking and our mission: to teach thinking as a skill.

Best wishes,

Michael

PS.  You might enjoy my recent fastbook (10-minute read). It’s called WOMBATS x10: Multiply Your Wombats By Ten. It’s really an update on WOMBAT SELLING which is the selling strategy always used by SOT.

It’s a gift, it’s free so, if you like, you may pass it on to a friend who may be interested.

Interlude … If this school had a theme song then this would be it …

________________________

Happy New Year. So what’s up in ’24? 

Two things new for me … no, three.

A new book and a new coaching offer.

Flashback!  In 1989 I published Software For Your Brain in the US. It anticipated the coming wave of developments in both neuroscience and AI. The book was about neuroplasticity and how human behaviour can be changed by changes in the brain. 

I described the brain as a ’necktop computer’ and the book offered the cognitive code for ‘brain software’ to exploit and effect this.

The brain software code is known as SDNTcvs2bvsQRHprrX10.

There was controversy in some quarters about comparing the brain to computers but it became an international best-seller in the 90s.

The book’s anticipated wave of neuroscience and AI developments has already become an existential reality. Like a digital Big Bang the changes have been on such an exploding scale that – with neuroscience and AI – there seems little point in comparing today’s reality with that of 20 years ago.

THE NEW BOOK

In 2023 I saw the need to again anticipate the coming developments in neuroscience and AI by writing about a new way of looking at the human brain/behaviour problem that is true to the current trends of science and, at the same time, offers a practical way to apply these fresh insights.

This book offers two choices for strategic thinking but both are incompatible. Your brain’s strategy is either one or the other. Not both. But change can happen!

Neuroplasticity is the way and dopamine is the neurotransmitter of the twenties … tempus fugit (can you tell I’m in Rome). AI can still not do dopamine. Not yet at any rate. 

The Y O U Delusion is this year’s book and, if you like, you can download it here with my compliments. My recent books are what I call fastbooks because you can read them in 10 minutes. This seems helpful in today’s compressed environment. By all means pass it on to someone who may find it useful.

Is The Y O U Delusion controversial? 

Yes, I expect it is likely to be controversial to those who were upset by Software For Your Brain. But it’s well supported by current neuroscience and that’s what’s most important to me.

THE NEW OFFER

The mission of the school is partum mensura pretii i.e creating measureable value.

In 2023 and continuing on in 2024 my personal focus is on coaching professional coaches in the science and practical use of lateral thinking/x10 thinking for much better results on and off the field.

In 2023 I worked with coaches across national and international codes including: CRICKET, AFL, AFLW, UK FOOTBALL, AMERICAN FOOTBALL, WORLD CUP, RUGBY, BASKETBALL, NBA, LACROSSE.

All my coaching is interactive in realtime and 100% online. No exceptions. All one needs is a smartphone and an act of will. 

In 2024 there will also be bespoke ‘deep dive’ coaching for a limited number of coaches. My particular focus is on exploiting the fast developments in neuroscience and my two axioms for changing human behaviour and raising performance are:

1 •  There’s nothing more important in life than coaching.

2 •  There’s nothing more powerful on earth than lateral thinking. 

THE NEW SCHOOL

My third new thing for 2024 is … Rome. 

I will be launching a new school of thinking in Rome and based there in 2024. Why Rome? Because if one is interested in ‘teaching thinking’ one must be interested in the history of teaching thinking and central to that is the Vatican. 

Quite simply, nothing has had a greater impact on teaching human thinking than the Vatican. It invented universal education which it spread around the world with missionaries, it built schools, libraries, universities and teaching hospitals and institutes of science research. In 2024 it has 230,000 thousand schools globally and over 5,000 hospitals. 

Most interesting is that, under the current papacy, it has (at last!) changed from judgment (black/white, right/wrong, Greco-Roman logic) to discernment (shades of grey, lateral thinking). After a decade of teaching discernment, in December, Pope Francis told his government (Roman Curia), “Discernment is a burst of love that distinguishes between what is good and what is better.”

This good/better approach is compatible with recent neuroscience and the cvs2bvs software we teach at this school.

In 2024, the new school of thinking will focus on science thinking; exploring the past and current role the Vatican has in developing science thinking. Whether or not you are in Rome, if you would like a preview you can visit the Luciani School here.

These are my new things and, by all means, do let me know what you are up to in this new year. 

Wishing you an x10 year in 2024,

Michael

PS If you are interested in my work in 2024 or have questions, please write to me anytime  by return email.

PPS Here’s a rather special treat I’d like to share with you. It’s the story of my favourite music genre (since I was 16!) … Bossa Nova … for when you want to chill out in ’24.

In 2023 and continuing in 2024 my focus is on coaching coaches in the science and practical use of lateral thinking/x10 thinking for much better results on and off the field. In 2023 I worked with coaches across national and international codes including: CRICKET, AFL, AFLW, UK FOOTBALL, AMERICAN FOOTBALL, WORLD CUP, RUGBY, BASKETBALL, NBA, LACROSSE. In 2024 there will also be bespoke ‘deep dive’ coaching for a limited number of coaches.

CONTACT: If you are a professional coach and would like more information on ‘bespoke coaching for coaches’ you can write anytime to me here …

Compatible with the fast developments in neuroscience my two axioms for changing human behaviour and raising performance are:

1 •  There’s nothing more important in life than coaching.

2 •  There’s nothing more powerful on earth than lateral thinking.  

___________________________

On Coaching

Coaching is anytime we are trying to change the behaviour of another person.

There are sports coaches, business coaches, military coaches, religious coaches, academic coaches, and social coaches like parents, family and peers. Some are professional others are not.

All coaching is brain coaching. There are no exceptions to this. Because all human behaviour is led by human thinking and all thinking is in the brain which includes the nervous system.

Any deliberate attempt to change human behaviour must start with the human brain. There is no magic. There is no other way.

When is comes to neuroscience we can see that different brains are using different perspectives depending a lot on the individual brain’s cultural and educational wiring.

A traditional pre-science view is: I tell my brain what to do. A current post-science view is: My brain tells me what to do.

Using a diverse chemistry of over 100 neurotransmitters (adrenalin, glutamate, seratonin, dopamine, oxytocin, endorphins, histamine etc), your brain always tells you what to do next. Moment by moment. There’s no room left for magic.

You can never defy your brain. Your brain leads your behaviour every time, without exception.

You have never, on any single occasion of behaviour, told your brain what to do. Ever.

At any given moment you do what your brain commands through its diverse range of emotional messaging such as anger, fear, shame, joy, anticipation, surprise, trust, disgust and so on.

However, brains change. They are always changing. The scientific term is neuroplasticity.

Today’s brain dictates today’s behaviour. Tomorrow’s brain dictates tomorrow’s behaviour. This week’s/next week’s. This year’s/next year’s. Etc etc. This, of course, is also happening from moment to neuro-moment. 

So, this moment’s brain dictates this moments behaviour and the next moment’s brain dictates the next moment’s behaviour.

And, the brain that we have, at any particular moment, is the end product of all its biological moments which came before this moment.

For coaches, this is good news. What can take place between the NOW brain and the FUTURE brain … is coaching. In simplistic terms:

NOW + COACHING = FUTURE

We cannot defy our brain. We can only do what it tells us to do. However, we can intervene with coaching to change our future brain.

We can curate our brain, we can rewire our brain through neuroplasticity so that a future brain will tell us to behave in a different way. 

This is why there’s nothing more important in life than coaching.

______________________________________

On Lateral Thinking

There are many valuable human behaviours that are just not possible from deductive, analytical and logical thinking.

When thinking is limited to inside-the-box logical thinking, then the behaviours are also limited that are led by that thinking.

However, outside-the-box thinking makes other behaviours possible. We call this lateral thinking and since the past 25 years of neuroscience we now know how to coach lateral thinking.

In a world that is entrenched in I-am-right-and-you-are-wrong logical, analytical thinking there is nothing more powerful than lateral thinking aka x10 thinking. 

In a competitive world like sports coaching or business coaching there is nothing more powerful than ESCAPE.

That is the cognitive ability to escape from the box of logical thinking to the big, wide world of lateral thinking. More options, more possibilities, more alternatives, more choices leading to much better behaviours.

This is why there’s nothing more powerful on earth than lateral thinking.

In 2023 and continuing in 2024 my focus is on coaching coaches in the science and practical use of lateral thinking/x10 thinking for much better results on and off the field. In 2023 I worked with coaches across national and international codes including: CRICKET, AFL, AFLW, UK FOOTBALL, AMERICAN FOOTBALL, WORLD CUP, RUGBY, BASKETBALL, NBA, LACROSSE. In 2024 there will also be bespoke ‘deep dive’ coaching for a limited number of coaches.

CONTACT: If you are a professional coach and would like more information on ‘bespoke coaching for coaches’ you can write anytime to me here …

The theory of Lateral Thinking (de Bono; Hewitt-Gleeson) is the cognitive ability to choose between different possible courses of action, that are not logical.

The idea of Lateral Thinking is closely linked to the concepts and behaviours of innovation and creativity – which apply only to actions that come from imagining solutions that cannot be arrived at via deductive, analytical or logical means. 

Lateral thinking skills are about escape. Escaping from your own box. To power the escape we use the x10 provocation. x10 Thinking is a synonym for lateral thinking with an emphasis on measurement.

Is x10 thinking easy? No. By definition, it’s hard to do because, in the Pre-Frontal Cortex of the human brain, Lateral Thinking is not at all like Logical or Analytical Thinking.

Lateral Thinking is outside the box. Logical Thinking is inside the box. The bad news is that most humans, most days, are not at all thinking outside their box. They are not doing x10 thinking.

With exasperation, the CEO of a big New York bank admitted, “We have innovation schemes, we have innovation teams, we have innovation month, we have innovation hats. We just don’t have any real innovation!” 

However, the good news is that there are some who really are innovating. And the even better news is that all humans can be trained to do lateral thinking.

Creativity, problem-solving, opportunity design, value-creation, 10x growth are not just elite genetic gifts for the random few.

For example, organisations like Apple, Netflix, Nike, Trenitalia, Amazon, NVIDIA, Patagonia and others have a culture that respects, trains and values this kind of valuable thinking.

In 1989 I wrote the international best-seller Software For The Brain. This book explained the neuroplasticity of the brain and how to exploit it for coaching and training future behaviour.

In this book I introduced the SDNT cvs2bvs QRH PRR code for updating human brain software.

FREE BOOK: You can download a free copy of the latest edition here.

FREE TUTORIAL: Here’s a quick 4 minute tutorial with Edward de Bono on lateral thinking where he starts off with my ‘brain software’ idea …

As a friend of the School of Thinking I think this may interest you, too. I would like to share with you this insight – in my long career of teaching lateral thinking AI is easily the most exciting thing to come along. 

Especially, at this time, it’s the brilliant service called ChatGPT. A big statement, I know, so I discuss the evidence here.

As you may know, my big idea in cognitive science was Software For Your Brain which was first published in the 1980s. It is a cognitive algorithm known as cvs2bvs or x10 thinking. Jack Welch of GE nicknamed it ‘boundarylessness‘ and Larry Page of Google called it ‘Moonshot Thinking‘. This has long since been taken up globally in education, business, science, sport and many other areas.

Why? Because it works!

Now, this brain software can be further powered by AI and the results are already way beyond what we had hoped for. So, we can offer this new School of Thinking course: AIXIO: Multiply Your AI By Ten!  It’s a world first because it combines (AI x lateral thinking). It’s young, fast and scientific. It’s simple to follow and great fun to do. It is focused on the biggest tool to optimise human thinking in a long time – AI. Specifically ChatGPT.

If you’d like to be considered for AIXIO (pronounced aye eye ecks ten) training you may start today and the school’s training fee is AUD$100, all inclusive. On completion a certificate will be issued.

To get started here are the basic FAQs.

• WHAT  The purpose of the course is twofold: First to give you strategic knowledge about a useful approach to AI in general and the ChatGPT service in particular. Second to give you a level of skill in AIXIO, ie how to multiply your AI by ten.

Click here to preview the ten lessons you will get in Series 1.

• WHY To move forward with AI let’s get in front of the game. Let’s teach ChatGPT to think outside the box. Let’s teach AI to do lateral thinking. Nothing on Earth is more powerful than lateral thinking. For example, it’s ten times faster than ChatGPT which has only been programmed and trained to use Greco-Roman Logic. Western logic is very useful in AI apps but it cannot think outside its own box. Yet! In this course you will be able to get it to do so.

• WHO I am the creator of the course and have designed the ten daily lessons and I’ll be personally monitoring all your DFQs. The School of Thinking uses DFQs (Daily Feedback Questions) to transfer knowledge and practise skills. You’ll also be able to see and consider the thoughts of others who are doing the training. You’ve been personally invited as a friend or member of SOT. You are also welcome to invite a close friend to accompany you if you wish. They can ask to enrol here.

• WHEN You can enrol in Lateral Thinking AI anytime you wish. There will be five lessons a week for two weeks. SOT courses are run Your Course. Your Way. You decide the way you wish to do the lessons. Some members do them every day for ten days. Others do them whenever. You decide how you want to apply the course to your own interests, your goals and your outcomes. To your health, wealth, productivity and security. Each lesson takes about ten minutes.

• HOW Two things to do to enrol and start training. 1. Pay your invoice. 2. Open your own ChatGPT account for free.

1 • We use PayPal and your invoice will be sent to you today if you decide to enrol.

2 • Click to open a free ChatGPT account and go to MENU/Get Started.

Why not give it a go? Why get left behind? Why let another day go by without this AI supercharge for your better life and better lateral thinking skills?

• ENROL NOW If you wish to join us for this training reply to me here saying ‘Please Enrol Me’ and you’ll get your PayPal invoice for school fees of AUD$100, all inclusive and then I’ll get you started today.

I do hope you will enjoy the AIXIO training,

Michael

NOTE: Sometimes our emails may get sent to your ‘junk file’ by your firewall, so be sure to check there just in case. You can include my email address in your CONTACTS and then you can also SEARCH in your device to find all our messages.

Given that AI is mostly trained by human brains using traditional logical thinking, then there is no evidence that AI can somehow do lateral thinking.

But it can be trained!

In a world first application, School of Thinking has now developed a way to train your AI (Chat GPT etc) to do lateral thinking – x10 thinking – using our powerful brain software.

It’s young, fast and scientific! It’s also quite simple to do once you know how.

You, your family and your team can acquire this expertise in ten short, ten-minute lessons.

NEW OFFER 2023-2024: Lateral Thinking AI

Ten Lesson Online Training with Michael.

• GROUP OFFER AUD$2800

• INDIVIDUAL OFFER AUD$100

NEW: It’s a ten day course with Michael Hewitt-Gleeson. 100% online. 15 minutes a lesson a day. For groups and for individuals.

For your invitation: CLICK HERE.

Email now to book a place: CLICK HERE.

••• CONTACT BY EMAIL: CLICK HERE

AI is coming and much of it, of course, is already here. You may need better protection. Your may need to upgrade the software your brain is currently using (Greco-Roman Logic) and get much faster software for your brain.

AI is coming. By 2030 there will be two dominant thinking machines on Earth. Carbon. Silicon.

Carbon – best example the human brain – is 13.8 billion years in development. It’s far superior to AI silicon machines developed since the 1970s. Silicon can’t even laugh or sing. However, silicon may be beating us in the software race. 

Most human brains are using English Thinking, which is excellent but not enough to stay ahead of silicon thinking. English Thinking uses, as it’s operating system, Greco-Roman Logic. The binary algorithm of Right/Wrong, Black,White, Us/Them etc etc. Inside the box thinking. It’s 2500 years old.

We need to upskill to outside the box thinking. We need trinary thinking. What we need to do is to upgrade our software for the brain especially the PFC (Pre Frontal Cortex). It may only take around 10 hours of expert lateral thinking coaching per human brain. For a clever Australian government this would be less than the cost of a single nuclear submarine.

silicon may be beating us in the software race

No brain software on Earth is more powerful than lateral thinking. For example its ten times faster than ChatGPT which also uses Greco-Roman Logic. It cannot think outside its own box. Because of neuroplasticity, your brain can!

ChatGPT cannot do lateral thinking. Yet!

Maybe that’s the solution to moving forward with AI. Let’s teach ChatGPT to think outside the box. Let’s teach AI to do lateral thinking. To do X10 Thinking. We can multiply our AI by ten. We can even teach ChatGPT to do a GBB. This new fastbook (10-minute read) shows how.

••• Email me for a free copy: CLICK HERE …

Victorian Government Agriculture Minister

Mary-Anne Thomas announced, 

“a major development for Victoria’s agtech industry”.

On Thursday (17/11), School of Thinking celebrated our 43rd Birthday. During lockdown the school has been transformed. Having completed its 40-year public mission – to offer basic lateral thinking lessons worldwide – the school is now focused on a limited number of private corporate clients and on providing them with deep dive brain training in lateral/x10 thinking to advanced degree level. The kind of thinking required to get things done.

Because the human brain changes by the millisecond, daily brain training gets much better results in life, career and play. Across an enterprise it lifts employee morale and raises productivity, as measured by any of the business metrics like revenues and costs etc.

NOTE: This advanced level of specialised training in lateral thinking is not yet available at any other school or university in the world.

In 2023, SOT will admit only 10 private clients of 1000+ employees. The focus will be on enterprise DBT – Daily Brain Training – and on training employees to advanced degree level in Lateral Thinking/x10 Thinking.

19/11/2022: Thank you Michael – that’s fabulous!! I really enjoyed your sessions and all of the work we have done with our teams, and am looking forward to seeing you at the showcase. – Jane Banovac | Acting Chief Operating Officer, AgriBio.

For example, yesterday, School of Thinking awarded its latest (100% online) class of degrees to 78 graduates of private client AgriBio. These awards achieved were: 49 Masters of Lateral Thinking MLTh(SOT), 12 Diplomas of Lateral Thinking and 17 Advanced Certificates of Lateral Thinking.

•••

In a three-year x10 Thinking project (2020-2022), School of Thinking was sought by the Department of Agriculture to help design a growing range of innovative startup science-business assets for the Victorian State Government.

Specifically, the project – called AVR x10 – created the science-business incubation hub at AgriBio which has designed nine proposed startups to accelerate commercialisation pathways of their IP assets.

The first is Smartsense AgTech, a new business with technology that asks, “What if farms in Victoria were ten times smarter?” It will offer commercial solutions to that question including camera drones for use in photographing soil, earth, water, plants, crops, and agricultural products. It will focus on rapidly improving digital sensing technologies used across a range of agricultural sectors including dairy, horticulture and grains. There will be more AVR x10 start-ups to follow.

Minister Thomas announced the State Government is providing $7.5 million funding towards the x10 start-ups that will support “a major development for Victoria’s agtech industry”.

Working in collaboration with Professor German Spangenberg, Head of AVR at AgriBio, Dr Michael Hewitt-Gleeson of School of Thinking led a brain-training program of three 10-week semesters – including 180-minute zoom masterclasses every Wednesday afternoon 2pm-5pm – of x10 Thinking for the senior scientists and commercial managers that led to a range of innovative outcomes including the creation of the science-business incubation hub at AgriBio.

We congratulate this 2022 class of graduates.

Professor Spangenberg has summarised in his letter to Dr Hewitt-Gleeson: “Thanks for all your amazing work in delivering a fantastic AVR x10 project. It has been a genuinely transformative initiative that will have lasting impact – I see the excitement of our AVR scientists in discovering their entrepreneurial skills, learning from each other, getting to know colleagues. Indeed, 5 start-up pitches in Term 1 alone is an exceptional achievement! And more to come in Term 2! Thanks again for making all of this possible”.

“I have a feeling that, in the end, probably, training is the answer to a great many things. You can do a lot if you’re properly trained.” – Queen Elizabeth, 1992.