THE AUSTRALIAN: THE first female Australian bishops could be ordained within a year after the Anglican Appellate Tribunal found there was nothing in the church’s constitution to stop their elevation.

Anglican Primate Phillip Aspinall said yesterday it was possible a woman bishop could be appointed next year, the logical progression of the decision 16 years ago to ordain women as priests.

However, Dr Aspinall said there were no vacancies and pointed out the country’s 23 diocesan bishops had agreed to delay any decisions about how to proceed until their next national meeting, in April.

Announcing that the seven-man Appellate Tribunal had found no impediment in the church’s constitution against women becoming bishops, Dr Aspinall admitted the move might provoke some parishioners to leave the church.

Yesterday I went to the Melbourne Museum to see the new interactive multi-media installation THE MIND: ENTER THE LABYRINTH. It’s a trip! Also, well worth the visit both to the new museum itself and to the MIND exhibit.

Explore the workings of the mind by entering a world of emotions, thoughts, memories and dreams. Step into the shoes of those that see the world from different mind perspectives. Discover the ways in which drugs and disorders affect our minds and question your attitudes to normality.

Here’s a simple audit for you to rate your own brainpower. It was designed by Dr Eric Bienstock who is Vice-Principal of SOT in New York. Eric based this checklist on the SOT’s Learn-To-Think Coursebook and Instructors Manual (Michael Hewitt-Gleeson & Edward de Bono, Capra/New 1982).

How do you rate your own brainpower?

INSTRUCTIONS: Answer each of the following questions, scoring
either 3, 2, 1, or 0 points for each answer depending on your
objective estimate of how often you actually do what is stated.
Use your best guess of the following criteria for scoring:

3 – 90% OF THE TIME (nearly always)
2 – 70% OF THE TIME (mostly)
1 – 40% OF THE TIME (often)
0 – 10% OF THE TIME (hardly ever)

SCORE

______ My judgements of ideas are based on the value of the idea rather
than on my emotions at the time.

_______ I judge ideas not just as “good” or “bad” but also as “interesting”
if they can lead on to better ideas.

_______ I consider all factors in a situation before choosing, deciding or planning.

_______ I consider all factors first, before picking out the ones that matter most.

_______ When I create a rule I see to it that it is clearly understood
and possible to obey.

_______ I try to see the purpose of rules I have to obey, even if I don’t like the rules.

_______ I look at consequences of my decisions or actions not only as they affect me
but also as they affect other people.

_______ I look at a wide range of possible consequences before deciding
which consequences to bother about.

_______ On the way to a final objective I establish a chain of smaller objectives
each one following on from the previous one.

_______ The objectives I set are near enough, real enough and possible
enough for me to really try to reach them.

_______ In planning, I know exactly what I want to achieve.

_______ I keep my plans as simple and direct as possible.

_______ I know exactly why I have chosen something as a priority.

_______ I try to get as many different ideas as possible first,
before starting to pick out the priorities.

_______ I will go on looking for alternatives until I find one I really like.

_______ While most people look for alternatives when they are not satisfied;
I look for them deliberately even when I am satisfied.

_______ I am able to tell myself the real reason behind a decision I make.

_______ Before making a decision, I consider the factors, look at the consequences,
get clear about the objectives, assess the priorities, and search for possible alternatives.

_______ I am able to see the other person’s point-of-view whether I agree with it or not.

_______ I am able to spell out the differences and similarities between different viewpoints.

_______ TOTAL SCORE.

INTERPRETATION

Don’t panic, this is NOT a scientific test. It’s just an audit or checklist to help you take stock of your thinking, that’s all! A trained thinker can direct his
or her thinking and use it in a deliberate manner to produce an effect.
To a trained and skilled thinker, thinking is a tool that can be used at will
and the use of this tool is practical. This ability to use ‘thinking as a skill’
is the sort of thinking ability that is required to get things DONE.

* If your total score in this test was between 51 and 60 points,
you may already possess superior brainpower.
* If you scored between 31 and 50 points, you may have better than average brainpower.
* If you scored between 0 and 30, you may possess no additional brainpower
other than the natural thinking ability that most people have.

___________ Record your score and any comments you have:

TENPOWER: The Powers of Ten: Just ask the question: How can I X10 this?

Tenpower is a measurement tool. Measurement is a very important skill for the brainuser to develop. It’s also a big help in finding a way out of our CVS. For example, a BVS is a decimal of a CVS. A CVS is also a decimal of a BVS. In other words, they are related by powers of ten. Sometimes a BVS is ten times smaller than a CVS. Other times it is ten times greater.

The deliberate or habitual use of the number 10 is called Tenpower.

Ten times better may be ten times more, or ten times less, or ten units forward or ten units back. It’s the deliberate use of tenpower as a provocation to get you to escape from your CVS.

Tenpower helps you to switch patterns of perception. That’s all.

While it is not important that the number ten is accurately used, its use is a powerful escape mechanism.

Tenpower is simple and powerful but it’s not easy.

Just add a zero and take an X10 leap with tenpower!

This was the title of a lecture I presented a few years ago at Monash Medical Centre to the medical staff. The title was deliberately provocative and the auditorium was filled. Doctors and medical staff work hard, they make critical decisions under relentless pressure and they use the same brain that we use.

This well-written article from the New Yorker by Jerome Groopman explores this topic:

“The errors that doctors make because of their feelings for a patient can be significant. We all want to believe that our physician likes us and is moved by our plight. Doctors, in turn, are encouraged to develop positive feelings for their patients; caring is generally held to be the cornerstone of humanistic medicine. Sometimes, however, a doctor’s impulse to protect a patient he likes or admires can adversely affect his judgment.”

More …

George Gallup

George Horace Gallup (November 18, 1901 – July 26, 1984), American statistician, invented the Gallup poll, a successful statistical method of survey sampling for measuring public opinion.

As a pioneering pollster, company founder Dr. George Gallup determined that in seeking the truth, that is, the actual “will” of the people, his guiding principle would be independence. To ensure his independence, and therefore his objectivity, Dr. Gallup resolved that he would undertake no polling that was paid for or sponsored in any way by special interest groups such as the Republican and Democratic parties. Adhering to this principle, The Gallup Organization has turned down thousands of requests for surveys from organizations representing every shade of the political spectrum and with every kind of special agenda.

I have six honest serving men
They taught me all I knew
There names are What, and Where and When;
and Why and How and Who. 

- Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936).

Ideas evolve.

And, so have the ideas that have led to this Fourth Edition of Software For Your Brain. It can be interesting to look back to see how these ideas got going in the first place.

You can download your own copy here …

In 1979, I started the School of Thinking (SOT) in New York with Edward de Bono. We agreed the mission of the school was to train ‘teachers of thinking’ and to get ‘thinking on the curriculum’ of all schools.

At SOT we used a number of methodologies including Edward’s CoRT Thinking syllabus and The Scheyville Method (distilled from Australian Army leadership training). We also explored, developed and pioneered a range of innovative training and thinking methodologies. For example, at different times, Edward suggested the idea of ‘Thinking Spectacles’ as a way of teaching parallel thinking; I developed the idea of X10 Thinking; and then SOT developed the idea of using ‘Six Thinking Caps’ which is now used widely around the world. Recently, I’ve added a seventh–The Grey Thinking Hat–the only one which cannot be taught.

When we introduced the ‘School of Thinking caps strategy‘ in 1983 it was designed as a toolkit to help thinkers to escape from their current thinking patterns. Edward liked the idea so much he said that it “may well be the most important change in human thinking for the past 2300 years”.

After leaving SOT, in 1985 Edward de Bono evolved his own version–The Six Thinking Hats–which became a best-seller.

Another evolution was in 1981 when I worked on designing cognetics (cognitive cybernetics) calling it ‘software for the brain’ and, with the arrival of personal desktop computers, I began referring to the brain as a ‘necktop computer’ and so I designed the first universal brain software: cvs2bvs.

On presenting these ideas to Edward de Bono as a more “up-to-date and hi-tech way to teach thinking” I was surprised that he was not at all supportive of the ‘necktop’ idea. At the time, Edward was Professor of Investigative Medicine at Cambridge University and he felt strongly that the behaviour of the brain and that of computers was so different that he said, “there seems little point in comparing them”. He referred me to his book The Mechanism of Mind (his best and most original contribution) where he elaborates on his viewpoint in detail, “The behaviour of the electrical system in the brain is fundamentally different from that to be found in computers” and “even on a functional level there are considerable differences” etc etc. Fair enough.

But, I was convinced of the value of ‘necktop software’ and persisted with the concept. My own view was that, whatever the differences, brains and computers were both deeply digital environments for information-processing and that there were useful comparisons to be made, not only metaphorically (as desktop personal computers were becoming ubiquitous in the 80s) but also functionally. I remained committed to the idea and developed it further.

In 1989 I published the first edition of Software For The Brain which became an international best-seller. This ‘brain software’ method for teaching thinking skills has also become one of the most widely used around the world—in schools, in sports and in business.

Recently, after 25 years, Edward de Bono has changed his mind and announced that he is now an advocate of the ‘brain software’ strategy for teaching thinking which, itself, is a nice example of cvs2bvs.

brightlight thinking
To follow thinking caps and brain software I am now developing a new methodology called brightlight thinking: how to sort truth from lies.

The basic premise of brightlight thinking is: claim divided by due diligence equals truth or lie expressed as the formula c÷dd=t>l.

The methodology of brightlight thinking is the skilled use of 10 questions that are asked to move the CLAIM backwards or forwards along the 10-step continuum: TRUTH . . . . . . . . . . LIE.

Any claim that has ever been made in all of history and any claim that ever will be made can be examined and enlightened by brightlight thinking.

Edward de Bono has become world famous for some of my best ideas. Based on my experience with the earlier thinking caps and brain software ideas, I predict Edward will be saying brightlight was his idea by 2010

Some people prefer Truth.
Some people prefer Lies.
What do you prefer?

Thought Experiment: Have a really good think about how you approach this question before you post your own preference here. When we get 100 replies we’ll post the result.

In 25 words, can you explain, with an example, WHY you know you prefer TRUTH or LIES? …

GALLUP NEWS SERVICE: September 04, 2007
More Than Half of K-12 Parents Relieved Summer Vacation Is Over.

Relieved because their kids are bored, should be learning …

PRINCETON, NJ — School-aged children across the country are already mournful about the end of summer, as they head back to the hallways for a new school year. But how do their parents feel about their kids going back to school — are they in a celebratory mood (as some television commercials suggest) or are they sad to see the vacation end?

A recent Gallup Panel survey, conducted Aug. 23-26, asked a nationally representative sample of parents with children in kindergarten through 12th grade for their feelings on the end of summer vacation. A slight majority of parents, 53%, say they are “relieved that summer vacation is over,” while 42% say they “wish summer vacation would last longer.” More on this …