PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT: On the eve of my CHINA X10 lecture tour I see that Peter and Edward de Bono have referred business people in China and elsewhere to their recent blog version of the origin of ‘Thinking Hats’ and Brain Software” and they have asked people to ’spread their word’ because it is ‘The Truth”.

I have been advised to post here my version of the origin of ‘Thinking Hats’ and Brain Software”.

Actually, it is useful that Edward has now publicly stated his version after all these years. He has done so on the website run by his brother, Peter de Bono. The errors, libels and false claims they have posted can be now more easily shown to be at odds with the evidence. While the de Bono brothers’ statement provides no supporting facts (dates, names, independent third parties etc), anyone reading my version is able to compare and trace timelines and have the facts coroborrated.

Why is Edward so obsessed with me? I don’t know. Contrary to his wild claims, I do not teach his work. I do not teach CoRT Thinking. I do not teach ‘Six Thinking Hats’. Neither SOT nor myself have ever drawn any income from any of his works. I completely fund the School of Thinking from my personal resources. It is pro bono not de Bono.

The work I teach is original, like ‘Brain Software’ and ‘X10 Thinking’, and I suggest Edward should just mind his own business and let me do the same. If he feels he has a basis for legal action then why does he not take appropriate action himself? The obvious answer is that he cannot produce any evidence to support his claims.

Josephine de Bono raised Edward to be a gentleman not a bully. It is mischievous for the de Bono brothers to incite other people to rise up and take action against me and SOT for no good reason other than their own personal obsession. It’s also not a good look. I assume that in his dotage, Edward is being unduly influenced by his younger brother, Peter. It is unworthy of Edward who was once an accomplished Cambridge Don. It is second-rate ‘lateral thinking’ which sets a poor example to those students and trainees who are entitled to expect better standards of leadership from their teachers.

I have made plans to be commercially very active in the China market. Accordingly, I have forwarded copies of the de Bono brother’s blog and recent post to my lawyers in Melbourne, Shanghai and New York with instructions to act responsibly to protect my name, SOT brand and business potential in the China market should our rights be infringed in any way by the de Bono brothers, their franchised representatives, their publishers or agents.