You have done so much thinking on thinking, have you seen your thoughts being used in any public programme?
There are countries like Venezuela where every school has to teach my thinking. The Chinese government is trying it out in five provinces and if they like the result, they are going to put it in 680,000 schools. It is widely used in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Singapore and so on. And research in the UK shows that teaching my thinking as a separate subject in schools, increases performance in every subject by between 30% to 100%.
There is this story about you having taken a seminar for the Australian cricket team and after that they won some 20-odd one day internationals in a row. What did you talk to them about?
That’s right. John Buchanan, their then coach, invited me to teach them thinking, which I did. And they were very successful after that. I think they beat England which was the biggest defeat in the history of test cricket. An Australian football team called the West Coast Eagles invited me to train them and then they won the championship for the first time in 13 years.
What do you talk to sportspersons about?
Thinking. It is the same as I talk to business. Change in patterns. Change in thinking.
You have said in the past that ‘The West is complacent and offensive. The East has more energy for change, and so I think they will rise above the West.’ Can you elaborate on that?
Possibly. The West is ruled by very rigid judgements, East is less judgemental in that sense. One of things I want to do in India is to create a new caste — PCCT —which stands for Positive, Constructive and Creative Thinkers. So people develop a pride in themselves as being positive, creative thinkers and then they build up their confidence, and then can do things more positively, constructively and creatively.
You have said schools waste two-thirds of the talent in society. The universities sterilise the rest. Can you explain..
The main thing at schools is seeing how can we keep these children occupied until they grow up. But some things are useful, reading, writing, basic mathematicsare useful. Obviously I can’t judge Indian education, but in England, the students might leave school learning what happened 300 years ago, and they don’t know how the world works today.
What about the theory that humour is by far the most significant activity of the human brain...
Yes. This is because humour imitates an asymmetric patterned system. You are going along one direction and you switch to another direction and in hindsight it makes perfect sense. The example I use in my seminars is about an old man of 90 years, who goes to hell. And as he is wandering around, he sees a friend also aged 90, sitting there with a beautiful young woman on his knee. So he says to his friend, are you sure this is hell, because you seem to be having a rather good time. And his friend looks up and says, it is hell all right, I am the punishment for her.
Studies have shown that 90% of error in thinking is due to error in perception, you have said in the past. Can you elaborate...
Research at Harvard showed that. It is the way you look at the subject that will determine your thinking about the subject. And there is a mathematical theorem, the Godel’s theorem, which says that from within any situation, you can never logically prove the starting points. And if you can’t prove the starting points what are they? They are perceptions. So it does not matter how good your logic is if your perception is inadequate or wrong, the answer is going to be wrong, no matter how logical you are.
Can you give an example?
Any situation, if you look at it in a particular way and logically you work it out, if you say that this person is an enemy, then you behave like he is an enemy. If you perceive that he is not an enemy, but perhaps insecure then you help him to be more secure. So it depends on how you perceive the situation.
What are your priorities today? Where are you currently focusing your energy?
I am continuing to encourage people to think. My last book was Think Before It’s Too Late. There what I am saying is that our thinking is based too much on judgement, conflict, world affairs, not enough design, design in the way forward. So there is much more to do. I have to write several more books on the limits of existing thinking and how we need and have an opportunity to change.
Who inspires you the most?
Myself
You have written so many books, if you were to pick up three books of yours, you feel are a must read…
It really depends. If you are really interested in fundamentals then The Mechanism of Mind is the book to read. If you are interested in how to, then I would say Six Thinking Hats or Lateral Thinking or How to Have Creative Ads, are the ones.
What do you read?
A lot of the books on psychology and philosophy are not inspiring at all. They are extremely boring. I am interested in things that are happening, maybe organisations, maybe economics, watching systems working. Whats happening, how people are behaving and so on.
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