Brainstorming Edward De Bono: A Po Moment

MANILA: If you think you know the best way to brainstorm but don't know the essence of the Po device invented by Maltese psychologist & creativity guru Edward Charles Francis Publius De Bono, you don't know anything about brainstorming.

Po is more than a word, a sound; it is an automatic invitation to think some more, better, best – to think literally out of the box.

Does Po scare you? By design, Po leads to creativity, and creative thinking doesn't scare me, I'm afraid. The image above is those of some high school youth in Asingan, Pangasinan enjoying themselves practicing their dance. Dance is creative and recreative. Today, I consider what I captured in my Lumix FZ100 camera a Po moment, although I didn't realize that when I took the photograph on 14 October 2014. And yes, naming it a Po moment is a Po moment right now, Saturday, 06 August 2016, around 1800 hours some 2 years later. I didn't call it that 40 years ago, but I have always had Po moments ever since I discovered Po in Edward De Bono's book Mechanism Of Mind, published in 1969 by Jonathan Cape in London but read in 1974 by me in the Philippines. That's what creative thinking is all about. May you have more Po moments to come!

When I write and even when I don't, I'm always thinking of, or thinking Po. And I always have ready a small notebook around, with a ready writing instrument to capture my thoughts. My favorite is a 0.7 Uni pen because I like my own scribbles black & wide. Brainstorming alone, I have to record my own thoughts now, and be able to read them later!

Last Thursday, I was thinking of writing about Po itself, the process and the product. First, I thought of the title "Adventures Of A Mind: Thinking Through." But I changed my mind. And this is what this essay is all about:

How to brainstorm without thinking hard.

I have changed the title of this essay a few times, as is my habit. "The Adventures Of Po" and "Reinventing Edward De Bono: A Po Moment" – were titles of this essay before this one. I have carried it to the extent of reinventing it, Po and my essay. Again. I already reinvented Po almost 10 years ago when I wrote in "Faith, Hope, Love & Insight. The Basic 4 Of Creativity," 29 May 2007, Frank A Hilario, blogspot.in):

Browsing the four (books of Edward De Bono that I have), I find that De Bono differentiates lateral thinking from creative thinking, the first as a process and the second as a result – a fine distinction; they are to me both process and result. I find also that I have in fact not only demystified De Bono's lateral thinking but also redefined the thinking device he calls "Po" and which he says is "Beyond Yes and No." He is being logical about it, which he shouldn't be, explaining the creative process. What I have written is that No is as acceptable as a Yes, and with that attitude, the creative juice will continue to flow. I have more faith in Po than De Bono has.

Asgeir Hoem reviews De Bono's book PO: Beyond Yes and No (1973) in "STUDY: How To Be More Creative," The Thinking Blog, thethinkingblog.com), saying PO has 3 basic uses in generating new ideas:

1, The Intermediate Impossible: PO is used as "provocative statements" (plural in Hoem's original), as "an extremely powerful variant of the word suppose" such as in "PO this copy should not be readable." It could be pictorial.

2, Random Juxtaposition: "The subject was cigarette. The random word was traffic light. From that quickly came the suggestion of putting a red band around cigarettes so that the smoker had a decision zone" – Edward De Bono.

3, Challenge for Change: "The third use of PO is simply a judgment by-pass technique. It is an invitation to generate alternative solutions and fresh thinking, even if an adequate and fitting solution already is found. It is a formal way of saying "Why?" ... without getting a defense of the initial idea as an answer."

Yes, Hoem's Po is spelled allcaps, PO. Yes, Hoem's is like De Bono's explanation of Po: technical, complicated, uninteresting.

And so the other day, Thursday, 04 August 2016, on the bus from Cubao in Quezon City to Asingan in Pangasinan, some 5 hours by Pangasinan Solid North bus, I was brainstorming by myself about this tool for brainstorming that De Bono invented, the Po.

De Bono says more in his article "Serious Creativity" where he writes PO and not Po (September 1995, The De Bono Group, debonogroup.com):

I invented the word "PO" which stands for a provocation operation. It signals that what follows is to be used directly as a provocation (that is to say, used for its movement value). A PO provides the some sort of value that has been provided historically by accident, mistake, eccentricity, or individual bold-mindedness. The PO (provocation) serves to take us out of the comfort of an existing pattern.

Yes, during brainstorming, you say "Po" before you suggest. No, I find "Serious Creativity" an uneasy title to refer to both process and product of Po. The problem is that De Bono has always been too scientific to explain science, to turn it into popular art, or a popular act. Nothing exciting. De Bono is a paradox in that here is a master mind who has invented a magnificent kind of creative thinking and yet he cannot write creatively, only technically, logically, jargon-filled. (Six Thinking Hats is an exception.)

I have always been a creative writer, my being a wide reader ever since high school where I discovered the Reader's Digest and British and American literature having opened my writer's mind. I have been using Po since 1974 when I first read Mechanism Of Mind, a book gift by my good friend Orli Ochosa (God bless his soul!) when we were copywriters of Pacifica Publicity Bureau in Makati City and Nonoy Gallardo was our Creative Director.

I know Edward De Bono invented Po and understand what he means when he says Po is (the acronym of) "provocation operation" – but those 2 words are stuffy. Also, "provocation operation" is a latter-day saint, and that is why he now writes it as PO. I don't remember De Bono describing Po like that in his 1969 book.

In an egghead brainstorming session, there is only one rule: There are no rules! Anything goes. When you're brainstorming alone or in a group, you should welcome any thought or suggestion, including the irrelevant, nonsequitur, crazy and out of this world. It's a storm, remember? It can be a shower or a deluge. If you didn't bring any raincoat or umbrella, enjoy the rainstorm as much as you can. I think that your song at the moment should be "I'm wild again / Beguiled again. / A simpering, whimpering child again / Bewitched, bothered and bewildered am I." (From Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered, lyrics by Lorenz Hart, lorenzhart.org).

Every suggestion you should accept as is, no reaction except to encourage yourself or the group to go on and brainstorm some more until a new, improved or wonderful idea comes along.

In that long bus ride, to reinvent Po away from Provocation Operation, I thought of Po as the first 2 letters of the word:

Positive? No. If you equate Po with Positive, that's unduly influencing the brainstorming session. What about the negative, neutral, out of the box of your consideration? They must be acceptable too.

Possibilities? A good one, much better than Provocation Operation. While brainstorming, you expect all kinds of possibilities. Endless possibilities.

Potentials? Another good one. There are incredibly an unstated number of potentials of whatever. Potentials are not in a box; they are out of the box, where you want to be.

Portents? Negative. 
Possessions? Nothing is possessed yet.
Pose? Can be. You're just posing, not proposing. 
Poke? Can be. You poke your head into something you don't know, you may get a big surprise, a great reward. 

Potato? That suggests "couch potato," and you don't want that.

Ponder? No. To ponder means "to think about something with thoroughness and care" (American Heritage Dictionary). That's the exact opposite of Po. If it's a smart idea, you'll get it at once, you don't need to ponder.

Positive opening? No. Opening is neutral, but positive is committed, and you don't want to be committed during a Po brainstorming season – until it's done.

Potluck? Can be. This is meal that happens to be available, not specially prepared for the occasion. What you see is what you eat. In brainstorming, what you seize is what you get.

Polygon? Can be. Many sides. But it's not open to any other form; it's a closed system, and you don't want that either. You can't get out of the box.

Position? Can be. Position does not indicate which, which is good in brainstorming. Yes, the full word we are looking for to stand for Po, not an acronym like De Bono's Provocation Operation, must be vague, uncommitted, and yet the sound itself promises much, much, much.

Polemic? No! A polemic is a "controversial argument" (American Heritage Dictionary). When you engage in polemic, you destroy the flow of thought.

Podcast? Can be. You never know what is there. But, to borrow from Shakespeare, your podcast can be all sound and fury, signifying nothing!

Potion? A liquid with magical properties. Why not? In brainstorming, you need all the magic you can get.

Point? Can be also. Nothing specified. Imprecise, bland, ambiguous, fuzzy (no logic), indefinite, nebulous, equivocal.

Posthaste? With great speed. Can be, Because you are supposed to suggest without thinking as fast as you can.

During that long road trip from city to town, I was thinking of the venerable word "Po" in Tagalog, pronounced with the diacritical mark like this: Pô (o with circumflex). The Tagalog Pô is a word added to a complete sentence in itself already, to show respect to an older or an apparently more knowledgeable person than you are, or someone whose role, rank or reputation you don't know. It hasn't been used before, but now that I've discovered it, the use of the Tagalog Pô as a device is excellent for encouraging more ideas in a brainstorming session by Filipinos, or non-Filipinos. Pô!

Notwithstanding all the above, I loved most the last word I thought that would be the perfect meaning of Po:
Power.

Po will admit all kinds of power. Just power. Don't question power and its universal appeal. Power is a word that is imprecise, bland, ambiguous, fuzzy (no logic), indefinite, nebulous, equivocal – and yet you know it promises much, much, much.

"The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You just take it" – Roseanne Barr.

"Knowledge is power. Power to do evil...or power to do good. Power itself is not evil. So knowledge itself is not evil" – Veronica Roth.

Power. "Keep your best wishes, close to your heart and watch what happens" – Tony DeLiso.

"Recognizing power in another does not diminish your own" – Joss Whedon

"That's what we all want, isn't it? Power without price" – Kelley Armstrong.

That's what we want in our brainstorming. Power moments, Po moments.

Power, according to the American Heritage Dictionary, signifies the following:

ability or capacity to act effectively, faculty or aptitude, physical strength or force, capacity to exercise control, military strength, economic or political influence, a nation lording it over other nations, a supernatural being.

A long bus ride and, Eureka! Yes, the richest suggestion of Po is Power. Every Po moment is one of power. Frank A Hilario's Po moment itself happens to be more encouraging, not dreary; more inviting, not mind-numbing; more promising than Edward De Bono's Provocation Operation. Sorry.

Any Po Moment is a power moment suddenly within your grasp.

So, I have once more reinvented Edward De Bono's Po, this time to its extreme power!

Number of words in this essay, excluding this line: 2016