Edward De Bono Interview - Business & Happiness

The Father of Lateral Thinking, Edward De Bono, discusses the Business of Happiness, designing a way forward and design thinking for Australian Business. An interview with Craigh Wilson, of Small Fish Business Coaching Australia.

Excerpted below is a partial transcription of the full video interview. This Our Manly Thinking Tank Business Interview was filmed at Bondi Icebergs in Sydney just prior to the Sydney Happiness Festival. 

Our Manly: What makes you happy?

Edward De Bono: First of all, happiness is an active process.  Happiness is also the ability to appreciate things. A third level is doing something interesting or achieving something. 

Our Manly: What excites you right now?

Edward De Bono: When I first started writing about thinking, it was unexplored country. I realized we had done virtually nothing about thinking for 2400 years, since Aristotle, Plato and Socrates. Worse than that, when their thinking came to Europe during the Renaissance, schools and universities were in the hands of the church. The Church was not interested in creative thinking, design thinking or perceptual thinking. What they needed was truth, logic, and an argument to prove heretics wrong. That became the core of our thinking culture. It is excellent thinking for finding the truth. It has done us well in Science and Technology but culturally we have never developed thinking creating value. There’s so much to do in the field of thinking! It’s been untouched for 2400 years.

Our Manly: What was the moment you found happiness was the legitimate purpose of life?

Edward De Bono: I was interested in thinking, and what would be the purpose of thinking. The purpose of thinking would be to have a better life and happiness is the definition of a better life.

Our Manly: How would you define happiness today in the context of business?

Edward De Bono: Two sorts of happiness. One is where you solve all your problems and anxieties and the other is where you are developing new initiatives. You’re doing things, making things happen, achievement. Achievement is a form of happiness. The absence of anxieties and achievement.

Our Manly: When and how is humour appropriate as an asset in business today?

Edward De Bono: First of all, humour is the most significant behaviour of the human brain, far more significant than reason. Humour indicates a patterning system where you switch patterns and once you’ve switched patterns it’s totally logical. I’ll give you my favorite example. Old man of ninety goes down to hell, wandering around, sees another man of ninety with a beautiful woman sitting on his lap. He says to his friend, “Are you sure this is hell, because you seem to be having a rather good time.” His friend looks up and says, “No this is hell alright. I’m the punishment for her.”

Absolutely logical, totally logical, so humour implies that switch in perception. To see things differently. So, very often we’re in a situation, and we say to ourselves, “Well, I’m looking at it this way. Could I look at it another way?”

Listen to the whole interview for an example of how Nokia used these ideas to move forward in a new and challenging industry. You’ll also learn about:

How does happiness help your workforce and improve your bottom line?

Why listening should be someone’s job at your company.

What’s the cost of unhappiness in business?

Visit the Edward De Bono Official Site

Visit the De Bono Institute Site in Melbourne, Australia


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