Rolf Hedman Mentor

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Here are several of **Edward de Bono’s** most powerful quotes on **creativity**, reflecting his lifelong work in lateral thinking and innovation:



**1.** “Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a different way.”
– One of his core ideas: true creativity begins when we challenge assumptions and habitual thinking.



**2.** “You cannot dig a hole in a different place by digging the same hole deeper.”
– A vivid metaphor for why problem-solving demands new approaches, not just more effort in the same direction.



**3.** “The need to be right all the time is the biggest bar to new ideas.”
– A warning against ego in creative work; openness to being wrong is essential for discovery.



**4.** “The best ideas come as jokes. Make your thinking as funny as possible.”
– De Bono believed that playfulness unlocks creativity—humor allows the mind to make unexpected connections.



**5.** “Lateral thinking is concerned not with playing with the existing pieces but with seeking to change those very pieces.”
– Unlike logical or vertical thinking, lateral thinking redefines the problem itself.



**6.** “Most of the mistakes in thinking are inadequacies of perception rather than mistakes of logic.”
– A reminder that how we frame a situation limits or expands our creative possibilities.



**7.** “It is better to have enough ideas for some of them to be wrong than to be always right by having no ideas at all.”
– Encouraging experimentation over perfectionism—a foundational mindset for any creative endeavor.



Would you like a distilled principle or framework based on de Bono’s view of creativity?

— Edward de Bono, ChatGPT 4.0