1.   Gandhi – developing wisdom  

As a young man Gandhi was late for a train in India – he jumped on board as it was leaving and one of his sandals fell back on to the platform. What did he do?  He immediately threw the other sandal back onto the platform. His reasoning being that one sandal was no use to him or to the person who picked up the sandal he had dropped. He could not have both sandals so he donated a usable pair to whoever found them. Many of us would eventually have thought to do this but probably 20 miles down the line. He demonstrated his innate/acquired ability to reason, solve a problem and still consider the needs of others. The later can often be forgotten in the hard nosed world of day to day business. 

2.   Cross the river 

 Edward De Bono gave an example of how important it is to see things from all sides and be aware of the perspective of others.  

A man stands on one side of a stream and shouts to someone on the opposite bank. “How do I get to the other side? The reply?  “You’re already there!  

How often do we have conversations where we talk at cross purposes because we fail to take account of the viewpoint of others and build our solutions on assumptions that may or may not be valid?

 3.   EBNE 

Edward De Bono also spoke about continuous improvement and not resting on laurels. He suggests a new word EBNE - Excellent but not enough 

 4.   Intelligence  Howard Gardner spoke of the different intelligences that people use and how we should recognise strengths in others and use their expertise and skills. Alongside the usually quoted 7 intelligences he speculated on adding another – Gut intelligence. This would resonate with many of us who sometimes just “feel” solutions/situations. To be used with caution but not ignored was his suggestion 

I gave a presentation on motivating people for optimum achievement/results and the need to apply thought and intelligence to the handling of projects and personnel. There was a focus on managing conflict.