The following contains excerpts from the book, Tactics (the Art & Science of Success) Edward de Bono.
At our music school in Midland, Texas we believe that music is more than sound, it is relationships. In the study of Leadership, relationships matter. And in studying relationships, the understanding of empathy becomes of high importance.
In the author’s thesis, “There are clearly many different ways of looking at success…we shall be looking at the lessons that might be learned from a number of people who would generally be regarded as ‘successful’…We can gain new perspectives; we can learn what works for them and what does and does not work for us; we can learn what to focus upon; we can learn broad strategies that do not rely for their efficiency upon our teacher’s personal style…The purpose of this book is to provide an environment for such learning.”
At our music school in Midland, Texas we see music as an important part of any student’s education process, giving insight into multiple ways of approaching the solution to problems, especially through the development of empathy, or the ability to see from another’s perspective.
“The self-discovery thing is confidence-building. You have got to learn to take the responsibility. If you can learn to take responsibility, you’re going to be even stronger than the kind of player who needs a coach all the time…Here we see how self-examination is going to lead to three things: an awareness of blocks, an achievement-monitoring system, and self-confidence. In essence, the person starts to deal with himself or herself almost as if that self were part of the external environment. That is possible so long as the basic self is intact. If, however, self-examination pulls to pieces the basic self, then there is no one to make the improvements. Up to a certain point self-examination is helpful, beyond that point it can be destructive (and can lead to a dependence of the destroyed self on the destroyer)…self-knowledge…can be useful and it can be destructive. It can be useful when offering alternative perceptions. It can be useful when dealing with blocks and weaknesses. It can be useful when determining personal style and limitations. It can be destructive when it seeks to change a personality rather than modify it. It can be destructive when analysis looks only at the components and not at the whole system. It can be destructive when it becomes dogmatic.”
At our music school in Midland, Texas we accentuate the positive in each student’s development. Focusing on what is good, and amplifying it, is the best way forward.
“The simplest form of target is the acceptance of a challenge…In art there may be a general ambition to be best, but targets are more difficult to define; it is probably a matter of getting better and better and striving more fully to make actual any artistic potential (self-improvement and self-expression may be the best definition).
“Get to know the business. Get to know the market. Get to know people. Build up credibility. Credibility is in many fields a huge capital asset. It is difficult to build up and easy to lose. In the end it may be the only thing which determines whether a deal comes your way or whether you can get backing when you need it. Credibility does not necessarily require the caution that never permits error. Investors are willing to take risks as long as they know the risks are soundly managed.”
“When should you persist? When you feel that the idea is only slightly ahead of its time. When there have been indications of the sale-ability of the product. When the trends are going your way. When the investment climate has been bad but is improving. How long is it sensible to wait for a break in the development or marketing of a product? Reward has no automatic virtue and there is no rule that says a break must come sometime. It may never come. The merits of persistence may trap us in a failure path.
It is the teacher’s responsibility to help guide the student, in our music school in Midland, Texas, with objectivity and candor, helping them to see what is possible and the benefits to the investment of their time. By challenging them to higher achievement, our teachers set the standard of excellence and help them grow into their potential.
Moderate success may trap us in a path of moderate success. Few people have the chance to escape from moderate success in order to take a risky leap into another field where there are possibilities of greater success, but no guarantees. Many successful people have made such jumps (probably to the horror of their families). The taking of such a risk depends on: your assessment of your present path and its future; your assessment of the opportunity being offered; your assessment of your personal style and talents; your ability to take risks.”
“I strongly disagree with this distinction between thinking and doing: that thought is the enemy of action. For me, there is thinking concerned with description and there is thinking concerned with action. I have, in fact, invented a word to cover the thinking involved in getting things done: the word is ‘operacy’. Much of the thinking that I have designed for use in education is directed toward operacy. It is true that academics are seen to think, more than to act, and hence the sort of thinking they do becomes equated with thinking in general (the striving for perfection as an end in itself)…there is a continuous synergy between thought and action…There is something I have come to call the ‘intelligence trap’. This means that some highly intelligent people may turn out to be rather poor thinkers…Highly intelligent people are often able to construct a coherent support for a particular point of view. The more able they are to construct such a support, the less do they see any need actually to explore the subject. Hence they remain locked into a particular point of view…Because we have made so very little effort to train thinking deliberately as a skill, we have to rely on untutored natural ability. When we start to treat thinking as a skill and to train it, we may find that skill in thinking is more important than genetic endowment in this area (within certain limits.)
It is our desire, at our music school in Midland, Texas, to train the student how to think and analyze for themselves, becoming autonomous in their development. When we explain the why’s behind the instruction, this empowers the student to succeed into the future.
“So long as we continue to regard creativity as a gift which is made up of equal mixtures of rebelliousness and inspiration, then there are going to be people who do not understand it, do not like it, and do not want to use it. But once we come to look upon creativity as a ‘logical process’, all that can change…once we can understand the nature of the information universe in which creativity works, then we can start to understand the logic of the process and go on to devise tools which use that logic…Most creative people realize the ‘escape’ value of getting a different perspective or standing back in order to look at things from a distance.”
We encourage students at our music school in Midland, Texas to view creativity as a journey of discovery, and we encourage each student to explore the possibilities of creativity in their artistic development.