ISLAMABAD, Nov 8: Dr Attaur Rehman, adviser to the prime minister on science and technology, launched an attack on inertia among the country’s bureaucracy.

He was speaking on the occasion of a lecture delivered by Dr Edward de Bono on creative thinking here on Saturday at the National Library Auditorium, which was packed to capacity.

Referring to one of the “6 Thinking Hats” of creative thinking identified by Dr Bono, the adviser said: “The bureaucrats must be wearing black hats.”

Earlier, Dr Bono had explained the characteristics of “6 Thinking Hats” which he said were useful in organizational management to deliver results. The hats, identified by Dr Bono in colours of white, red, black, yellow, green and blue, have characteristics relating to focus on information, feelings, intuition and emotions, caution, carefulness, critical and risk avoidance behaviour, values, benefits, new ideas, creativity, exploration of alternative possibilities and organizing capabilities.

About the “Black Hat”, Dr Bono said its overuse could lead to inactivity and maintenance of status quo in organizations and individuals.

Continuing his light-hearted assault on bureaucracy, Mr Atta said that early in the morning bureaucrats start with the attitude, “I must not decide anything. And as a result, nothing moves in the country.”

The remarks of the adviser to the prime minister were enjoyed by the audience, including a large number of bureaucrats, in the context of Dr Bono’s pronouncement earlier in the lecture that humour tells us more about the human brain than reasoning, a psychological fact which is also identified by Sigmund Freud in his works on the psychological working of the human mind.

Emphasising the importance of identifying the processes of thinking in natural sciences, Dr Atta said he was working on molecular basis of thought.

Dr Bono in his lecture spanning a little over one-and-a-half hours, with an interval for prayers, briefly talked about his work on the concepts represented by “Lateral Thinking,” “Parallel Thinking,” “6 Thinking Hats,” and “CoRT programme” which are now an integral part of global business and management literature.

Beginning his lecture by taking away the cloak of mystery surrounding the concept of creativity, Dr Bono said it was a behaviour of information, following asymmetrical patterns.

According to Dr Bono, called “father of thinking about thinking”, conventionalism is antagonistic to creativity as the process is dependent on encouragement of doing or saying things which are not conventional, which are different from the normal track.

Logic is not a way of producing new ideas and the history of science is full of examples where random thoughts and ideas gave rise to innovation and creativity, he explained and added that progress of civilizations, nations and organizations will happen if they are not sticking to conventionalism.

In this regard, he gave the examples of Chinese, who were once much advanced than western countries, but were now left behind because of their conventionalism. Citing the sayings of Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), Dr Bono said Islam as a religion encourages creative thinking.

Dr Bono talked about assimilation of information in a referential time frame and its economical value-based use.

Rafique Jaffer of the Institute of Social Sciences Lahore, who taught some of the Dr Bono’s concepts on creative thinking in Pakistan, also speak on the occasion.