Edward de Bono (born May 19, 1933) is a Maltese psychologist and physician. He writes prolifically about lateral thinking - a concept he pioneered. De Bono is also a consultant, working with such companies as Coca-Cola and Ericsson.

Born in Malta, Edward de Bono studied at St Edward's College and subsequently gained a medical degree from the Royal University of Malta. Studying at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, he gained an honours degree in psychology and physiology and a D.Phil in medicine. He went on to complete a PhD at Cambridge, and to faculty appointments at Oxford, London, Cambridge and Harvard. He was married to Josephine (divorced 2005), has two sons, and has resided on the Channel Islands for over a decade. He has other properties including one in Malta and a flat in London.

In 1969 De Bono founded the Cognitive Research Trust which continues to produce and promote material based on his ideas. In 1979 he co-founded the School of Thinking with Michael Hewitt-Gleeson.

He has written "75 books with translations into 37 languages". He has spent the last 30 years teaching thinking, including working with governments, corporations, organisations and individuals, speaking publicly or privately on many matters. He has started to set up the World Center for New Thinking, based in Malta, which he describes as a "kind of intellectual Red Cross".

In 1995, he created the futuristic documentary film, 2040: Possibilities by Edward de Bono, a lecture designed to prepare an audience of viewers released from a cryogenic freeze for contemporary (2040) society.

De Bono has detailed a range of 'deliberate thinking methods' - applications emphasizing thinking as a deliberate act rather than a reactive one. His writing style is simple and clear, though often criticised for being dry and repetitive. Avoiding academic terminology, he has advanced applied psychology by making theories about creativity and perception into usable tools.

De Bono's work has become particularly popular in the sphere of business - perhaps because of the perceived need to restructure corporations, to allow more flexible working practices and to innovate in products and services. The methods have migrated into corporate training courses designed to help employees and executives 'think out of the box'/' think outside the box '.

The popularity of his work extends, too, into the sphere of worldwide popular culture; in the popular Japanese anime series Azumanga Daioh, the character Osaka is known for her skill at solving lateral thinking puzzles such as those pioneered by de Bono
(From http://en.wikipedia.org)

In The Six Thinking Hats, De Bono is able to create a simple analogy of colors linked to specific thought patterns that everyone is familiar with. Using six of the most common colors including black, red, blue, green, white, and yellow to represent negative criticism, emotion, logic, creativity, objectivity, and exuberant optimism respectively, De Bono creates an easy to remember model that can create great flexibility in thinking patterns. This model is applicable and easy to remember to to its fundamental nature of linking familiar colors with unique traits to their predisposed thinking patterns. All people are biased and have a certain natural behavioral thinking patterns they follow based on nature and nurture characteristics. Tinkering with different hats allows individuals to witness a wider spectrum of viewpoints and thus potential solutions and discourse to their issue at hand.

(From quoting Karl)