TACTICS: The Art and Science of Success

To succeed, you don't have to be ""lucky, or a little mad, or very talented, or to find yourself in a rapid growth field""--you do have to think positively. So what's new? De Bono (New Think, The Mechanisms of Mind, etc., etc.) has broad, transatlantic contacts: his 50 interviewees include Chris Bonington, Roy Cohn, Terence Conlan, Werner Erhard, Hans Eysenck, Malcolm Forbes, and such-like through the alphabet. He sets them talking about style, positive stimulants, and the role of pure chance; as occasion arises, he adduces lessons about ""restlessness and willingness to change,"" about ""the value of personal rapport."" And so he works around to ""exploiting opportunity,"" ""the value of a new perspective,"" and his long-time shtick: ""lateral thinking,"" via ""provocation"" (or ""po,"" provocation operation). But after rock-star Sting has provided an illustration of same (what he, and most of us, call inspiration), he comes back to tell us about his strategy: ""You look at the market and see what sells, and you see what image is required."" As de Bono gets into aspects of business management, both he and his interviewees tend to mouth familiar dictums: ""One way of getting involved is to show that you have 'hands on' experience. Another is to deliberately cross barriers and boundaries that normally separate bosses from workers."" We duly hear about goal-setting, the value of recognition, ""criticize the performance not the performer."" On breaking patterns, though, de Bono and company can be mildly stimulating (lots of personal experience stories)--by contrast with some of the highly programmed success manuals around.