https://theinvisiblementor.com/the-invisible-mentor-interviews-michale-hewitt-gleeson-founder-of-the-school-of-thinking/
Michael Hewitt-Gleeson: When I started the school, I started it with Edward de Bono, and we worked together for about seven years.
We were very successful on a number of projects and ventures.
We published the first book on thinking called Learn to Think and co-authored it.
Then we had a disagreement over a program we developed at the School of Thinking called Thinking Caps.
Edward published the book Six Thinking Hats, which was his most successful book but did not give any attribution to the School of Thinking.
This led to a disagreement and ultimately we split-up.
We went separate ways and at the time that was certainly to me a disappointment, and it caused some distractions.
Though we didn’t go to court, it was very close.
It transpired that Edward de Bono, as principal shareholder of the School of Thinking, had offered conflicting publishing rights both to the School of Thinking on the one hand and to Pergamon Press (owned by British billionaire-publisher, Robert Maxwell) on the other hand, and so a legal dispute arose.
Hewitt-Gleeson and other smaller shareholders (Dr Eric Bienstock and Alexandra Jane Noble) claimed moral rights but were unable to match Robert Maxwell’s legal funds especially in the event that Edward de Bono chose to take his friend Maxwell’s side. These smaller shareholders called for an investigation by the FBI. The school in New York was closed down in 1985 and Edward de Bono was interviewed by Scotland Yard.
There was also a dispute over the School of Thinking’s Six Thinking Caps.
Dr Edward de Bono and Dr Michael Hewitt-Gleeson co-authored an early version of the PMI lesson in the Learn-To-Think Coursebook and Instructors Manual (1982 Capra New). This book became the subject of a cover story on all international editions of the Readers Digest in April 1983. Today’s equivalent would be like being on OPRAH! As a result, the PMI lesson reached over 68 million readers worldwide. This was the widest ever broadcast of the PMI thinking skill. Developed by the Cognitive Research Trust (CoRT), the PMI became one of the most widely taught of all the School of Thinking lessons—the 59 Minute Course in Thinking.
The icon that featured in this Readers Digest story is the original School of Thinking Cap. In September 1983, Michael Hewitt-Gleeson, Eric Bienstock and Edward de Bono were brainstorming ways to exploit the enormous publicity created for SOT from the Readers Digest cover story. They jointly developed the idea of ‘coloured thinking caps’ taken from the icon in the magazine.
They considered getting baseball caps with the SOT logo or headbands made in different colours. Edward de Bono suggested that the caps be sold in sets of six and in summary de Bono wrote: “Each is of a different colour and each bears the logo of the School of Thinking. Instead of caps elasticised head bands could be used”.
Six Thinking Hats was subsequently published in 1985. In the latest edition Edward de Bono writes: “The Six Thinking Hats method may well be the most important change in human thinking for the past 2300 years”. Yet, there is no attribution for the origin of the idea in any editions of the book. The matter has been raised by Hewitt-Gleeson with de Bono on a number of occasions but no attribution has yet been given.
Although Edward de Bono and Michael Hewitt-Gleeson have since resumed their friendship, Hewitt-Gleeson’s legal advisors have advised that this curious statement, still on the internet, is defamatory. Edward de Bono has given repeated assurances to Hewitt-Gleeson that the statement will be removed but has failed to do so claiming that ‘my brother Peter is the culprit and will not remove it’. The matter may yet become the basis for a legal dispute in Melbourne
