de Bono & Gleeson v Ean

Edward de Bono and son Caspar

“stop exposing me or I will defame you!”

On 29 Jan 18 I received a letter from Edward de Bono demanding I retract my ‘allegations'” and “immediately provide a formal apology and retraction”

29 Jan 18 EdB letter threatening legal action

“29 January 2018
Rabat, Malta

Dear Mr Carter,

It has been brought to my attention that you have made a number of scandalous and baseless allegations against me, including in emails sent to a great number of people I respect.

The allegations you have made are highly defamatory and completely without merit. I refute them entirely.

I demand that you immediately;

provide me with a formal apology and retraction:

send a copy of the retraction and apology to each person to whom you have spread the allegations: and

permanently remove all statements making the allegation, together with any statement making any similar allegation, from all web accounts, web pages and website under your control (including any social media accounts).

Should you fail to respond or to comply with the above demands within 10 days of the date of this letter, I will have no alternative but to place this matter in the hands of my Australian lawyers.

Yours sincerely
Signed
Edward de Bono”

My reply of 30 Jan follows explaining the facts of his theft and deception.

Simpsons Lawyers’ letter

30 Jan 2018
Dear Mr Carter,
We attach for your prompt attention a letter from Mr Edward de Bono.
Until advised to the contrary, your response (including the required apology and retraction) should be directed through this firm.
Yours sincerely,
Ian McDonald
Special Counsel
SIMPSONS SOLICITORS
P: +61 2 8014 5050
www.simpsons.com.au
https://simpsons.com.au/our-people/ian-mcdonald/

My Reply

Mr McDonald, this is interesting, at least I have a response from him after years of trying to get compensation for his unjust actions of 2002 in Vietnam when he cut me off as a trainer without any discussion.

As for retraction the facts speak loudly – EdB stole Six Hats from his former partner Australian and Army Major, Dr Michael Hewitt-Gleeson and partners in 1983 and published Six Hats without credit in 1985. Michael added the 7th Grey Cap for Wisdom in 2007 and with his knowledge I now train Seven Caps.

EdB stole his ideas for Lateral Thinking from Alex Osborn of BBDO Advertising and others see page 72-3 here. I was GM of BBDO Vietnam 96-8 before I paid $10,000 for Train-the-Trainer in Six Hats and Lateral Thinking to the now defunct “de Bono Institute” for what I now know is stolen IP.

I, and many others, have been wronged by this deceitful liar who has benefitted from plagiarising other’s work. As an Australian citizen I resent the fact that EdB stole Six Hats from an Australian national, then wrote a book “Why I want to be King of Australia”.

In 2012 I contacted his legal representative in Sydney, Amanda Mobbs, about compensation for lost income and, of course, received no reply. I requested compensation for 10+ years of lost income.

If EdB cares to negotiate a settlement then I agree to remove all references on facebook about his theft, and stop emailing his accomplices.

If no compensation is offered I’ll continue and increase my activity to expose the deception, lies, and theft committed by him.

Please advise amount of compensation offered to begin the process of resolving this unpleasant issue.

I give you and him 10 days to respond or I will continue as you have no legal recourse against me because “I am right, he is wrong” hahaha

thanks

Ian Charles Carter
B. Business Marketing
Trainer & Consultant
Brisbane, Qld, Australia
+61 0472 627 222
Facebook pages:
Carter Training & Consulting
Seven Thinking Caps

18 Jul 18, de Bono’s libelous public response.

See https://www.debono.com/dissociate

On 18 July, Edward or son Caspar de Bono, posted on debono.com a highly defamatory and fabricated “claim” by Michael-Hewitt-Gleeson claiming to have “never met” me. This has been ongoing since 2007.

EdB also states that David Gonzalez said ‘“there is absolutely no way” he supports the allegations!”‘ when I did not mention Gonzalez in my letter.

I did refer to Dr. Alex Osborn of BBDO Advertising who is the true source of Lateral Thinking however EdB did not address that point.

Dr. Edward de Bono
Rabat
Malta
18^th July 2018

Re: Allegations made by Ian Carter

Dear reader,

As someone who is interested in my work, you may have come across various allegations posted to social media by Ian Carter.

I have written to Mr Carter refuting the allegations and asked that he apologise and retract his defamatory comments. Unfortunately Mr Carter decided to escalate the issue by making more allegations.

I decided to practice what I teach in my books and to find an alternative approach. The default option would be to follow a legal process with someone who wants to be adversarial. I note that Mr Carter relies in his allegation on referencing the work of two other people, Michael Hewitt-Gleeson and David Gonzalez. I am pleased to provide the following supportive quotations from both in response to the allegations.

“Ian Carter uses my name, without my permission. I have never met him, I have no association with him and don’t support his allegations.” Michael Hewitt-Gleeson.

“There is absolutely no way that I’m supporting the allegations! My quotes are definitely out of context as this individual also chose not to include much of the praise….. I don’t appreciate only a fraction of my analysis being utilized in this way. Please rest assured that I do not support what’s being written.” David Gonzalez

This demonstrates that you can’t believe everything you read on the internet!

Your (sic) faithfully

Edward de Bono

Lies from Michael Hewitt Gleeson, see contradictory evidence following.

see also here https://schoolofthinking.org/edward-and-his-hats/

19 November, 2020

Dear Caspar,

I recently saw an online chat session between several trainers who were discussing the origans of Edward’s Six Thinking Hats. One raised the question: Is 6 hats Edward de Bono’s original idea? The answer is, Yes. I know because I was there.

As you know, my friendship with Edward goes back nearly 50 years. It started on his first visit to Melbourne in the early 70s. As a result of spending a couple of days with your father, I devoted my life to supporting him and his cause of “teaching the world to think”. In 1979 we co-founded the School of Thinking. I can only think how lucky I was to have had such a happy and full career.

Re the 6 Hats. From the SOT Archives, I attach Edward’s first original notes on his 6 Hats idea. In September 1983 I was in London for meetings with Edward at his rooms at The Albany. Amongst other things we had discussed producing “Thinking Caps” simply as a promotional item (not as an education method).

After retiring for the day Edward went away and had his famous brainwave. He typed up his idea and tabled his notes the next morning at breakfast (attached copy Thinking Caps 9^th Sep, 1983). As he explained his notes over kippers and tea Edward pointed out that the caps aspect was minor. They could just as easily be Six Shades (glasses) and that ‘the key part was the separation of thinking into Six Modes’.

So, there is no doubt whatsoever that the ‘6 Thinking Hats method’ is Edward’s own original idea. In due course, Edward developed his idea and wrote Six Thinking Hats which was first released in 1985. For the record, I’ve acknowledged and published these facts and evidence at different times in the past.

Very best wishes to you and Edward

Michael

Michael Hewitt-Gleeson

Schoolofthinking.org

Attachment: Photocopy from Edward’s original notes of 09/09/1983

Original “Six Caps” version by Gleeson.

Green for Control, Blue for Creative.

EdB reversed and changed “Caps” to “Hats”

Gleeson’s latest “version of events” rubbish here.

https://schoolofthinking.org/edward-and-his-hats/

Gleeson added Grey Cap for Wisdom, 2007.

Gonzalez Thesis

https://digitalcommons.buffalostate.edu/creativeprojects/30/

As I reviewed de Bono’s materials over the last fifteen months, I came to have a love-hate relationship with this creator. Love for his persuasive and fluent efforts to change the way we think and hate for the minimal and vague substance and solidity in his user-resources. Love for how much he has raised the awareness for the need for generative, now thinking and hate for his egotistical nature. His work is showered with arrogance and in unattractive.

Ever since I devised the basic lateral thinking tools many years ago they have been plagiarized, borrowed and altered, usually without permission or acknowledgement. Even the prestigious institutions in the field are not above borrowing methods and material without acknowledging the source. (de Bono, 1992, p. 7)

A quick look at any of de Bono’s work will tell you that he has never cited anyone other than himself, when the truth be known, many pioneers in the field of creativity came before him and their concepts are sprinkled throughout all of his work. The seminal works in the field of creativity have always done an excellent job at citing the works of practitioners and researchers around the globe. This called collaboration and moving the field of creative thinking forward ….together. Are you telling me de Bono that you own the field of creativity and have never utilised the work of Wallas, Dewey, Rossman, Guilford, Gordon and Price, Osborn-Parnes, Torrance, Kepner-Tregoe, or the hundreds of other marvellous and dedicated researchers to help you generate your own work? Pure rubbish! I can say, without any reservations whatsoever, that you give a new meaning to the phrase “lone-wolf” Dr de Bono. I’m calling you on this de Bono because the exact accusations you make happen to be a mirror-image reflection of that which you have so consistently done to the many individuals in the field of creativity who deserve recognition. Who’s ripping who off?