de Bono suggests applying the prefix ‘Po’ to any mechanism (such as ‘Po-Cars’) to get thinkers to break out of their familiar thought patterns, and create an entirely new construct, which could either replace or extend the original. As opposed to logical thinking, which restricts responses to ‘no’ or ‘yes’, Po thinking allows us to entertain the many realms of ‘possible.’

An example

For instance: in workshopping a ‘Po-Car’ one may start by listing a normal car’s attributes and applications ie a four-wheeled form of transport for passengers and a driver.

This would kick-start a brainstorm around how each of these attributes and applications may be rethought: varied or enhanced – which could lead to phenomenal developments on the basic model.

In our workshop, a ‘Po-aeroplane’ became a mile-high disco. The activity on the second floor of a Boeing would encourage activity thereby reducing the risk of DVT. Rather than seeing flying as unavoidable and tedious, passengers would be happy to pay more for their tickets as the journey became an essential component of their party-trip.