E “Exlectics”, referido na obra “DE BONO, Edward. Parallel Thinking Viking: London, 1994. Pp 85-90. In verbis: “Now we come to the constructive part. If clash and dialectics are wasteful and dangerous what
could we have instead? “Exlectics” is the alternative mode. It has to do with map reading. It has to do
with creative design. The idiom is constructive rather than destructive. Exlectics seek tu “lead out” or
“pull out” of the situation what is of value-no matter on which side it is to be found.
It is much more than compromise or consensus. Compromise is still within the clash system and
suggests that both sides give up something in order to gain something. Consensus means staying with
that part of a proposal on which everyone is agreed: it is passive and a lowest common denominator
type of approach. Exlectics is rather more like the “osmosis” method used by the Japanese where
there are no opposing or varying ideas to begin with. There is joint listening and joint exploration. It is
only later that ideas start to emerge. Views begin to gel after many meetings, whereas in the Western
system views are carried into the very first meeting.
Exlectics is not a matter of dealing with ‘views” but of dealing with the terrain. This reflects
exactly the sort of difference that was to be found between the intelligence trap and the PMI.
The CORT tools that are used for exlectics are exploratory and mapping tools.
With “exlectics” the emphasis would be on “designing forward” rather than on judgment at every
stage. We accept possibilities and lay them out in parallel and then seek to design forwards (see also
the book Parallel Thinking Viking: London, 1994).”