Ali Sumner's Page

Hi ... I'm the Chief Executive Officer of the POWA Institute, (pronounced power) a not-for-profit Institute for new thinking located in Perth Western Australia, founded in 2006 in partnership with the de Bono Institute (based in Melbourne Australia) and dedicated to growing the thinking power of all West Australians to deliberately create better futures by applying Edward de Bono's thinking tools and processes.

I have been an accredited trainer in Six Thinking Hats, Lateral Thinking and Direct Attention Thinking Tools since 2001, trained by Susan Mackie Master Trainer, Susan is the CEO of the de Bono Institute and a Director on the POWA Institute Board.

I read Edward's Mechanism of the Mind when I was 20 in 1969; PO: Beyond Yes and NO soon after and was convinced the world needed lateral thinking. In the mid-eighties I introduced the Six Thinking Hats to my children ... in the early 90's I seriously started using PO and in 2006 after 7 years working in the Western Australian Department of Education and Training as an accredited de Bono trainer I decided it was time to get really, really serious about Edward's work .... so it has taken a while but now I am dedicated to developing the POWA Institute.

For those of you who know anything about Australia you may have guessed the pun by now - for those of you who havent - here's a clue: Western Australia is often abrieviated to "WA".

I am also undertaking my PHD part-time to explore what type of leadership will emerge when managers deliberately use authentic lateral thinking within the context of them understanding their organisations are complex adaptive sytems - anyone else working in this area please please let's have a chat!!

In the meantime check out our website at www.powa.org.au

Cheers to all - Ali