Edward de Bono's Simplicity sets out to explain how we can fulfil our yearnings to simplify our complex lives and why an old woman in Holland spent a week in a shopping centre. While the scope of the book is ostensibly global, the most obvious practical application is in process-design and change-management within organisations.

In the interesting quarter of the book, de Bono suggests and briefly elaborates on a dozen or so techniques for simplifying problems, including 'bulk and exceptions', 'provocative amputation' and 'wishful thinking'. While most are implicitly employed in good problem-solving, and none revolutionary, their explicit consideration and analysis is valuable. One or several of these ideas might well prove a useful addition to the tool-kit of an individual or team thinking through process change.

However, de Bono's tabloid editorial style detracts from the quality of these ideas. He repeatedly makes simplistic prescriptions and draws conclusions that do not follow from his numerous, slightly spurious examples. The reader is left frustrated by a series of three and four line stories which sound potentially interesting, but often do not illustrate any point, let alone provide any material for an argument.

Many paragraph sections serve only to plug old books, crow over old victories or attempt to settle old scores with journalists and critics. Most of de Bono's conclusions are simplistic or banal, and certainly ill-supported by his examples. Any merit to be found in the book lies in the rather scant explanations of thought techniques.

Tim Adkin is a consultant at the Renaissance Strategy Group