Lateral Thinking

Description of Lateral Thinking. Explanation.

Definition Lateral Thinking. Description.

Lateral Thinking is a term which was invented by Edward De Bono in his Book: New think: The use of lateral thinking in the generation of new ideas (1967) and further developed in Lateral Thinking: Creativity Step by Step.

Lateral thinking is a creative, fresh approach to problem solving and to thinking in general by approaching problems indirectly at multiple, diverse and unorthodox angles instead of concentrating on one approach at length. Trying harder in the same direction using the same approach is less useful as changing the direction and/or the approach.

Lateral thinking is closely related to insight, creativity and humour. All four of these share the same basis. But unlike insight, creativity and humour, it is a deliberate process. Whereas creativity is often only the description of a result, lateral thinking is the description of a specific process using certain tools.

Lateral Thinking is about reasoning that is not immediately obvious and about ideas that may not be obtainable by using only traditional step-by-step logic (comparable to Integrative Thinking). With logic you start out with certain ingredients just as in playing chess you start out with given pieces. But what are those pieces? In most real life situations the pieces are not given, we just assume they are there. We assume certain perceptions, certain concepts and certain boundaries. Lateral thinking is concerned not with playing with the existing pieces but with seeking to change the pieces. It is concerned with the perception part of thinking. This is where we organize the external world into the pieces we can then 'process'.

De Bono identified four critical factors associated with lateral thinking:

Recognize dominant ideas that polarize perception of a problem.
Searching for different ways of looking at things.
Relaxation of rigid control of thinking.
Use of chance to encourage other ideas. This last factor has to do with the fact that lateral thinking involves low-probability ideas which are unlikely to occur in the normal course of events.

Lateral Thinking Forum (30)

Quotes on Lateral Thinking and Creativity
"I just came across a beautiful quote on creativity to share with you: it runs thus:
'Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity.'
Charles Minges."

Lateral Thinking Quotes
"Here are some some quotations related to lateral thinking I collected:
- Thinking out of the box: those who see the invisible can do the impossible...
- In business you don't get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate.
- If you don’t know where you go, how will you know that you get there?
- If everything is going fine, you probably overlooked something.
- Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life, as by the obstacles which one has overcome.
Any other good ones? Please add!"

Lateral Thinking Culprit
"One day as my routine works at factory was shattered due to one stupid labour leader who never works, I asked him to drop his resignation letter. While I was conducting a brain storming session, the gentleman knocked and came in, and in his lifted hand he had an empty glass jerrycan weighing about 50 kg and he told me, sir look at it. You told me to drop my resignation letter. Thug, he dropped and the glass pieces spread across the hall and injured most of managerial teams seated there. I could not take action against the culprit, as he did what I said. One of the specialist in lateral thinking mentioned to me, that the workers act is also a lateral thinking effect. Do you agree?"

Use Eastern Philosophy for Lateral Thinking
"If you disengage from the things you can find the most suitable solution in a much shorter time :)
Read eastern philosophy..."

Lateral Thinking Looks Like Applied Systems Thinking to Me
"If you consider the systems thinking iceberg model, then lateral thinking seems to be looking at something at a particular level and then delving deeper into the lower layers and questioning your assumptions before coming out and re-examining the situation from a new perspective. The new perspective comes from changing the assumptions and other "filters" that we see the world through.
The ability to identify and suspend the assumptions that we have (from the lower levels of the iceberg) seems to be a key requirement to thinking laterally to me."

Lateral Thinking and Meta Thinking
"Lateral thinking and meta thinking are related. As meta thinking is about thinking about thinking (…and so on). To be an effective lateral thinker you should think about your thought process.
To explain further we can look at the geometric analogy of lateral thinking. Based on lateral thinking principle, to make your new solution lateral you have to take a ‘lateral’ direction. If you are already a lateral thinker, taking one more lateral step might bring you to ‘parallel’ (90+90 degree will take you to parallel in a plane). To avoid this, look for other planes!
Think about a multi-dimensional space where you have ‘n’ orthogonal planes. To solve a problem, the thought is applied in orthogonal plans. The solutions will be completely from one plane or from combinations of tips from more than one plans which gives the complete solution.
To solve your problem, look for solutions / tips in many plans. This needs put constant effort to guide your thought process optimally to traverse optimum number of plans."

Lateral Thinking can Improve the Brain and Memory
"Lateral thinking is specifically concerned with changing preconceived thoughts to bring out new ideas and can be practised as a skill. Lateral thinking can improve performance of the brain and also the memory."

Using Lateral Thinking to Find an Exciting Job
"Logical thinking -> job portals, friends, newspapers etc.
Lateral thinking -> writing a case study, publishing a book, participating in a forum, writing an article in a magazine, guest lectures in education institutions etc.
While we all choose the linear route, doesn't the lateral route excite you to get that dream job?
But you know what keeps you away from lateral approach, its your stickiness to linear thinking... So get out of it and try once in a life time to experience the lateral way to change your life. All the best!"

How to Think Laterally
"Problem-solving, and lateral thinking in particular, requires that we think counter-intuitively, since intuitive/linear thinking brought us into the problem.
For example, when there's a problem, the initial tendency is to focus on the problem because that is the target of our frustration (be it bad morale, falling productivity, inferior quality, or whatever). Lateral thinking suggests looking at it from different persepctivers altogether, such as looking at the intended result instead and thus posing every question in light of its positive or negative effect on achieving that goal/result.
What about the customers' perspective - whether its about the problem - or even the intended result? Who knows, maybe the intended result is outdated."

Lateral Thinking is Divergent Thinking
"Lateral thinking is hypothesizing the alternate ways of solving a problem. It involves divergent thinking and, at times, intuition. People can be trained to think laterally. Developing a culture of divergent thinking facilitates lateral thinking."

Increased Scope of Thinking
"Every solution will have its advantages and disadvantages. When the majority lies with the advantages, such solution is usually chosen.
However lateral thinking provides more scope to visualize solutions, so as to derive advantages even from disadvantageous situations."

Lateral Thinking - Sometimes Suppressed
"This is the way to operate out of the box. Unfortunately, as someone mentioned elsewhere, it can be suppressed by lilliputian who consider themselves giants - either at work, in school or at home.
The tragedy for many is that being asked to work by the book has made them docile and incapable of independent thinking. This occurs where you have a "strong" manager who is either past his/her usefulness and hence insist on operating on the basis of what has worked in the past or is just, frankly speaking, incompetent and afraid of changes that might expose him. They are always defending their turf.
Where such occurs, the lateral thinker should explore new avenues to develop and not allow himself to be a subject of continuing suppression."

Lateral Thinking Methods and our Decisions
"Lateral thinking is a moral value that offers the possibility of overtaking.
Bono taught us a method to look beyond appearances.
For example:
- To fight against climate change, we could pay to plant a forest of trees. (po: we need a strong penalty for not complying with environmental conditions).
- But under the disguise of help in the fight against unemployment, some people set up a factory polluting wetland. (po: the free consent and ecological causes should drive investment decisions).
In the 18th and 19th centuries, the problem could be analyzed in all its aspects. But the decisions did not reflect the perception of biodiversity issues.
The future world inherits the consequences of our decisions.
The man is the head of this world.
It therefore behooves us to take this method seriously.
The perception is certainly with us but over 80% of our capacity is unexplored.
Our experience and databases trap us into complacency.
With lateral thinking we avoid this trap.
To achieve this level of commitment to discernment, it is crucial to practice acquired some value as charity, humility, patience, truthfulness and generosity.
Lateral thinking is not given to anyone. It is the result of the search for a better sustainable condition.
Bono would have said about "stay safe while remaining completely isolated" (po: should we close the dangerous access and open the doors and windows?).
It's like these two images:
1) any person being in a building and to mark its position, closes the front door and opened the windows and other
2) he who buries himself in a grave.
I prefer # 1."

Lateral Thinking is Inborn
"Lateral thinking is inborn and exists in children to a large extent. But as they grow up our system at home and school education generally kills this urge to think creatively since our parents/teachers are incompetent/hesitant to answer the questions particularly the why's of many things and hence shut the door to creativity very early.
We are looking today at a problem with many solutions but not the challenges of many problems with a single or simple solution. If you ask the right question perhaps we have the right and lateral solution."

Lateral Thinking the New Thinking Which Makes the Difference
"Last century the steam engine replaced muscle power. Currently computers are replacing models and linear processes.
We have been trained in a linear way at universities and apply this in our business. However this is easy to copy. In the future the differentiation factor will be the ability to think along different lines and paths. Lateral thinking is difficult to copy, not seldom it goes hand in hand with visual thinking.
Both are going to be essential assets to succeed in the future."

The Italian Way to Think
"Once during a large conference an attendee was asking me why the Italian people seem to be so creative in so many fields of design, fashion, art, lifestyles, industry?
I replied that this was because a fundamental cultural reason.
The Italians are a people that were conquered multiple times. So we're used to fight every day for many things that in other countries are taken as normal. And we developed a cultural way to face problems with humor and imagination.
Every day the Italian people use the method of the 'lateral thinking'.
Many times we're too much unorthodox and unconventional, so we mess up things a little, I admit it...
But where we can fight with equal weapons we usually win. Ferrari, Ducati, Gucci, Armani etc. But also precision mechanics, chemistry, physics etc. are proof. So now I will tell you what I say to all my students: be unorthodox and unconventional as you can, and try to be it every day a little bit more without losing discipline.
With your enemies you must arrive unexpected and then act unpredictably.
Divide your big problems in small parts. Never let your problems to overwhelm your judgment.
Look well into the soul of your collaborators because a general who does not know the potential of his army is a true looser.
Fire without any regret any of your managers who do not know their people. They are true losers that will endanger your business because they don’t know how to use the army that you're paying and providing them.
Smile when you win but don't be too worried when you lose because a new fight is rising in front of you and the tears obfuscate the sight.
Be creative and smile: after all being a manager is great!"

Lateral Thinking Methods / Tools
"Lateral thinking is key today. What methods and tools are being deployed within lateral thinking?
Please summarize one tool in your reply. Thanks!"

Lateral Thinking Should Be Taught at Univ / MBA
"I recommend that this special subject "lateral thinking" should be a part of the engineer's and business management students in graduation and post graduation studies. Especially in India, where students are asked to follow what the book says and their minds are closed."

Lateral Thinking Question
"If a plane crashes on the Italian / Swiss border, where do you bury the survivors?"

What is Genius? Relation to Lateral Thinking?
"My simple definition of a genius (and I am certainly not one) is the ability to hold both the big picture and the details in the thinking process at the same time, thereby being able to see much richer patterns and deeper / broader connections than most people can.
That way you can see 'solutions' which purely detailed / logical thinking cannot perceive."

Lateral Thinking is Creative Thinking
"Edward De Bono introduced lateral thinking for problem solving situations at a time when the world was practicing traditional problem solving tools. Now after so many years of practice, we have gone through several metamorphoses into this field and have numerous new tactics of solving problems. Creative thinking and out of the box thinking are terms coined with lateral thinking."

Role of Chance in Lateral Thinking
"De Bono's methodology to achieve lateral thinking is fantastic and logical.
The last aspect of the process may be subject to discussions. I do believe in the use of CHANCE to encourage ideas.
Strategic thinkers and intellectual thinkers reject the use of chance. Ideas are influenced and encouraged by facilitating integration. The concept of chance evoked by De Bono tells me ironically that the USA went to the moon by chance... We are all thinker and intellectual enough to absorb such a concept without a high level of analysis."

How to Foster Lateral Thinking?
"I believe that nowadays in our world of specialists' (specialist idiots') way of logical thinking, the issue of how to nurture lateral (out of the box) thinking is a pressing one.
I think that visualising thinking might help here and the obvious route is from Brainstorming via Mind Mapping to arrive at solutions that do not contain the inherent bubble to burst next that we have been observing in the real world for decades.
Visualised lateral thinking must start in the schools and carried over into the universities to prevent people from trying to transfer their 'logical models' into the lateral (holistic) world."

Why Lateral Thinking is Important?
"We can not discover a new gold mine using the old map. Reality is diverse and multidimensional. So lateral thinking - thinking out of the box, is a natural and necessary way to tackle problems, especially whenever we can not solve them by traditional methods."

Lateral Thinking versus Logical Thinking
"Lateral Thinking is a method that stimulates creativity in solving problems. This method is an aid for looking new perspectives or points of views of an specific situation. In opposition to logical (lineair) thinking which is affected by paradigms."

Lateral Thinking-not a Predefined Thought Process
"Categorization of the thought process may not be possibly while making an attempt to solve a problem. The random occurrence of thoughts may not allow us to name the path it is following before the event of thinking has occurred. So I suppose either lateral or linear thinking or thought processes can be discovered but might not be invented."

Lateral Thinking = Thinking Outside of the Box
"It seems to me, lateral thinking is not much more than thinking "outside of the box". If we start to incorporate theories as to how to laterally think, we are just creating a larger box."

Lateral Thinking = Critical Thinking
"I think that lateral thinking is critical thinking."

Not Anyone is Able to Learn Lateral Thinking
"I am not sure about that everyone could learn lateral thinking. I several times failed to even get a pupil to grips with the principles. I assume they had a psychological barrier, caused by successes in rational thinking at university and also that learning by explanation is the only way of learning."

What is Lateral Thinking?
"I would like members comments on Edward de Bono's statement:
"Anyone can be a lateral thinker, this does not imply they use lateral thinking."

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