Lateral Thinking

by Edward de Bono

A Special Report by:PRECIOUS LILIBETH DELESTE-ROBLES

Dr. Edward de BonoM.D., Ph.D., (philosophy, medicine & psychology),

Rhodes scholar

World-renowned consultant to business, governments,

schools and industry

Author of 70 books in 47 languages

Originator of Lateral Thinking, Six Thinking Hats, and Direct Attention Thinking Tools

WHAT ISLATERAL THINKING?

According to the Oxford English dictionary,

LATERAL THINKING is “…a way of thinking which seeks the solution to intractable problems through unorthodox methods, or elements which would normally be ignored by logical thinking.”

Known the world over as the father of

‘lateral thinking’, Edward de Bono

originally coined the phrase in his 1967 book ‘The Use of

Lateral Thinking’ in which he defines it

as:

(LATERAL THINKING):

a method of thinking concerned with changing concepts and perception. 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.

The most effective way of changing ideas is not from outside by conflict but from within by the insight rearrangement of available information

LATERAL THINKING IS AN INSIGHT TOOL

LATERAL THINKING INVOLVES RESTRUCTURING, ESCAPE AND PROVOCATION OF NEW PATTERNS

LATERAL THINKING IS CONCERNED WITH THE GENERATION OF NEW IDEAS

LATERAL THINKING IS ALSO CONCERNED WITH THE BREAKING OUT OF THE CONCEPT PRISON OF OLD IDEAS

LATERAL THINKING IS A GENERAL ATTITUDE OF MIND WHICH MAKES USE OF CERTAIN TECHNIQUES ON OCCASION

A one hour period every week throughout education would be quite sufficient to bring about the lateral thinking attitude – or the creative attitude if you prefer to call it that… one uses the basic structure of each section over and again until one is thoroughly familiar with the process. One may spend several sessions on a particular section or even several months

MATERIALS:

•Visual material•Verbal material•Problem material•Themes•Anecdotes and stories•Stockpile of material

The whole idea of lateral thinking is concept restructuring

The way the mind works

CODE COMMUNICATION

PATTERNMAKING SYSTEM

SELF-ORGANIZING SYSTEM (JELLY ANALOGY)

LIMITED ATTENTION SPAN

SEQUENCE OF ARRIVAL OF INFORMATION

HUMOR AND INSIGHT

The way the mind works

The way the mind works

?

There comes a time when one cannot proceed further without restructuring the pattern – without breaking up the old pattern which has been so useful and arranging the old information in a new way.

The way the mind works

The disadvantages of the information handling system are:

1.The patterns tend to become established ever more rigidly since they control attention2.It is extremely difficult to change patterns once they have become established3.Information that is arranged as part of one pattern cannot easily be used as part of a completely different pattern4.There is a tendency towards ‘centering’ which means that anything which has any resemblance to a standard pattern will be perceived as the standard pattern5.Patterns can be created by divisions which are more or less arbitrary6.There is great continuity in the system7.The sequence of arrival of information plays too important a part in its arrangement8.There is a tendency to snap from one pattern to another instead of having a smooth change over9.Even though the choice between two competing patterns may be very fine one of them will be chosen and the other one completely ignored10.There is a marked tendency to ‘polarize’11.Established patterns get larger and larger12.The mind is a cliché making and cliché using system

The way the mind works

The Basics BehindLateral Thinking

We are hardwired to be UN-creative.

We need formal tools for breaking out of patterned thinking.

Everyone can learn how to be more creative

Lateral Thinking gives you the power to create ideas on

demand

Difference between lateral and vertical thinking

VERTICAL THINKING LATERAL THINKING

selective generative

moves only if there is a direction in which to move

moves in order to generate a direction

analytical provocative

sequential makes jumps

one has to be correct at every step one does not have to be

one uses the negative in order to block off certain pathways

there is no negative

one concentrates and excludes what is irrelevant

one welcomes chance intrusions

(categories) classifications and labels are fixed

they are not fixed

follows the most likely paths explores the least likely

a finite process probablistic one

LATERAL THINKING vs. VERTICAL THINKING

You cannot dig a hole in a different place by digging the same hole deeper. Vertical thinking is used to dig the same hole deeper. Lateral thinking is used to dig a hole in a different place

Difference between lateral and vertical thinking

alternatives alternatives

vertical

lateral

Difference between lateral and vertical thinking

•With vertical thinking one uses information for its own sake in order to move forward to a solution

•With lateral thinking one uses information not for its own sake but provocatively in order to bring about repatterning

LATERAL and VERTICAL THINKING are COMPLEMENTARY

Attitudes towards lateral thinking

There is some resemblance between inductive logic and lateral thinking in that both work from outside the framework instead of from within it.

Even so lateral thinking can work from within the framework in order to bring about REPATTERNING by such processes as: REVERSAL, DISTORTION, QUERY, TURNING UPSIDE DOWN, ETC.

Basic nature of lateral thinking

LATERAL THINKING is:

•Concerned with changing patterns (by pattern is meant the arrangement of information on the memory surface that is mind)

* see next slide

•Both an attitude and a method of using informationLateral thinking is never a JUDGMENT. Lateral thinking is a

particular way of using information to bring about a pattern restructuring

•Directly related to the information handling behavior of mind

Basic nature of lateral thinking

The use of lateral thinking

USE OF LATERAL THINKING:

• New Ideas• Problem solving• Processing perceptual choice• Periodic reassessment• Prevention of sharp divisions and polarizations

The use of lateral thinking

• Problem-solvingThere are three types of problems:

1. that which requires for its solution more information or better techniques for handling information

2. that which requires no new information but a rearrangement of information already available: insight restructuring.

3. the problem of no problem. One is blocked by the adequacy of the present arrangement from moving to a much better one.

Techniques

De Bono believed that

LATERAL THINKINGis a

SKILL that can be DEVELOPED

Techniques

De Bono identifies four critical factors associated with lateral thinking:

• recognize dominant ideas that polarize the perception of a problem

• Searching for different ways of looking at things

• relaxation of rigid control of thinking and • use of chance to encourage other ideas.

GENERATION OF ALTERNATIVE WAYS

(of looking at things)

The generation of alternatives

The most basic principle of LATERAL THINKING is that ANY PARTICULAR WAY is only ONE from among MANY OTHER POSSIBLE WAYS.The very word ‘lateral’ suggests the movement sideways to generate alternative patterns instead of moving straight ahead with the development of a particular pattern

The generation of alternatives

NATURAL SEARCH LATERAL SEARCH

One is looking for the BEST POSSIBLE approach

One is trying to produce as MANY ALTERNATIVES as possible

One stops when one comes to a promising approach

One acknowledges the promising approach and may return to it later but goes on to generating others

One considers only reasonable alternatives

Alternatives do not have to be reasonable

An intention than a fact Deliberate

Purpose: search for the best one

To loosen up rigid patterns and provoke new patterns

Figure A B a triangle sitting a square with two on a rectangle upper corners missing

C Dtwo halves of a end view of Rectangle put side by side a house

How would you divide a square into four equal pieces?

Did you consider any of these?

Describe what you think is happening in this picture?

A group of people caught by the tidePeople crossing a flooded riverPeople wading to an island or sand spitWading through flood waterPeople wading out to a ferry boat which cannot come inshoreEtc..

(altered pictures)

Possible situation:Commiting suicide? Escaping from a burning building?Rescuing a pet? Stunt man?A man got locked out of his room?

Problem Restatement:

Ex: Children getting separated from their parents

Preventing separation of children from parentsPreventing children being lostFinding or returning lost childrenMaking it unnecessary for parents to take children

into large crowds

CHALLENGING ASSUMPTIONS

Challenging assumptions

A CLICHÉ is a stereotyped phrase, a stereotyped way of looking at

something or describing something

Practice Session

Problem: A landscape gardener is given instructions to plant four special trees so that each one is exactly the same distance from each of the others.

Solution:One tree is planted on top of

a hill. (the assumption is that they are all planted on a level piece of ground

Practice Session

Problem: Link these nine dots using only four straight lines which must follow on without raising the pencil from the paper:

SUSPENDED JUDGMENT

Suspended judgment

With lateral thinking one is allowed to be wrong on the way even though one must be right in the end. With lateral thinking one is allowed to use arrangements of information which are invalid in themselves in order to bring about a restructuring that is valid.Judgment is suspended during the generative stage of thinking in order to be applied during the selective stage

Suspended judgment

The suspension of judgment can have the following effects:• An idea will survive longer and will breed further ideas• Other people will offer ideas which their own judgment would have rejected• The ideas of others can be accepted for their stimulating effect instead of being rejected• Idea which are judged to be wrong within the current frame of reference may survive long enough to show that frame of reference needs altering

For the longest time, people thought the earth was round, until someone thought, “WHAT IF THE EARTH WAS ROUND??” (and then proceeded to prove it)

A bucket with holes cannot carry much water. One could reject it out of hand. Or one could see how far it could carry how much water. In

spite of the holes it may be very useful for bringing about a certain effect.

DESIGN

Design

The emphasis is on the different way of doing things

Dyson's Air Multiplier

BLADELESS FAN

http://gizmodo.com/5385011/how-dysons-blade+less-fan-works

Design

The emphasis is on the different way of doing things

The reversal method

In the reversal method one takes things as they are and then turns them round, inside out, upside down, back-to-front. Then one sees what happens…

Purposes:• to escape from the absolute necessity to look at the situation in the standard way• to free information that can come together in a new way• to overcome the terror of being wrong, of taking a step that is not fully justified• provocative – to move to a new position• usefulness

Aesop’s Fable: The Bird and the Jug

By FILLING the water jug, the bird was able to EMPTY it.

Brainstorming

The main features of a brainstorming session are:•Cross stimulation•Suspended judgment•The formality of the setting

Evaluation:At the end of the evaluation session there should be three lists:•Ideas for immediate usefulness•Areas for further exploration•New approaches to the problem

Analogies

The two problems of lateral thinking are:•To get going, to get some movement, to start a train of thought•To escape the natural, obvious, cliché train of thought

Choice of entry point and attention area

Attention area refers to the part of a situation or problem that is attended to

Entry point refers to the part of the problem or situation that is first attended to

Ex: if you fill a bath using only the hot tap then add the cold water at the end, the bathroom will be thoroughly steamed up and the walls damp. However, if you start with the cold water first, there will be no steaming and the walls will remain dry. Same amount of hot and cold water.

Starting at the wrong and and working backwards is quite a well-known problem solving technique

In one of SHERLOCK HOLMES’ cases there was a large dog. Dr. Watson claimed dismissed the dog as being of no importance because it had done nothing on the night of the crime. Sherlock Holmes pointed out that the great significance of the dog was precisely that it had done nothing. He shifted attention from the significance of what the dog might have done to the significance of the fact that it had done nothing. This meant that the criminal must have been known to the dog.

Random stimulation

The three ways of encouraging lateral thinking discussed so far are:• awareness of the principles of lateral thinking, the need for lateral thinking, the rigidity of vertical thinking• the use of some definite technique which develops the original pattern and may bring about restructuring• the deliberate alteration of circumstances so that they can stimulate restructuring

Random stimulation

The two main ways of bringing about random stimulation are:•Exposure•Formal generation

Ex:1.Use of dictionary to provide random word2.Formal selection of book or journal in library3.Use of some routine to select an object from the surroundings

Concepts/divisions/polarization

DIVISION-New parts of the environment can be reacted to specifically-New and unfamiliar environments can be dealt with by picking out features that are familiar-Separate parts can be moved around and combined in different ways to produce effects that are not available in the environment-Makes communication possible because a situation can be described bit by bit instead of as a wholeREASSEMBLY

Concepts/divisions/polarization

BREAKING CLICHÉ PATTERNS AND RIGID LABELS:•Challenge the labels•Try and do without them•Establish new labels

The new word po

NO vs POLogic could be said to be the management of NOPO is language tool defining the rearrangement

process which is the basis of lateral thinking

The function of PO:•Creating new patterns•Challenging old patternsStated differently:•Provocative and permissive•Liberating

• Visualizations, and pattern recognition may at times lead to intuitive inspiration.

• At some point, though, you need to step back to look at alternatives. (Could be a function of PO)

• Lateral thinking involves pattern-breaking, thinking outside the box and creative ways of looking at the situation.

• Sometimes a new method or new solution becomes apparent that is more efficient than the obvious.

Lateral thinking can start with what is already recognizable

LateralThinkingExercises

ANSWERS:

Question 1:The Last person takes the basket with the

egg still in it

Question 2:All the other people are female

Question 3:He was a Lighthouse-

Keeper

Question 4:Pour the juice from glass 2 into glass 5

SUMMARY

The rules for lateral thinking are that there are no rules.

WHAT MAKES YOUR LIFE 100% ?

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

A T T I T U D E1 20 20 9 20 21 4 5

K N O W L E D G E11 14 15 23 12 5 4 7 5

H A R D W O R K8 1 18 4 23 15 18 11

S K I L L S19 11 9 12 12 19 =

=

=

=

82

96

98

100

Assigning Values to Letters

BUT . . . How can we give more than 100%?

• T-H-I-N-K-I-N-G• 20 + 8 + 9 +14 + 11 + 9 + 14 + 7 = 92%

but doing this laterally, critically, sequentially or even globally,

puts you over 100%

THANK YOU!!!Thank you!

DISCLAIMER:

PREFACE:

This book is not intended to be read through at one sitting but worked through slowly – over months or even years…

Some of these connections might at first seem “silly” but students

need to be freed from the ordinary in order to examine the

extraordinary. It is precisely for this reason that

DeBono devised the use PO

PO is a method by which you introduce:

• Random Entry• Provocation• Challenge

• Random Entry: Choose an object at random, or a noun from a dictionary, and associate that with the area you are thinking about.

• Random Entry: Choose an object at random, or a noun from a dictionary, and associate that with the area you are thinking about.

• For example imagine you are thinking about how to improve Wikipedia. Choosing an object at random from an office you might see a fax machine. A fax machine transmits images over the phone to paper. Fax machines are becoming rare. People send faxes directly to known phone numbers. Perhaps this makes you think of providing ways to embed wiki articles in emails and other websites, as is done with youtube videos. Does it stimulate other Wikipedia ideas for you?

• Provocation: Declare the usual perception out of bounds, or provide some provocative alternative to the usual situation under consideration. Prefix the provocation with the term 'Po" to signal that the provocation is not a valid idea put up for judgment but a stimulus for new perception.

• Consider the statement “PO -Cars should have square wheels." When considered with critical thinking, this would be evaluated as a poor suggestion and dismissed as impractical.

• The lateral thinking treatment of the same statement would be to speculate where it leads.

• Humor is taken intentionally with lateral thinking. A person would imagine "as if" this were the case, and describe the effects or qualities.

• Someone might observe: square wheels would produce very predictable bumps. If bumps can be predicted, then suspension can be designed to compensate.

• This leads to the idea of active suspension. A sensor connected to suspension could examine the road surface ahead on cars with round wheels too. A car could have a sensor for determining when it was going to hit a bump that feeds back to suspension that would know to compensate.

• The initial "provocative" statement has been left behind, but it has also been used to indirectly generate the new and potentially more useful idea.

Here is another example:

• PO – Suppose we could control the way traffic lights change?

• Actually, this is being tested now in New York with special bus routes that have sensors to keep the lights green till the bus passes.

• In Charlotte, NC, the lights count down from 60 seconds to let you know how long you have before the traffic flows.

• Challenge: Simply challenge the way things have always been done or seen, or the way they are.

• This is done not to show there is anything wrong with the existing situation but simply to direct your perceptions to exploring outside the current area.

• For example you could challenge coffee cups being produced with a handle. There is nothing wrong with coffee cups having handles so the challenge is a direction to explore without defending the status quo. The reason for the handle seems to be that the cup is often too hot to hold directly. Perhaps coffee cups could be made with insulated finger grips, or there could be separate coffee cup holders similar to beer holders.

Can milk containers be square?

• They’ve just begun producing gallon milk containers that are square.

• People don’t like it or aren’t used to it but..• It saves a great deal of time and expense in

shipping.• It is a more efficient way to package.• Someone was definitely “thinking outside the

box.”

PO is used to alert people that you are about to make a somewhat

outrageous remark.PO can be used for:

• Provocation or Challenge• Random Input • Escape

Po: Provocation

• Four basic ways to create a provocation:• EXAGGERATION • REVERSAL • DISTORTION • WISHFUL THINKING

PO Provocation -examples

• PO - The bathtub is only half full• PO - The traffic lights never change color• PO - The angles of a triangle don’t total 180

degrees

PO: Random Input• Our thinking target is Ambulances. We want new

ideas on Ambulances.• I open the dictionary at random and stop at the first

"noun thing word" that I find.• Firth: Arm of sea; estuary. OK that's it!• Po statement: Ambulances po firth • If a firth is an arm of the sea that suggest something

jutting out. Could there be a couple of bicycles strapped to the sides of ambulances to get into difficult spots?

Po: Escape

• With ESCAPE we are developing the habit of asking: "Is it necessary to do things this way?“

• Example: Credit cards po benefit. • This is a chosen statement rather than

random one.• "Credit cards po benefit" means "instead of

seeing or designing a credit card around the concept of 'benefit' how else might we do things?