The magic of lateral thinking: some cool things I learned from my policy students
problem solving Add commentsRecently I was at work and put the students to the test on a problem: fix the traffic crisis. I showed them the above video and they came up with some interesting answers. Think about these:
- airlifting
- underground train station
- tunnel
- eliminate the need for travel – complex for everything
- encourage other alternatives
- changing the way we work
My personal favourite with the complex for everything. This idea was that work/home/everything else should be centralised to local community. Sure it’s a bit Orwellian but I really like the idea of working near home. So what does this have to do with lateral thinking?
Lateral Thinking
The most common definition for lateral thinking is ‘thinking outside the box’. What precisely does that mean? Well I think to think about it this way. There is a logical box in which we contain all maps of the world. When we come to solve problems we often look at the issue through out preconceptions of the world. These issues prevent us from seeing non-linear solutions to a problem that lies outside the area we are focusing on.
To that end the word ‘lateral’ really means ’sideways’. So for me I like to think about lateral thinking as ’sideways’ thinking. It requires a mental shift to a sideways issue that isn’t immediately obvious. It means moving outside the ‘logic box’ and into a new way of thinking that at first seems unrelated. As you move sideways you begin to see the ‘lateral’ pattern emerge and you make better judgements from this new perspective. Once you are there you can see the connection but you have to move llaterally in order to achieve this.
How does lateral thinking actually work?
It works by you moving sideways in your thought. It means moving outside the system of your thought to a position that is presently unrelated. In the traffic crisis example, if you kept building bigger roads it would mean not picking a solution that is NOT related to roads specifically. It might be something like: staggering work hours, changing where people work or rewarding employees for working from home (for example). That’s lateral because it asks the question: what’s the cause of the problem… and how can we change that so that the problem no longer occurs. That’s lateral thinking.
One of the key things to remember when you engage in this form of thinking is to be aware of what you think the problem is. Whatever you take the problem to be… you take the solution to be… the two are inseparable. In lateral thinking you have the power to ask: what could we do if we could do anything and begin to explore ‘outside the logic box’ solutions. Sadly, I don’t see enough of this in places I venture. It’s much the same crap remulched over and over and over again. Why not dare to be different and begin to think creatively?
Why don’t you give it a go?
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April 8th, 2008 at 4:48 am
Shameful Self-Promotion
This article provoked me to create a blog. Not just a post, a whole blog!
Here’s the story. I read de Bono years ago (he coined the term “lateral thinking” in 1967) and pay lip-service to his ideas on a daily basis. On reading your article, I was inclined to challenge /clarify your use of the term but I couldn’t actually remember exactly what distinguishes “lateral” from other thinking. Wikipedia’s article is poor (and questions the topic’s notability!) and de Bono’s website is not much better.
Ah well, I’ll just have to provide my own account of the entirety of human and non-human thought. This could take a while! Check out my blog to see how I’m getting on…
For now, I think what I want to say is that true lateral thinking is about contriving a different perception of a situation (such as a “problem”) and only incidentally about “creative” solutions. As de Bono (Lateral Thinking, 1970) puts it: “The movement and change of lateral thinking is not an end in itself but a way of bringing about repatterning. Once there is movement and change then the maximizing properties of the mind will see to it that something useful happens.”
April 14th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Hi Alan,
For some reason this wound up in my spam filter. Sorry for the delay in posting it.
I see your point. I might be more inclined to call that ‘perspective shifting’ in my language which may or may not have something to do with creativity. I.e. if I can willfully change perspectives and understand that doing so might see incidental at first… I am more likely to shed light and understanding on my problem than if I was to keep stepping through the same cyclical patterns in my thinking. In my mind ‘creative’ thinking could be lateral but it could also NOT be lateral. De Bono himself ties lateral thinking to creativity but it’s not a catch all phrase. We could be agreeing on this point but I can’t tell!
I checked out your new blog. As someone who has read endless streams of books and philosophy I want to wish you luck on your journey. You always have something interesting to say in your comments. The history of thought is huge… but if anyone can do it… you can.
All the best
Luke
PS - the blog reads well and I think it’s interesting.