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Lateral Thinking Looking for Wider Solutions |
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By Vadim Kotelnikov, Founder, 1000ventures.com
"Before you discover, you must explore."
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Lateral Thinking Defined Lateral thinking is concerned with generation of new ideas. It is also concerned with "breaking out of the concept prisons of old ideas."1 Lateral Thinking versus Vertical Thinking Lateral thinking is not a substitute for vertical thinking. Both are required - they are complementary: lateral thinking is generative, vertical thinking is selective. For instance, during brainstorming meetings, you encourage lateral thinking during the first session to generate as much creative solutions as possible, and vertical thinking during the second session to select the feasible ideas. In traditional vertical type of thinking (logic or mathematic), you move forward by sequential steps each of which must be justified. You select out only what is relevant. You must be right at each stage in order to achieve a correct solution. In lateral thinking, you may deliberately seek out irrelevant information - you use information not for its own sake but for its effect. You may have to be wrong at some stage in order to achieve an innovative and correct solution. Case in Point: Encouragement of Lateral Thinking at GE Work-Out At GE Work-Out, participants are made fell the urgency to change and begin to see the whole picture of the situation. Then, they are ready to focus on new ideas. How can the process be improved? What can be done differently to achieve the stretch goal? "Using the process map as a starting point, Work-Out asks participants to brainstorm ways of achieving the goal, and then provides a structure for quickly sorting through the ideas, selecting the best ones, and developing them into recommendations for change. As with any brainstorming process, Work-Out encourages people to toss out any idea, no matter how minor, how crazy, how seemingly impossible. And the process helps people learn how to build on each other's ideas, combine ideas, and think "out-of-the-box." In fact, when the old Aetna Insurance Company implemented its version of Work-Out, the program's sponsors called it "Out of the Box."3
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Bibliography:
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"Lateral Thinking", Edward de Bono, 1970
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"101 Ways To Generate Great Ideas", Timothy R.V. Foster, 2001
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"The GE Work-Out", Dave Ulrich, Steve Kerr, Ron Ashkenas, 2002
