Deae costas,

Nice question. I actually have most of de Bono's books.

I think that lateral thinking can complement conventional thinking (or vertical thinking in De Bono's terminology) and can be used effectively in solving problems

He mentions the following techniques for lateral thinking:

-the generation of alternatives

-challenging assumptions

-suspended judgement

-the reversal method

-brainstorming

-random simulation

-......

and many others in chapters 7-18 of the book: entitled "lateral thinking"

In order to obtain a view which is out of the main stream, and so have many chances to increase you creativity, you have to follow something like "lateral thinking". What is yur opinion about this?

The craetivity is perhaps the best gift of human nature; however, it must lead to an end result and cannot be regarded as an "end in itself".

Deae costas,

Nice question. I actually have most of de Bono's books.

I think that lateral thinking can complement conventional thinking (or vertical thinking in De Bono's terminology) and can be used effectively in solving problems

He mentions the following techniques for lateral thinking:

-the generation of alternatives

-challenging assumptions

-suspended judgement

-the reversal method

-brainstorming

-random simulation

-......

and many others in chapters 7-18 of the book: entitled "lateral thinking"

Dear @Costas, this is a very interesting issue and the answers are very informative. Lateral thinking is creatively solving problems using indirect methods that are not obvious and involving ideas that are creative.

Dear Costas

Lateral thinking is an idea-generation technique with the help of which solution to problems are explored. In the process it tends to create new concepts by resorting to novel ways. As opposed to logical thinking (which is also called vertical thinking) the idea in lateral thinking is taken sideways (lateral) so as to provoke fresh ideas or changes the frame of reference. While vertical thinking tries to overcome problems by meeting them head-on, lateral thinking tries to bypass them through a radically different approach.

Please see in attached link some lateral thinking puzzles.

http://www.folj.com/lateral/

Dear @Costas, I really admire and respect all answer above, shared by colleagues from medical, technical, mathematical or social sciences. Their logic and clearness is inspiring. However I used to perceive lateral and creative thinking as process which is rather unthinkable phenomena with ideas rapidly jumping into head in unexplained way. Have you experienced such flash ?

I agree with Ierardi and have learned from Kamal's comment too..

Dear Costas, Lateral thinking helps in solving problems through an indirect and creative approach, using reasoning and ideas that are not immediately obvious and seen.

Lateral thinking, is the ability to think creatively, to use your inspiration and imagination to solve problems by looking at them from unexpected perspectives, in order words is an idea generation and problem solving technique in which new concepts are created by looking at things in novel ways. Whereas the logical ('vertical') thinking carries a chosen idea forward, the sideways ('lateral') thinking provokes fresh ideas or changes the frame of reference. And, while vertical thinking tries to overcome problems by meeting them head-on, lateral thinking tries to bypass them through a radically different approach.

Lateral thinking involves discarding the obvious, leaving behind traditional modes of thought, and throwing away preconceptions. The concept behind lateral thinking is simple: the creative process is not logical. Most of the great discoveries came about because people made a crazy connection in their minds and asked the question, 'what if...?'.

So, if you want to solve a problem or come up with a good idea, you may need to examine the problem from a really different point of view; to stop yourself from trying to be correct all the time, and actually focus on being wrong for a change

It's very important in careers such as advertising, marketing, the media and art and design.

How to Think 'Outside of the Box'

According to Teresa, Iamanonymous, Puddy, Sockpuppet and 12 others the following are some steps that could be followed to use the lateral thinking technique:

•Be prepared for a big change. To re-educate yourself and the way you think is almost a "lifestyle" change. Basically, you're re-inventing the wheel and you are the wheel.

•Learn the terms. If you're familiar with the terms, you'll be in a great position to do some research into out-of-the-box thinking.

•Understand that, for a given problem, some people tend to come up with the more "creative" solutions. The inability to do so does not reflect a person's intelligence. What it does indicate is that people with such solutions are the ones who are more willing, or need, to push themselves out of their comfort zone to get the answers they seek. Those who think outside of the box are usually: Willing to take new perspectives toward day-to-day work, capable of thinking differently with an open mind, thinking about the substance of issues, and being receptive to doing things differently,focused on the value of finding new ideas and acting on them, ready to strive to create value in newer ways, capable of listening to, supporting, nurturing and respecting others when they come up with new ideas.The driving force behind a lot of people who consistently think outside of the box is frustration. They don't feel that "enough" is being done, and that the "normal" way of thinking just isn't getting it done.

•Learn what inhibits your ability to change. The following characteristics lessen your ability to make a positive change in your thinking methods: Negative attitude, fear of failure, perfectionism, executive stress, or other stress, following rules, hidebound to black and white thinking (not flexible, unable to perceive the value in gray areas), making assumptions – about others, about the world, about the expectations you feel weighing on you, about your own abilities, over-reliance on logic, along with assuming you have an accurate grasp of what is logical.

•Challenge assumptions. Just because it has always been that way, doesn't mean that it has to continue to be that way. In fact, by expecting things to never change, you're setting yourself up for a lot of pain and unhappiness when things – and people – do change around you, without taking you along. Ways to challenge assumptions include: Ask questions, don't ignore your questions; give them free rein, stop jumping to hasty conclusions, haste makes waste and can leave you in hot water, reflect over things until the better answer arrives, look at something a different way, literally. Perhaps you've been hammering out a new design for something at work. You've been looking at this design for weeks, always in the same position. Try shifting it. Turn the design upside down, or take it out into the sunshine under the trees, or project it into the ceiling and have all of your co-workers lie in the floor to observe it. You'll be amazed at what a position change can do for assumptions and perspective.

•Break free of dull routine. Doing the same thing, day in and day out, will dull even the smartest person's mind. Find ways of minimizing routine in your life, while still embracing ritual – the two approaches are very different in result. Ritual is about daily or regular activities that center you, keep you well (such as exercise or yoga), and give you a sense of place and identity. Routine is about the things that cause you to fall into a rut, respond without thinking, and that often feel imposed upon you from elsewhere. Change it up, occasionally. Do things differently. Change your appearance and clothes. Many a rut is given a swift kick when you treat yourself to a new look. It's a start, and a really fun one at that. Walk a different way to work, catch a bus instead of driving, bring your lunch in instead of eating out (or vice versa), go home early for a change.

•Brainstorm. Brainstorming can do amazing things to help you think outside-the-box. Here are some suggestions to get you started. Do brain teasers, puzzles, psychometric tests, etc., and challenge your brain to new ways of doing and seeing things. If you hated math, English or science, try it again; this time make yourself do it well. Force your mind to think down different pathways. Learn a new language, a new way of keeping inventory, a new way to be a great boss or lover. Write poems. Poems can spark your creative thinking. Visualize work or home solutions through drawing pictures rather than writing things down.

Lateral Thinking is seeking to solve problems by apparently illogical means a process and willingness to look at things in a different way.

Lateral Thinking is a relatively new type of thinking that complements analytical and critical thinking not part of our mainstream education - yet

Lateral Thinking is a fast, effective tool used to help individuals, companies and teams solve tough problems and create new ideas, new products, new processes and new services.

Lateral Thinking is a term that is used interchangeably with creativity

Here are the links of two videos from Edward de Bono himself on lateral thinking:

Edward de Bono - discusses Lateral Thinking™ - YouTube video

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb9Oe83ruUw

Dr. Edward de Bono, creator of Lateral Thinking™, explains that creativity is a skill that anyone can ...

 Lateral Thinking with Edward de Bono - YouTube

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTMnEs8BwnY

One of the world's most influential thinkers Edward de Bono and the father of 'lateral thinking' tells ...

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nb9Oe83ruUw

www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTMnEs8BwnY

Dear all,

I think the crop is great! Thank you very much!

Lateral Thinking: Generate Brilliant Ideas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxbB0DAlx7c

Here is a thesis that may be of interest to followers of this thread:

R. Horowitz, Creative Problem Solving in Engineering Design, Ph.D. thesis, Tel-Aviv University, 1999:

http://www.asit.info/Creative%20Problem%20Solving%20in%20Engineering%20Design,%20thesis%20by%20Roni%20Horowitz.pdf

Horowitz observes:

Like the shape of the land-water system organised only by the internal forces of the system, the mind is a self-organizing system. The mind-channels detect the flow of incoming information so as to associate it with different contents (p. 15).

And:

de Bono's model of creative thinking--crossing between well-established channels--does not necessarily involve the creation of new channels, but rather finding new paths linking existing channels. Creative ideas are thus formed by connecting two or more previously known, but unconnected, pieces of content (p. 16).

Its a very good question and I learnt new thinks from the above discussions. With interest i searched the internet and found seven lateral thinking questions to promote out of the box thinking. I hope this will be of interest to all. Please find the link.

https://www.udemy.com/blog/lateral-thinking-questions/

Lateral thinking enables to look to the problems under different angles, trait and perspectives without loosing logical thinking that gets useful and accurate inference to connections between the different sides or approaches

Lateral thinking requires you to think outside of the usual and to push your creative spirit to the maximum.

"Thinking outside the box" - Is this the same as Lateral Thinking?

Mahfuz - can you clarify? Thanks.

-Sundar

Hi Costos

Thank you for asking this question :)

I first read about Lateral Thinking in 1969 when I was given a copy of Dr Edward de Bono's "Mechanism of the Mind". Over the past 46 years I have gone from being a supporter of the 'concept' of Lateral Thinking to a user of authentic Lateral Thinking by following Dr de Bono's methods as outlined in his 1994 publication "Serious Creativity", to a de Bono Thinking Systems accredited trainer in Lateral Thinking since 2000, to a Phd student that is coming close to  finishing my research (dissertation is due in 2015) that's focusing on work teams using de Bono's thinking tools - including authentic Lateral Thinking.

So what do I think of Lateral Thinking

… firstly I should point out I am answering this question within the context of de Bono's position: anyone can be a lateral thinker, that does not mean however that they are using Lateral Thinking …

I think that both the concept of Lateral Thinking as invented by Dr de Bono, in order to solve a fundamental problem of the human brain not being naturally creative, and the tools of Lateral Thinking that he invented to help us deal with this problem … are remarkable, useful, ingenious and some of the best inventions we human beings have available to us at a time when we so desperately need to improve our thinking in order to deal with extremely complex and now possibly intractable environmental, social and economic problems.

I have this opinion after applying authentic Lateral Thinking tools and processes to my own work for nearly 15 years, after experiencing the very real change in people's lives when they correctly learn and apply authentic Lateral Thinking tools (having trained, coached and mentored hundreds of people in these tools since 2000) and after conducting research as part of my PhD studies, with 32 small business entrepreneurs who learned and used authentic Lateral Thinking  - anyone who is interested in the results of this research can download a paper from my researchgate profile … if you find it interesting I would love to continue a conversation about Lateral Thinking (a topic as I probably have shown by now … is very dear to my heart!).

Hi Sundar

No Lateral Thinking is not the same as AND yes can loosely be described as "thinking outside the box".

Lateral Thinking is a term that has become popularised since it first went into the Oxford dictionary in the 1980's - this has caused some confusion as to it's origin and what it really means … therefore the popular term "thinking outside the box' has become synonymous with Lateral Thinking.

Also people may be confused about what Lateral Thinking is if they are not aware that Dr Edward de Bono is the originator of the term/concept/tools of Lateral Thinking … particularly as Dr de Bono has continued to refine his concepts regarding Lateral Thinking since his seminal publication on Lateral Thinking in 1967 (a result of his PhD research at Oxford University) and the rules and processes associated with the tools of Lateral Thinking (some of which he first invented in the 1960's ) have also been refined, improved and become more precise since people first started to receive formal training in these tools in the late 1990's.

Cheers Ali

Thank you Ali Sumner, for your answer!

I often think while lying down, it's relaxing.