Sunday, May 31, 2009

Lateral Thinking

De bono said that the mind is efficient at establishing concept patterns, but not at restructuring them to bring them up to date.

Differences from traditional vertical thinking compared to lateral thinking
  • Vertical thinking can be typified by looking for a solution that will work based strictly upon logic.
  • Vertical thinking follows the most likely paths to solving a problem.
  • Lateral thinking follows the least likely path.
Lateral thinking is closely related to creativity or the ability to use creativity within the problem-solving process. Lateral thinking is a slow deliberate process prompting us to think in different ways. Not simply discarding ideas simply because they are out of the norm in their approach to a problem.

The following anecdote is provided by De Bono (1967). A merchant who owes money to a money lender agrees to settle the debt based upon the choice of two stones (one black, one white) from a moneybag. If his daughter chooses the white stone, the debt is canceled; if she picks the black stone, the moneylender gets the merchant's daughter. However, the moneylender "fixes" the outcome by putting two black stones in the bag. The daughter sees this and when she picks a stone out of the bag, immediately drops it onto the path full of other stones. She then points out that the stone she picked must have been the opposite color of the one remaining in the bag. Unwilling to be unveiled as dishonest, the moneylender must agree and cancel the debt. The daughter has solved an intractable problem through the use of lateral thinking.

Principles:
1. To get a different perspective on a problem, try breaking the elements up and recombining them in a different way (perhaps randomly).

Techniques of lateral thinking-De Bono, Lateral Thinking
1. The generation of alternatives-restructuring a pattern into a new pattern
2. Challenging assumptions-challenging set efficient methods as being the best solution to a problem
3. Innovations-why do we do things the way?
4. Suspended Judgment-not discarding an idea immediately when we think it will not work.
  • The idea will survive longer and foster more ideas
  • Other people might offer more ideas that their own judgment would have rejected
  • Ideas that are judged to be wrong in the current frame of reference may survive long enough to show that the frame of reference needs altering
5. Design-purpose view solutions from different angles
  • Rather than to be critical of ways that you don’t think will work, try to look from the angle that the new ideas approach the problem
6. Dominant ideas and crucial factors-standard approaches to problems solving are identified in order to highlight these could be vertical approaches to problem solving
  • Crucial factor is the one point that tethers or controls a solution, De Bono highlights the point that often crucial factors are assumptions rather than actual obstacles
7. Fractionalization-breaking down a problem into different pieces that you would not normally use in order to generate alternative ways of looking at a situation
8. The reversal method-method of creating new approaches
  • •e.g. Going on a holiday, reversed- holiday coming to one
9. Brainstorming
  • Being in a group and going through the above processes together
10. Analogies
  • Analogies are used to jumpstart inspiration when peoples creativity is low, promotes thinking in what seems an odd way, but gets the creative juices flowing.
11. Choice of entry point and attention area
  • Entry point refers to the part of the problem where we approach it, while attention area is the part of the problem that we focus our main efforts upon
12. Random stimulation
  • Random stimulation is the addition of unrelated information in order to shakeup the original thought pattern that was being used in order to approach the problem. It is useful in creating a slightly different angle of viewing the problem.
13. Concepts, Divisions, Polarization
  • The process of how our mind creates divisions in order to classify information that we acquire.
14. The new word “po”
  • A new word coined by De Bono to fit between the words yes and no so that one can hold off judgment of an idea for a short time longer while formulating possible ideas around the possibilities of this new idea. The word is like a holding category between giving an idea a green light or discarding it immediately. Also known as a language devise or tool. In simplest form it is similar to the use of the word suppose.
15. Blocked by openness
  • One is blocked by a gap, one has to find new road or construct a bridge to cover this area
  • Two is blocked by there is something in the way
  • Three is blocked by there is nothing in the way so we fail to look for more effective ways of doing something is we already have a working model
16. Description/Problem solving and Design
Description, two people describe a problem in two different ways, same problem just seems like two different problems.

Vertical thinking-one must be correct at every step or the process is discarded while in lateral thinking the idea can be held onto while other information is added in around it. Both ways are effective yet vertical thinking is selective in its thinking while lateral is generative. Lateral is basically methods, tools, techniques that encourage approaching ideas in a manner that you would not conceive of in vertical (traditional) thinking. The techniques are very creative and seem unorthodox, but they are worthwhile.

Dupont employees used lateral thinking to eliminate a number of steps in the manufacture of Kevlar material and saved the company 30 million annually.

regards

-MZA-

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