Lateral thinking

Running head: LATERAL THINKING 1
LATERAL THINKING
A Review of the Literature
Gaurav Maheshwari
Gautam Krishnan
Giriraj Sharma
Harsh Sharma
Harshit Sankhla
Harshita Sharma
Himanshu Gupta
The LNM Institute of Information Technology, Jaipur
Author Note:
This paper was prepared for Introduction to Psychology, Section B, taught by Professor Rajbala
Singh

LATERAL THINKING 2
ABSTRACT
Lateral thinking is a process of solving real life problems with apparently illogical means. When
you are faced with fast-changing trends, fierce competition, and the need to work miracles
despite tight budgets, you need Lateral Thinking. Today, better quality and better service are
essential, but they are not enough. Creativity and innovation are the only engines that will drive
lasting, global success. Our minds are trained to find typical and predictable solutions to
problems. You can master the tools for innovative thinking. Lateral thinking will also help you
with strategic planning and thinking outside the box of everyday issues. In this paper, we shall
try to understand the importance, utility and application of lateral thinking in our daily life and
also understand the techniques of lateral thinking given by Dr. Edward de Bono, who is regarded
by many as the leading world authority in the field of creativity. He is the inventor of the phrase
"Lateral Thinking" which is now in the Oxford English Dictionary. His Lateral Thinking tools
are based directly on how the brain functions as a self-organizing information system.

LATERAL THINKING 3
Lateral Thinking
Lateral thinking is solving problems through an indirect and creative approach,
using reasoning that is not immediately obvious and involving ideas that may not be obtainable
by using only traditional step-by-step logic. The term was coined in 1967 by Edward de Bono.
According to de Bono, lateral thinking deliberately distances itself from standard
perceptions of creativity as either "vertical" logic (the classic method for problem solving, which
is, working out the solution step-by-step from the given data) or "horizontal" imagination
(having a thousand ideas but being unconcerned with the detailed implementation of them).It is
not known by birth but is learned with experiences and thinking out of the box.
The Significance of Lateral Thinking
Lateral thinking is an unpredictable and unconventional approach to solve problems in a non-
evident manner against the normal logical step-by -step linear or sequential thinking. Lateral
thinking in people is significantly important because it generates many solutions to the same
problem. People try to come up with new ways, instead of traditional methods for overcoming a
given task. This leads to new discoveries and possibilities in life. It is also the best way of
promoting creativity. It helps the individual in coming up with new ways to tackle a situation and
also improvisation leads to new inventions.
It has been significantly implemented by some of the greatest people who eventually
became extremely successfully having done hard work and the smart work
For an instances let’s take RELIANCE:
According to the Reliance website, executives are constantly encouraged to think out-of-
the-box, not traditionally or sequentially and the brothers themselves have this tremendous
ability to think laterally and look at business as a series of processes. As Mukesh says, “We work
in concentric circles, rather than in straight ranks, but there’s always a center of accountability.
To meet Dhirubhai’s deadlines in one of their major projects, Mukesh’s young project team
discarded several established business practices in favor of unconventional methods which have
now become part of Reliance’s corporate culture .This upside down thinking or supply creates its
own demand has been followed in India no better than Dhirubhai Ambani.

LATERAL THINKING 4
The Creative Frame of Mind
Creativity is generally associated as a consequence of lateral thinking. Often the only
difference between creative and uncreative people is self-perception. Creative people see
themselves as creative and give themselves the freedom to create. Uncreative people do not think
about creativity and do not give themselves the opportunity to create anything new.
Being creative may just be a matter of setting aside the time needed to take a step back
and allow yourself to ask yourself if there is a better way of doing something. Edward de Bono
calls this a 'Creative Pause'. He suggests that this should be a short break of maybe only 30
seconds, but that this should be a habitual part of thinking. This needs self-discipline, as it is easy
to forget.
Another important attitude-shift is to view problems as opportunities for improvement.
While this is something of a cliché, it is true. Whenever you solve a problem, you have a better
product or service to offer afterwards.
Who Needs Lateral Thinking
Not only people who devise strategy or work in R & D, but anyone who wants a disciplined
process for innovation, idea generation, concept development, creative problem solving, or a
strategy to challenge the status quo can benefit from Lateral Thinking. If you face fast-changing
trends, fierce competition, and the need to work miracles, you need Lateral Thinking. A student,
throughout his life faces many situations where an out-of-the-box strategy is needed to be
devised to get the job done. As a teacher too you need lateral thinking to test your students in
different academic and non-academic fronts. As an employee, lateral thinking benefits in making
a solid impression in group discussion and personal interviews. A sportsman needs lateral
thinking to develop game plans and tactics to excel over the opposition. Undoubtedly, everyone
in life sometimes need to go out of the book, and that’s where lateral thinking helps in generating
that creativity.
How to Think Laterally
Thinking laterally is implementing a set of techniques used to stimulate creative or "out
of the box" thinking. It is a deliberate strategy to interrupt normal, linear thought patterns, to
facilitate the transition between patterns, and to widen the range of possibilities.

LATERAL THINKING 5
1. Think fast. Lingering is not the way to think laterally. Inspired thoughts come
from letting your stream of consciousness pour forth quickly and without
reflection.
2. Avoid any form of self or other criticism. Lateral thinking requires freedom to
express anything. Criticism acts like a stopper to the flow and prevents expansion
of ideas. Allow yourself and others to reach beyond the moon when thinking
laterally.
3. Take care not to assume that it has all been done before. There is always the
possibility of new thoughts, new ideas and new ways of doing things.
4. Be non-conformist. Don't worry about what others will think; the moment you
do, you stop thinking laterally and start self-judging and potentially conforming.
Allow crazy, silly, weird, unusual, outrageous, never-been-done-before ideas to
pour forth unjudged. Non conformity is the concept of the moment for lateral
thinking.
5. Keep a record of your thoughts. You won't know which ones are worth
revisiting until later, sometimes because you're too close to it after brainstorming,
sometimes because it's simply not clear what is significant until later reflection.
6. Mimic. Don't be afraid to build on the great ideas of others. Perhaps they haven't
pushed the ideas far enough yet; maybe you will. But don't be afraid to copy good
ideas and make them better.
7. Avoid over analysis. As soon as you start nitpicking too much and noticing what
won't work, you've left lateral thinking and started to think analytically again.
Leave details to later. Leave grand visions to later too.
8. Question repeatedly. Is this the best there is? Is this adaptable? Is there a
workaround? Be sure to ask plenty of questions, especially "what if?"

LATERAL THINKING 6
Experiments Based on Lateral Thinking
A set of students were asked to draw a pig in certain time. After everyone completed their
drawing they were asked to judge there personality based upon certain guidelines:
1.) Where is the pig located on your paper?
a.) If the pig is at the top of the paper, you are an optimist.
b.) If the pig is at the bottom, you are a pessimist.
c.) In the middle means that you are a realist.
2.) Which direction is the pig facing?
a.) If your pig is facing right, you are innovative.
b.) If your pig faces left, you are traditional.
c.) If your pig faces the front, you enjoy arguing with others, and creating drama.
3.) Does your pig have many details, or few?
a.) If your pig has few details, it means that you might be emotional and naive, and a bit
of a risk taker.
b.) If your pig has many details, it means that you are more likely cautious, and do not
trust others easily.
4.) How many legs does your pig have?
a.) If your pig has 4 legs showing, it means that you are secure and stubborn.
b.) If your pig has less than 4 legs, it means that you are insecure, or are going through a
major change in life.

LATERAL THINKING 7
5.) Does your pig have large ears, or small ones?
a.) If your pig has large ears, it means that you are a good listener.
b.) If your pig has small ears, it means that you are not a good listener.
After this everyone was again instructed to draw a mouse, of which everyone drawn a
mouse considering big years and 4 legs etc. Out of them only they few did draw the mouse we
use in our daily life with our laptops and most of them drawn mouse which we rarely see.
Through this it was concluded people tend to think in rhythm of what they did earlier and
few think of the optical mouse which were more exposed to lateral thinking in their life.
This was a small experiment which came out with a big conclusion.
Usually people of think of thing’s already existing or already done in past because there mind is
calibrated accordingly throughout while some who believe on impossible or something that does
not exist being part of lateral thinkers made new technologies that never existed before.
Consequences of Lateral Thinking in Business
People think everything has already been discovered and there nothing more to be done
so come out with same ideas but with minor modifications which probably do not help much.
People these days are becoming more and more aware to lateral thinking and now
inventing their own solutions to problem with a completely new idea and these are successfully
been running under a term: startups.
Startups aim to solve the existing problems with a new and a better approach which are
being appreciated by people a lot.
Old businessman are incorporating new generation people to innovate and make their
business much more profitable.
Every business in today’s scenario runs well only and specifically if they have a lateral
thinking on the ways to keep flourishing with increasing customers. Our future is surely going to
give us a smarter way of living and this is going to happen through people who think out of the
box and use lateral approach to problems.

LATERAL THINKING 8
Conclusions
At the physical level, all humans are made up of the same matter, same organ structure
and even same body elements. In general, there is no difference in the physical architecture of
humans. Yet, we are able to identify and categorize humans based on how they interact with us
and the surroundings. We tend to form groups of people based on their ideology, basically their
thinking. Those who are said to be different are based on how they think about any given
situation. That is where lateral thinking comes in the picture. Sometimes you need to keep the
book aside and open your mind to overcome a difficult situation, and such people succeed in not
only making an impression in the society, but also become trendsetters, revolutionaries, someone
who we can look up to and expect for a solution. Lateral thinking is not only about creativity, it’s
about giving a new vision to the common to look at something. It is the mother of breakthroughs
in science and technological inventions. Breakthroughs, by definitions, only occur when
assumptions are broken, and that further occurs when creativity is induced in mind out of lateral
thinking. It is not bad not to think laterally, but in some point in life, you will need to jump out of
the box.

LATERAL THINKING 9
References
de Bono, E. (1967). The Use of Lateral Thinking. Penguin Books: Middlesex, UK.
de Bono, E. (1972). Po: Beyond Yes and No. Penguin Books: Middlesex, UK.
Jump up^ Lateral Thinking: The Power of Provocation manual: Published in 2006 by de
BonoThinking Systems
Links:
Lateral Thinking Puzzlers
Retrieved from: http://ftalphaville.ft.com/2014/05/28/1864212/guest-post-when-anyone-can-
be-a-money-issuer/
The Leader's Guide to Lateral Thinking Skills: Unlocking the Creativity and Innovation in
You and Your Team
Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateral_thinking
A Guide to Open Innovation and Crowdsourcing: Advice From Leading Experts
Retrieved from https://wplay.wordpress.com/2008/07/01/significance-of-lateral-thinking/
Lateral thinking to the next level:
Retrieved from http://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/sk/lateral.htm
The pig personality test :
Retrieved from http://drbj.hubpages.com/hub/Pig-Personality-Test
Books:
Lateral Thinking by Edward De Bono
How to be a Brilliant Thinker: Exercise Your Mind and Find Creative Solutions by Paul
Sloane

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