Lateral thinking is about changing concepts and perception and reasoning about a problem in ways that would not ordinarily be possible with traditional forms of logic. de Bono's site for detailed definitions). de Bono is credited with coining the terms Lateral Thinking and Parallel Thinking ( See Dr. There is another aspect of thinking which is concerned with 'what can be.' This type of thinking involves creative thinking and 'designing a way forward.' Dr. de Bono says that so-called Western thinking, using analysis, judgement, and argument, is largely concerned with 'what is.' This is all well and good, he says, but it's not sufficient.

de Bono from his book Six Thinking Hats, but recently my interest in his work was renewed when I spoke with an executive of a famous multinational firm in Hong Kong who said they'd really benefited from some of his methods. Edward de Bono, then you owe it to yourself to at least explore his contributions. The information on ' Lateral Thinking' is Copyright ©The McQuaig Group Inc.If you are not aware of the psychologist and physician Dr. General: Exploring multiple possibilities and approaches instead of pursuing a single approach.

Specific: A set of systematic techniques used for changing concepts and perceptions, and generating new ones. The term ' Lateral Thinking' can be used in two senses: The other parent suggests it might be a better idea to put Granny in the playpen to protect her from Susan. One parent suggests putting Susan into the playpen. Lateral thinking is cutting across patterns in a self-organising system, and has very much to do with perception.įor example: Granny is sitting knitting and three year old Susan is upsetting Granny by playing with the wool. The term covers a variety of methods including provocations to get us out of the usual line of thought. Lateral thinking is about moving sideways when working on a problem to try different perceptions, different concepts and different points of entry. The entry in the Concise Oxford Dictionary reads: 'seeking to solve problems by unorthodox or apparently illogical methods. Edward de Bono writes in 'Serious Creativity', how he became interested in the sort of thinking that computers could not do: creative and perceptual thinking.

Serious Creativity by Edward de Bono