Lateral Thinking

by Edward de Bono

  In the younger age groups the visual form is much more effective than the verbal since a child can always attempt to express something visually and, more importantly, to understand something that has been expressed visually.

  From the age of seven right up to and through university education the lateral thinking process is relevant This may seem a wide age group but the process is as basic as logical thinking and clearly the relevance of this is not limited to a particular age group. In a similar manner the relevance of lateral thinking cuts across the distinctions of subject even more than does mathematics. Lateral thinking is relevant whether one is studying science or engineering or history or English. It is because of this general application that the material used in this book does not require the background of any particular subject

  An attempt should be made to develop lateral thinking attitudes as a habit of mind at least from the age of seven onwards. The actual application of the ideas expressed in this book to a particular age level must depend to some extent on the experience of the teacher in presenting the material in an appropriate form. The two usual mistakes in this regard are:

  To assume that it is obvious and that everyone thinks laterally anyway.

  To assume that it is rather a special subject and not of use or relevance to everyone.

  The practical aspect of the book does get more complex as one proceeds through the book (this is apart from the background material intended for the teacher). In general the first part of the practical material is suitable for seven-year-olds and the later parts are suitable for anyone. This is not to imply that the first part is only suitable for young children or the later parts are only suitable for adults but that there is a way of putting over the lateral thinking attitude to any age group.

  Format

  Like logical thinking, lateral thinking is a general attitude of mind which may make use of certain techniques on occasion. Nevertheless this attitude of mind can best be taught in a formal setting using specific material and exercises. This is to encourage the development of the lateral thinking habit Without a formal setting one is reduced to mere encouragement and the appreciation of lateral thinking when it occurs — neither of which processes do much to develop the habit.

  To set aside a definite period for teaching lateral thinking is much more use than trying to gently introduce its principles in the course of teaching some other subject.

  If one has to teach it along with some other subject then one should set aside a short, defined period as part of the general period (even though the subject matter may be the same as for the rest of the period).

  A one hour period every week throughout education would be quite sufficient to bring about the lateral thinking attitude — or the creative attitude if you prefer to call it that.

  The practical parts of the book are separated into different aspects. It is not suggested that one should work through the book taking a section at each lesson and then passing on to the next section. This would be quite useless. Instead one uses the basic structure of each section over and over again until one is thoroughly familiar with the process. One may spend several sessions on a particular section or even several months. All the time one is changing the bask material but developing the same lateral thinking process. It is the use of lateral thinking that counts, not knowledge of each and every process. One can develop the lateral attitude of mind as easily through thorough practice in one technique as through brief practice in them all.

  There is nothing special about the techniques. It is the attitude behind them that counts. But mere exhortation and goodwill are not enough. If one is to develop a skill one must have some formal setting in which to practise it — and some tools to use. The best way to acquire skill in lateral thinking is to acquire skill in the use of a collection of tools which are all used to bring about the same effect.

  Materials

  Many of the demonstrations used in this book may seem trivial and artificial. They are. The demonstrations are used in order to make clear some point about the thinking process. They are not intended to teach anything but to encourage the reader to develop some insight into the natural behaviour of the mind. Just as the actual content of parables or fables is so much less important than the point they are intended to convey so the demonstrations may be trivial in content in order to make an important point.

  There is unfortunately no switch in the mind which can be flicked one way for dealing with all important matters and the other way for dealing with minor matters.

  Whatever the importance of the matter the system behaves in the same way, that is according to its nature. In important matters the working of the system may be distorted by emotional considerations which do not interfere with the handling of trivial matters. The only effect is to make the working worse than it can be. Hence the defects of the system in dealing with trivial matters are at least the same defects which will be present when dealing with more important matters.

  It is the process not the product that matters. The trivial and artificial items illustrate the process in a neat and accessible manner. The process can be extracted just as the relationships expressed in a formula in algebra can be separated from what the symbols actually stand for.

  Many of the items are visual and even geometric. This is deliberate because the use of verbal illustrations can be misleading. Words are already neat and fixed packages of information and in discussing the thinking process one really has to go back to the situation itself since the choice of words in a description is already a choice of viewpoint, is already quite far along the thinking process. The nearest one can get to a raw situation, before it has been processed at all by thinking, is a visual situation and geometric ones are preferable since they are more definite and the processing of them is more easily studied. With verbal descriptions quite apart from the choice of viewpoint and the choice of words there are nuances of meaning which can lead to misunderstanding. With a visual situation no meaning is offered. The situation is just there and hence the same for everyone even though they may process it differently.

  When the principles indicated by the artificial demonstrations have been understood, when there has been sufficient practice in the processes suggested, then one can move on to more real situations. It is exactly the same as learning mathematics on trivial and artificial problems and then using the processes on important ones.

  The amount of material supplied in this book is very limited. What is supplied is supplied more as an example than as anything else. Anyone who is teaching lateral thinking, either to students or to his own children must supplement the material offered here with his own material.

  Visual material

  The following material may be collected and used:

  1. In the section dealing with the progressive arrangement of cardboard shapes one can make up this sort of shape and also devise new patterns for illustrating the same thing. In addition one can ask the students themselves to devise new shapes.

  2. Photographs and pictures can be taken from newspapers and from magazines. These are especially useful in the section on different ways of looking at and interpreting a situation. The captions would naturally be removed. For convenience the pictures could be mounted on cardboard. If a magazine contained several useful pictures then a number of copies could be bought and used as permanent material.

  3. Drawings of scenes or people in action can be provided by the students themselves. A drawing provided by one student is objective material for everyone else. The complexity or accuracy of the drawing is not important, since what matters is the way it is looked at by the others.

  4. In the sections which call for the execution of designs as drawings these provide abundant material not only for the current set of students but for subsequent ones.

  Verbal material

  This can include written, spoken or recorded material.

  1. Written material can be obtained from newspapers or magazines.

  2. Written materia
l can be supplied by the teacher writing on a particular theme with a definite (even if simulated) point of view.

  3. Written material can be supplied by the students who are asked to write a short piece on some particular theme.

  4. Spoken material can be derived from radio programmes, from recordings of radio programmes and from deliberate recording of simulated speeches.

  5. Spoken material can be obtained from the students themselves, one of whom may be asked to talk about a certain subject.

  Problem material

  The problem format is a convenient one for encouraging deliberate thinking. It is very difficult to think of a problem just when one is required. There are different sorts of problem.

  1. General world problems such as food shortage. These are obviously open ended problems.

  2. More immediate problems such as traffic control in cities. These are problems with which the students may have come into direct contact.

  3. Immediate problems. These concern the direct everyday interaction at school. If one does deal with personal problems it is probably best to deal with them in an abstracted way as if talking about third parties.

  4. Design and innovation problems. These are requests to bring about a certain effect They usually apply to concrete objects but they can also apply to organization or ideas (e.g. how would you organize a babysitting service or a supermarket?).

  5. Closed problems. These are problems for which there is a definite answer. There is a way of doing something and it is seen to work when it is found. Such problems may be practical ones (for instance how to hang a washing line) or artificial ones (how to make a hole in a postcard big enough to put your head through). Problems can be derived from many different sources:

  1. A general glance at a newspaper will generate world or more immediate problems (e.g. strikes).

  2. Problems may be suggested by everyday life (e.g. more efficient train services).

  3. Problems may be suggested by the students. The teacher asks for problems and then stockpiles the suggestions.

  4. Design problems may be generated by taking any item (car, table, desk) and asking how it might be done in a better way. More elaborate design problems can be generated by taking some task which has to be performed by hand and asking for a machine to do the same thing — or a device to make it easier. One could also just ask for a simpler way to do it.

  5. Closed problems are rather difficult to find. They must have a definite answer which is difficult enough to make the problem interesting but quite obvious once it has been found. There are some classic problems which one may know or be told about. It is however a bad idea to go to a puzzle book since many of the problems involve quite ordinary mathematical tricks which have nothing to do with lateral thinking. One simple way of generating closed problems is to take some ordinary task and then restrict the starting conditions. For instance one may want to draw a circle without using a compass. Once the problem has been set in this way then one solves it for oneself before offering it to others.

  Themes

  There are times when one just wants a subject for consideration. These are not actual problems nor are they expressions of a particular point of view. It is a matter of having a subject area in which to move and develop ideas (e.g. cups, blackboard, books, acceleration, freedom, building). These can be obtained in various ways.

  1. Simply by looking around one, taking an object and elaborating it into a theme.

  2. By glancing at a newspaper and deriving a theme for each headline.

  3. By asking the students to generate themes.

  Anecdotes and stories

  These are probably the most effective way of putting across the lateral thinking idea but they are extremely difficult to generate.

  1. From collections of fables or folk stories (e.g. Aesop’s fables, the exploits of the Mulla Nasruddin).

  2. By making a note of incidents from one’s own experience or that of others, news items etc.

  Stockpile of material

  It always seems much easier to think up material as required than it really is. It is better to gradually build up a stockpile of material: newspaper cuttings, photos, problems, stories, anecdotes, themes and ideas suggested by the students. One gradually builds up a file of such things and then can use them as needed. In addition there is the advantage that with use one can learn which items are particularly effective. One can also come to predict the standard responses to the items. Anecdotes, stories and problems should make a point about lateral thinking. Themes should be neutral, specific enough to excite definite ideas but wide enough for a variety of ideas to be offered. Pictures should be capable of different interpretations: a man holding a tin of corned beef is suitable but firemen putting out a fire are not; a woman looking in a mirror can be ambiguous, so can policemen arresting a man or soldiers marching down a street It is enough if you yourself can think of at least two different interpretations.

  In contrast the verbal material should be as definite as possible. An article should offer a committed point of view, even a fanatical point of view. A general uncommitted appraisal is not so much use unless one is looking for background information to help consideration of a theme.

  In putting across the idea of lateral thinking, as in teaching any sort of thinking, it is possible to talk in abstract terms, but what really makes things clear is actual involvement. The involvement may start with abstract geometric shapes and then the process is transferred bodily to more real situations. It is useful to keep going back to the simple shapes to emphasize the process for if one sticks entirely to real situations the nature of the process may get very blurred. There is also the real danger that in considering real situations one comes to think in terms of collecting more information, whereas the whole idea of lateral thinking is concept restructuring.

  Distinctness of lateral thinking

  It may seem artificial to separate lateral thinking and try to teach it on its own when it is so much a part of thinking. There is a reason for doing this. Many of the processes of lateral thinking are quite contradictory to the other processes of thinking (it is their function to be so). Unless a clear distinction is made there is the danger of giving the impression that lateral thinking undermines what is being taught elsewhere by introducing doubt. It is by keeping lateral thinking distinct from vertical thinking that one can avoid this danger and come to appreciate the value of both. Lateral thinking is not an attack on vertical thinking, but a method of making it more effective by adding creativity.

  The other danger which arises from failure to keep lateral thinking separate is the vague feeling that one is teaching it anyway in the course of teaching other things and therefore there is no need to do anything special about it In practice such an attitude is quite wrong. Everyone naturally feels that they themselves use lateral thinking and that they always encourage it in their students. It is very easy to have this feeling but the fundamental nature of lateral thinking is so different from that, of vertical thinking that it is impossible to teach both at the same time. It is not enough to introduce a mild flavour of lateral thinking One wants to develop enough skill in it for it to be used effectively, not just acknowledged as a possibility.

  Organization of chapters of this book

  Each chapter is divided into two parts:

  1. Background material, theory and nature of the process being discussed in that section.

  2. Practical format for trying out and using the process under discussion.

  The way the mind works 1

  The need for lateral thinking arises from the way the mind works.* Though the information handling system called mind is highly effective it has certain characteristic limitations. These limitations are inseparable from the advantages of the system since both arise directly from the nature of the system. It would be impossible to have the advantages without the disadvantages. Lateral thinking is an attempt to compensate for these disadvantages while one still enjoys the advantages.


  Code communication

  Communication is the transfer of information. If you want someone to do something you could give him detailed instructions telling him exactly what to do. This would be accurate but it might take rather a long time. It would be much easier if you could simply say to him: ‘Go ahead and carry out plan number 4.’ This simple sentence might replace pages of instruction. In the military world certain complex patterns of behaviour are coded in this manner so that one only has to specify the code number for the whole pattern of behaviour to be activated. It is the same with computers: much used programmes are stored under a particular heading and one can call them into use by just specifying that heading. When you go into, a library to get a book you could describe in detail the book you wanted, giving author, title, subject, general outline etc Instead of all that you could just give the code number from the catalogue.

  Communication by code can only work if there are preset patterns. These patterns which may be very complex are worked out beforehand and are available under some code heading. Instead of transferring all the required information you just transfer the code heading. That code heading acts as a trigger word which identifies and calls up the pattern you want. This trigger word can be an actual code heading such as the name of a film or it can be some part of the information which acts to call up the rest. For instance one might not remember a film by its name but if one were to say: Do you remember that film with Julie Andrews as a governess looking after some children in Austria?’ the rest of the film might be easily brought to mind.

  Language itself is the most obvious code system with the words themselves as triggers. There are great advantages in any code system. It is easy to transfer a lot of information very quickly and without much effort. It makes it possible to react appropriately to a situation as soon as the situation is recognized from its code number without having to examine it in detail. It makes it possible to react appropriately to a situation before the situation has even developed fully — by identifying the situation from the initial aspects of it.