Lateral Thinking.

Let me start this article with a short story. This had been published in a few magazines earlier too:

A salesman was driving back in his two-seater car after a day’s work to his hometown. The evening had already set in. The countryside roads were winding in nature with all the trees on both sides.

It started raining and he could not see the roads clearly. At one place, he noticed 3 figures standing under a tree, and he pulled over to offer help to them. He could identify the first one as one of his good friends, Paul, who had helped the salesman during his initial years.

Next to Paul was an elderly lady in her seventies and she was shivering due to the rains. The last one was a beautiful young lady who, he thought, was the lady of his dreams.

The salesman could offer to take with him only one out of the three as the rules of the town were very strict. He was wondering what was to be done to help. All three were eagerly looking at him with the hope that he would offer help.

With quick thinking, the salesman took out the car key and gave it to his friend, Paul, and asked him to take the elderly lady to her home. He said that he would keep the company of the young lady for some time and would look for some kind of transport for them to get back to the town.

This is one of the examples, often written for Lateral Thinking. This proves to be the thinking out of the obvious, out of the ordinary, out of the box.

What is Lateral Thinking?

• Lateral Thinking is thinking of alternatives. For any problem, there are always multiple solutions. We are accustomed to one pattern of thinking, which is often analytical in nature. But Lateral thinking is about new ideas, challenging the obviously seen ideas.
• Edward De Bano, a Maltese (British), Psychologist, Professor originated and invented this terminology, Lateral Thinking, in 1967, which became the subject being taught in most schools.
• Lateral thinking is not about deeper thinking or vertical thinking. It is about wider thinking, covering a wider area.
• Lateral thinking is not about logical or straightforward approach. It is about relaxing the rigidity of the problems.
• Lateral thinking deals with the quantity and not the quality of the solutions.
• Lateral thinking comes out of creativity. Regular and obvious solutions do not give consistent results.
• Normally, we meet the problems head-on. Here we look for unorthodox solutions.

How do we get into Lateral Thinking habits?

• Stay focused on the overlooked aspects of the situation.
• Challenge your assumptions, challenge the obvious solutions.
• Seek various alternatives, and understand the constraints.

Hi LinkedIn Friends:

In work situations, have you applied lateral thinking and arrived at more appropriate solutions? If there are interesting solutions, you may please share them in the comment section.?