Using Lateral Thinking for Searching Widely in Projects (C) Tudor Rickards & Susan Moger (1999-2007)

What is Lateral Thinking It is a process which helps an individual (or individuals in a group) to break out of predictable (‘vertical’) thinking and discover unexpected ideas through a ‘lateral’ leap in thinking pattern. The term has been widely popularised by Edward de Bono

When to use Lateral Thinking Any time you are trying to find new ideas In a team, when you are brainstorming When you are ‘stuck’ and don’t see what you should do next When you are writing a project report and you want to be more imaginative

How Lateral Thinking Works Lateral Thinking works by shifting mental processing into relatively rare pathways. There are various tried and tested ways of doing this These can be called Lateral Thinking techniques We suggest they are ‘Invitations’ to think differently

Three Powerful Lateral Thinking ‘Invitations’ ‘Wouldn’t it be wonderful’ Reversing conventional thinking Adding an unexpected ‘jolt’ in an ideas discussion

The ‘Wouldn’t it be Wonderful’ Invitation Old reality New reality Wouldn’t it be wonderful if .. Eg: Roads could renew their surfaces like skin

The Reversals Invitation Let’s turn convention upside down for a moment.. Eg: We must protect our best ideas We could give away our ideas (new business model in e-marketing)

The Jolt that Triggers Insights (1) Blocked Goal New Goal Jolt

The Jolt that triggers Insights (2) To introduce a ‘jolt’ you can ‘throw a deliberate irrelevance’ into a discussion. Any rich source of images or words can suggest ‘jolts’ as long as they are not obviously connected with the context of the discussion. An in-flight magazine; a book opened at random for a word ..; etc, etc. (Can you see how to introduce the other two invitations as ways of ‘jolting’ thinking)?