Lateral Thinking

LATERAL THINKING

~Manoj sdb

Lateral thinking (henceforth LT) basically means thinking differently, newly, creatively and thinking ‘out of the box.’ Edward de Bono (the author of Lateral Thinking) says that logical or conventional way of thinking is not effective in solving the problems. In fact, the step-by-step approach restricts people to think in one line. So he exhorts us to take another approach to problem solving: LT. The term ‘lateral thinking’ was coined by him in 1970.  It refers to a set of approaches and techniques designed to find radically new approaches to problemsrather than proceeding by logical steps. PaulSloane cites an interesting example of LT in his book,The Leader’s Guide to Lateral Thinking Skills. In the first part of the 20^th century, the assistants of the shops served the customers who prescribed the things they needed. Whereas, in 1920, a man called Michael Cullen took a different view. He asked the question, ‘what would happen if we turned the shop around and let the customers help themselves to the goods they wanted and then they paid at the end? Though many were against such a view, Cullen persisted and created the world’s first supermarket in New Jersey.

            Sloane also lists out some important characteristics of the conventional and lateral leaders.

Conventional Thinkers	Lateral Thinkers
Lead from the front.	Lead from alongside.
Treat staff as subordinates	Treat staff as colleagues
Use conventional methods	Develop new methods and change the rules
Think they know best.	Bind the abilities of others.
Give directions and orders	Ask questions, solicit suggestions, delegate.
Hire based on experience and qualifications.	Hire based on talent, potential and creativity.
is focused on results	is focused on better ways of doing things
Cherish results first, People second	Cherish ideas, innovation and people first
Reward performance & results	Reward creativity & risk taking
Look for ideas from their own experience	Look for ideas from anywhere
Directs his team	Inspireshis team
Uses logical thinking	Uses divergent thinking

One cannot dig a hole in a different place by digging the same hole deeper. Similarly, a conventional thinker can think one thing deeply but is unable to think different things.

Having praised LT highly, at the same time, Sloane holds that we can’t simply throw away conventional thinking completely. The successful leaders combine the qualities of both the conventional and the lateral thinkers. They know when to think conventionally and when to think laterally. Please check the level of your lateral thinking by answering the following questions.

1.                  A large city in the United States had a problem with thefts of light bulbs from its subway system. Thieves would unscrew the light bulbs, leading to cost and security issues. The engineer who was given this challenge could not alter the location of the light bulbs, and he had very little budget to work with, but he came up with a very lateral solution. What was it?

The engineer changed the bulbs to have left-hand or anti-clock-wise threads instead of the conventional right-hand or clockwise threads. This meant that as thieves assumed they were trying to unscrew the bulbs, they were actually tightening them instead.

2.                  A man buys coconuts at $5 a dozen and sells them at $3 a dozen. Because of this he becomes a millionaire. How?

The man is philanthropist who buys great quantities of coconuts to sell to poor people at prices they can afford. He started out as a billionaire but lost so much money in his good works that he became a millionaire. If you assumed that the only way to become a millionaire is by working you way up to that level of wealth, you made an assumption which prevented you from solving the problem! Or He needed only three dollars to become a millionaire.

3.                  The marketing department of a major bank prepared a direct mail campaign to launch a new product. They printed over 2 million brochures but were horrified to find a mistake in the brochure – it had a wrong digit in the telephone number. Callers would get a dead line instead of the call centre. What should they do first – fire the marketing manager or reprint the brochures?

The marketing manager called the telephone company that issued numbers and bought the wrong number. The line was redirected to the call centre and the mailing was sent out.

4.                  What can you dry your hair with, cut the grass with and lift a car with?

The answer is a hairdryer, a lawnmower and a jack. Why did you assume it was one thing?

5.                  A shop in New York is called the Seven Bells, yet it has eight bells hanging outside. Why?

It was originally a mistake but the shop owner found that so many people came into the shop to point out the error that it increased business.

6.                  This question has been used as an aptitude test at interviews. You are driving in your sports car on a cold wet evening. You pass a bus stop where you see three people waiting for the bus. One is your best friend from school days who you have not seen for 20 years. One is the man or woman of your dreams - the person you always wanted to meet. The third is a sick old lady who needs to be taken to hospital. Knowing that there is room for only one passenger in your car, what would you do?

You give the car keys to your old friend and ask him to drive the sick old lady to hospital, while you wait at the bus stop with the woman of your dreams.

            Education is complete only when it enables the students to pass from naïve thinking to critical thinking, from critical thinking to creative thinking and from creative thinking to innovative and LT. Today students’ knowledge sometimes surpasses teacher’s knowledge. So teachers need to constantly update themselves with current instructional methods in order to sound relevant to students. The insistence and the implementation of LT require a lot of commitment from the part of the teachers. The teachers pose problems to the students and invite them to come up with the solutions. They can offer them some LT puzzles to find out the answers. It is the duty of the teachers to take personal responsibility to make the learning active rather than passive. If the teachers are ready to take such painful risks to enable the students grow critically, creatively, innovatively and to think laterally, the students will surely bear the expected fruits. It is not enough to be teachers but creators, creators of creative people. Every innovative student is a pride of the teacher.