Lateral Thinking

Lateral thinking in one minute

Most problem solving is vertical. You take the problem as given and work step by step, with each step following from the last. That works well when the path is clear. It works badly when the path itself is the problem.

Lateral thinking steps sideways. Instead of asking “how do I get further along this road?”, it asks “is this the right road? What else could the problem be?” The term was coined by Edward de Bono in the late 1960s.

A quick example. A swimming pool, a man in his work clothes, an hour inside, not a drop of water on him. The vertical route is to wonder how he stayed dry. The lateral route is to wonder whether the pool had water in it. That one, and the answer, is in the puzzle library with plenty more.

Lateral vs vertical thinking

	Vertical thinking	Lateral thinking
Question	How do I solve this?	Is this the right problem?
Method	Step by step, each step follows from the last	Change the starting point, then look again
Good at	Refining, checking, finishing	Starting, reframing, getting unstuck
Risk	Going far down the wrong road	Producing odd ideas that need testing

You need both. The sideways step finds a new road; the vertical work gets you down it. The book makes a similar point about ideas, where one stage produces plenty and a later stage chooses.

Three habits, three chapters

The book does not use the phrase “lateral thinking”. It teaches the same moves under other names, and each is worth practicing on its own.

1. Question the assumptions

Chapter 4, The Answer Is in the Question, says to list the assumptions behind a problem and test each one. The worked example is traffic congestion in Los Angeles. The assumptions include “There’s too much traffic in LA”, “People don’t like being stuck in traffic” and “People need cars to get around”. Each sounds obvious. Look closer and each has a gap. What counts as too much, compared with what? Some people might even like being stuck in traffic, because it is time alone in the car.

The book also suggests turning an assumption on its head by looking at its exact opposite, and asking whether it changes anything. If it makes a real difference, keep it in the problem. If not, you may be able to drop it.

2. Look through someone else’s eyes

Chapter 9, Shoe Swapper, is about walking in another person’s shoes. The problem looks different from there. A footbridge is a different problem for a runner and for a parent with a pram. Try the question “who else is in this situation, and what do they see?” before you start solving.

3. Connect unrelated things

Chapter 10, Connected, argues that creativity often means joining two things that seem to have nothing in common. The book’s exercise is to pick a random word and force a link to your problem. When it tried this on the traffic problem it got the word “donation”, and the ideas that followed were ones nobody had listed before.

Exercises to try

1. The assumption list. Write down a problem you are working on. List six things you are taking for granted. Cross out the ones that are not really true, and see which new questions are left.
2. The opposite. Take one assumption and flip it. If you assumed the customer wants it faster, ask what happens if they want it slower.
3. The random word. Open a dictionary at random, or use the Random Idea Generator. Force a connection between the word and your problem, and write down at least five ideas before you judge any of them.
4. The other shoes. Choose someone with a very different view of the problem: a child, a competitor, someone who has never heard of your product. Write down what they would say about it.
5. The puzzle a day. Try the puzzle of the day on the lateral thinking puzzles page. Open the hints one at a time and note which move cracked it.

Thinking outside the box

“Thinking outside the box” means the same sort of thing in plain terms: dropping a limit you did not know you had. In the puzzles it is almost always an assumption about the situation, such as that a pool has water, that a soup is hot or that a performer makes a sound. In your own work it is usually an assumption about who the customer is, what the product is, or what you are allowed to do.

Where to go next

• Ch1 How to Play
  Lateral Thinking Puzzles

  Thirty original lateral thinking puzzles, each with hints and an answer you can reveal when you are ready. Every one was written for this site.

Questions

Is lateral thinking a skill you can learn? The habits are. Noticing assumptions, changing viewpoint and making connections all get easier with practice, and the exercises above give you a way to do that.

Does the book teach lateral thinking? It does not use that phrase. Its chapters on questions, other people’s shoes and connections cover the same moves.

Is lateral thinking better than logic? No. Logic is how you check and finish. Lateral thinking is how you find something worth checking.

Are the puzzles from a puzzle book? No. Every puzzle on the site was written for it.