Lateral Thinking

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Lateral Thinking

• By M. Allen Firester on behalf of IS68 Mr.
  Fralin, principal.

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Italian Workman Wants a Job

• An Italian workman wants a job, but the foreman
  won't hire him until he passes a little math
  test.
• 'Here's your first question,' the foreman said.
  'Without using numbers, represent the number 9.'
•  'Withouta numbers?' the Italian says, 'Datsa
  easy.' and he proceeds to draw three trees.
•  'What's this?' the boss asks.
•  'Ave you gota no brain? Tree and tree and tree
  makes a nine,' says the Italian.

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•  'Fair enough,' says the boss. 'Here's your
  second question. Use the same rules, but this
  time the number is 99.'
•  The Italian stares into space for a while, then
  picks up the picture that he has just drawn and
  makes a smudge on each tree . 'Ere you go.'
•  The boss scratches his head and says, 'How on
  earth do you get that to represent 99?'
•  'Eacha of da trees is a dirty now.  So, it's
  dirty tree, and dirty tree, and dirty tree. Datsa
  a 99.'

4

• The boss is getting worried that he's going to
  actually have to hire this Italian, so he says,
  'All right, last question.
• Same rules again, but represent the number 100.'
•  The Italian stares into space some more, then he
  picks up the picture again and makes a little
  mark at the base of each tree and says, 'Ere you
  go.  One hundred.'

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• The boss looks at the attempt. 'You must be nuts
  if you think that represents a hundred!'
•  (You're going to love this one!!!)
•  The Italian leans forward and points to the
  marks at the base of each tree and says, 'A
  little doga come along and shita by eacha tree.
   So now you gota dirty tree and a turd, dirty
  tree and a turd, and dirty tree and a turd,
  data makea one hundred.  So, whenna I start?

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Historical perspective

• Though fictional the following demonstrates the
  power of lateral thinking Witness the success
  of the cadet James T. Kirk (Later Enterprise
  Captain) in star fleet academy
• Kirk had the distinction of being the only cadet
  ever to beat the "no-win" Kobayashi Maru
  scenario he had secretly reprogrammed the
  simulation computer, making it possible to win
  and earning himself a commendation for original
  thinking. When asked how he was able to win
  against this no-win situation, he said, I
  changed the rules.

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• Gauss showed indications of mathematical genius
  very early. His teacher gave the students an
  assignment to add up a series of 100 numbers.
  Instantly, Gauss said that he had completed the
  exercise (the story goes that he had figured that
  100 numbers could be determined by the equation
  n(ab)(1/2)50(ab) where n100, a the first
  digit in the sequence and b the last digit in
  the sequence.)

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Let me show you how he did it.

• Suppose you wanted to sum up
• 5 6 7 8
• Notice that 5 8 13 Also 5 6 13. There
  are 2 pairs of 13. 13 x 2 26.
• Would this be any different for the sum of
  the digits 1 to 10? What is the sum? How many
  pairs? What is the total?

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Is this just deductive or inductive reasoning?

• Or was he thinking outside the box?

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• Years ago everyone wanted to know why Chemical
  Bank was able to reconcile almost all of their
  accounts at the end of the day and avoid massive
  write-offs to their suspension account (saving
  millions). The answer was that at 300 pm daily,
  all of the people involved brought their coffee
  to the conference room for a brainstorming
  session. They found matches where there appeared
  to be none. This was the first instance I had
  seen first-hand of the power of lateral thinking.
  

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• As Einstein reminds us, Problems cannot be
  solved by thinking within the framework in which
  they were created.
• He was, of course, alluding to problems that are
  unusual in nature or plaguing to society.
• There are many instances of scientists or social
  scientists who have had breakthroughs due to
  creative thinking.

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De Bono identifies four critical factors
associated with lateral thinking

• recognize dominant ideas that polarize the
  perception of a problem
• Searching for different ways of looking at things
  
• relaxation of rigid control of thinking and
• use of chance to encourage other ideas.

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Lateral thinking is our edge in the global
marketplace.

• Dr. Charles Prather (Keynote speaker)
• http//www.bottomlineinnovation.com/500inn.htm
• http//www.bottomlineinnovation.com/out_of_the_box
  _video_hm1.wmv
• http//www.bottomlineinnovation.com/kai_creativity
  _hm1.wmv
• Talks of Agents of change vs agents of
  stability.

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The rules for lateral thinking are that there are
no rules.
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Lateral thinking

• Is actually a form of divergent thinking, which
  is also known as creative thinking.
• Supports higher level cognitive skills like
• predicting, hypothesizing, inferring, or
  reconstructing.
• In problem solving the use of lateral thinking is
  often followed by convergent thinking that allows
  us to summarize our findings.

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Lateral thinking supports

• The workshop model
• Accountable talk
• Critical thinking
• Process skills

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Quotations

• A. A. MILNE
• One of the advantages of being disorderly is that
  one is constantly making exciting discoveries.
•  
• ARTHUR KOESTLER
• Creativity is a type of learning process where
  the teacher and pupil are located in the same
  individual.
•  
• BEATRIX POTTER
• Thank goodness I never went to school it would
  have rubbed off some of the originality.
•  
• BUCKMINSTER FULLER
• When I am working on a problem I never think
  about beauty. I only think about how to solve the
  problem. But when I have finished, if the
  solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong.
•  
• EDWARD DE BONO
• It is better to have enough ideas for some of
  them to be wrong, than to be always right by
  having no ideas at all.
•  
• MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
• Human salvation lies in the hands of the
  creatively maladjusted.

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Lateral thinking can start with what is already
recognizable

• Visualizations, and pattern recognition may at
  times lead to intuitive inspiration.
• At some point, though, you need to step back to
  look at alternatives. (Could be a function of PO)
• Lateral thinking involves pattern-breaking,
  thinking outside the box and creative ways of
  looking at the situation.
• Sometimes a new method or new solution becomes
  apparent that is more efficient than the obvious.

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• Divergent----gt Many possible answers

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Here is an exercise in lateral thinking

• Three switches outside a windowless room are
  connected to three light bulbs inside the room.
  How can you determine which switch is connected
  to which bulb if you may enter the room only
  once?
• Ill give you some time to discuss this with your
  group.

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Possible Solution

• Switch one light on for a minute turn it off and
  turn on another one.
• Go into the room and feel the off-bulbs.
• The warm one is connected to the first switch and
  the on-bulb is connected to the second switch.

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Another one

• A man is hanging from a rope in a locked room.
  Below him is a puddle of water. How did he hang
  himself?
• Do you need some clues?

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Clues

• There is no furniture. When he hung himself, the
  puddle was not there...
• Think about it with your group.

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Possible solution

• The puddle is all that is left of a large block
  of ice. The man stood on this in order to hang
  himself...

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Here is a math problem--

• How can you divide 11 horses so that 1 person
  gets ½, another gets ¼ and the last person gets
  1/6?

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Possible solution--

• You can add a horse from your own stock. Then
  give the first person 6 horses, the second 3
  horses and the third 2 horses. That makes 11
  horses that are given out.
• You can now take your horse back.
• Is there anything wrong with this thinking?
• Does it solve the problem, though?

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• How could you divide a square into 4 equal
  pieces? Think of all the possibilities.
• Materials supplied Square paper, pencils,
  rulers and scissors.
• Use the paper supplied to test your solutions.

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Did you consider any of these?
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Definition Lateral Thinking (from Infinite
Innovations Ltd)

• Similar to Creative Thinking (also called
  divergent thinking). Seeking to solve problems
  by unorthodox or apparently illogical methods.
• "A set of systematic techniques used for changing
  concepts and perceptions and generating new ones
• "Exploring multiple possibilities and approaches
  instead of pursuing a single approach." (Edward
  de Bono, originator of the phrase)

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Why isnt critical thinking a form of lateral
thinking?

• Critical thinking is primarily concerned with
  judging the truth value of statements and seeking
  errors. Lateral thinking is more concerned with
  the movement value of statements and ideas. A
  person would use lateral thinking when they want
  to move from one known idea to creating new
  ideas. It can also be put as, critical thinking
  is like a post-mortem while lateral thinking is
  like diagnosis.

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When starting a new unit--

• If you ask many tantalizing and divergent
  questions in your classroom, your students are
  likely to model after your behavior for example,
  "What would have happened if Lincoln was shot in
  the first month of the war? Why did Lincoln only
  free the slaves in the rebel states? How did it
  feel to be a woman in the path of Sherman's army?"

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Increasing wait time increases the probability
that students will think creatively

• Research into wait-time for American classrooms
  paints a distressing picture. Many teachers wait
  less than two seconds for the answer to each
  question and ask hundreds of questions per hour.
  These types of questions are generally recall
  questions demanding little thought.

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Lateral Thinking often begins with brainstorming

• The four rules of brainstorming
• 1. all contributions are accepted without
  judgment
• 2. the goal is a large number of ideas or
  questions
• 3. building on other people's ideas is
  encouraged
• 4. Far-out, unusual ideas are encouraged.

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Try visual brainstorming

• In the 1500s, Leonardo da Vinci employed both
  drawings and words to describe his incredible
  ideas and inventions. By using sketches with
  captions, his concepts became clear, exciting
  graphic presentations. And we think Lenny had it
  right.

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Leonardo da Vinci's concept for a helicopterused
both his inventive sketch and descriptive words.
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In modern business this has led to blamestorming

• Where a group of people gather to discuss what
  went wrong and who is to blame for a project's
  failure. Similar to the brainstorming rules,
  blamestorming requires vast flows of wild and
  exaggerated ideas with an initial emphasis on
  quantity rather than quality.

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• It's also legitimate that blame given by one
  participant can be built on by others. However,
  unlike brainstorming, blamestorming requires
  total criticism and judgment of ideas, and an
  idea's worth is dependent on the management level
  of the person giving it.

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Other methods for divergent thinking

• Breaking components into sections for
  modular analysis
• Keeping a journal
• Freewriting
• Mind and subject mapping

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Divergent thinking questions begin with these
words or phrases

• Imagine...
• Suppose...
• Predict...
• If..., then...
• How might...
• Can you create...
• What are some possible consequences...

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Examples of divergent thinking questions

• Can you imagine ways that soccer typifies
  Mexican culture?Suppose that Caesar never
  returned to Rome from Gaul. Would the Empire have
  existed?What predictions can you make regarding
  the budget deficit if McCain had won?How might
  life in the year 2100 differ from today?The
  computer corrects spelling. Is it then
  unnecessary for third graders to take spelling
  tests?

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Other possible activities

• Students will create a salad to go with the
  reading of one of the Walter Dean Mayers novels.
  What salad would be appropriate and why? (does
  anyone think of macaroni salad or potato salad?)
• What kind of rock would be best for construction
  and why? What makes concrete so durable?

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• If I were an animal that could possibly survive
  on Mars, what animal would I be and why?
• Why walls are a great way to allow students the
  latitude for exploring new concepts.
• We need to take historical events and relate them
  to todays problems (How can we solve our
  immigration problem today?)

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Some of these connections might at first seem
silly but students need to be freed from the
ordinary in order to examine the extraordinary.
It is precisely for this reason that DeBono
devised the use PO
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PO is a method by which you introduce

• Random Entry
• Provocation
• Challenge

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• Random Entry Choose an object at random, or a
  noun from a dictionary, and associate that with
  the area you are thinking about.

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• For example imagine you are thinking about how to
  improve Wikipedia. Choosing an object at random
  from an office you might see a fax machine. A fax
  machine transmits images over the phone to paper.
  Fax machines are becoming rare. People send faxes
  directly to known phone numbers. Perhaps this
  makes you think of providing ways to embed wiki
  articles in emails and other websites, as is done
  with youtube videos. Does it stimulate other
  Wikipedia ideas for you?

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• Provocation Declare the usual perception out of
  bounds, or provide some provocative alternative
  to the usual situation under consideration.
  Prefix the provocation with the term 'Po" to
  signal that the provocation is not a valid idea
  put up for judgment but a stimulus for new
  perception.

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• Consider the statement PO -Cars should have
  square wheels." When considered with critical
  thinking, this would be evaluated as a poor
  suggestion and dismissed as impractical.

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• The lateral thinking treatment of the same
  statement would be to speculate where it leads.
• Humor is taken intentionally with lateral
  thinking. A person would imagine "as if" this
  were the case, and describe the effects or
  qualities.

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• Someone might observe square wheels would
  produce very predictable bumps. If bumps can be
  predicted, then suspension can be designed to
  compensate.
• This leads to the idea of active suspension. A
  sensor connected to suspension could examine the
  road surface ahead on cars with round wheels too.
  A car could have a sensor for determining when it
  was going to hit a bump that feeds back to
  suspension that would know to compensate.

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• The initial "provocative" statement has been left
  behind, but it has also been used to indirectly
  generate the new and potentially more useful
  idea.

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Here is another example

• PO Suppose we could control the way traffic
  lights change?
• Actually, this is being tested now in New York
  with special bus routes that have sensors to keep
  the lights green till the bus passes.
• In Charlotte, NC, the lights count down from 60
  seconds to let you know how long you have before
  the traffic flows.

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• Challenge Simply challenge the way things have
  always been done or seen, or the way they are.
• This is done not to show there is anything wrong
  with the existing situation but simply to direct
  your perceptions to exploring outside the current
  area.

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• For example you could challenge coffee cups being
  produced with a handle. There is nothing wrong
  with coffee cups having handles so the challenge
  is a direction to explore without defending the
  status quo. The reason for the handle seems to be
  that the cup is often too hot to hold directly.
  Perhaps coffee cups could be made with insulated
  finger grips, or there could be separate coffee
  cup holders similar to beer holders.

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Can milk containers be square?

• Theyve just begun producing gallon milk
  containers that are square.
• People dont like it or arent used to it but..
• It saves a great deal of time and expense in
  shipping.
• It is a more efficient way to package.
• Someone was definitely thinking outside the box.

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PO is used to alert people that you are about to
make a somewhat outrageous remark.PO can be used
for

• Provocation or Challenge
• Random Input
• Escape

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Po Provocation

• Four basic ways to create a provocation
• EXAGGERATION
• REVERSAL
• DISTORTION
• WISHFUL THINKING

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PO Provocation -examples

• PO - The bathtub is only half full
• PO - The traffic lights never change color
• PO - The angles of a triangle dont total 180
  degrees

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PO Random Input

• Our thinking target is Ambulances. We want new
  ideas on Ambulances.
• I open the dictionary at random and stop at the
  first "noun thing word" that I find.
• Firth Arm of sea estuary. OK that's it!
• Po statement Ambulances po firth
• If a firth is an arm of the sea that suggest
  something jutting out. Could there be a couple of
  bicycles strapped to the sides of ambulances to
  get into difficult spots?

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Po Escape

• With ESCAPE we are developing the habit of
  asking "Is it necessary to do things this way?
• Example Credit cards po benefit.
• This is a chosen statement rather than random
  one.
• "Credit cards po benefit" means "instead of
  seeing or designing a credit card around the
  concept of 'benefit' how else might we do things?
  

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Explorative readings

• Teachers will read the Rosen Article and the
  Analysis Questions at the end. Which of these
  questions inspire critical thinking and which do
  you think might lead to creative or lateral
  thinking? Can you create another question that
  inspires creativity?
• Teachers should practice using PO when discussing
  this.

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Problem solving is not just for math

• In design, a problem is any situation where you
  have an opportunity to make a difference, to make
  things better. 
• Whenever you are thinking creatively and
  critically about ways to increase the quality of
  life (or to avoid a decrease in quality), you are
  actively involved in problem solving. 

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How else can we use problem solving and lateral
thinking?

• Teaming
• Interdisciplinary projects
• Academy themes

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Why do we need lateral thinking in America?

• Edison said, Invention is 99 perspiration and
  1 inspiration.
• What would happen to our society if we could
  increase inspiration to 25 of the mix?
• Could we find a cure for cancer?
• Could we create the first engine that will bring
  us to space exploration beyond our solar system?
  

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How can we give more than 100?

• If A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W
  X Y Z Is represented as 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
  11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.
• H-A-R-D-W-O- R- K 8118423 151811 98

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• K-N-O-W-L-E- D-G-E 11141523 12547 5
  96
• A-T-T-I-T-U- D-E 12020920 2145 100

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But Thinking---

• T-H-I-N-K-I-N-G
• 20 8 9 14 11 9 14 7 92 and
  doing this laterally, critically, sequentially or
  even globally, puts you over 100