Using Lateral Thinking for Searching Widely in Projects (C) Tudor Rickards

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

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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 dont see what you
  should do next
• When you are writing a project report and you
  want to be more imaginative

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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

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Three Powerful Lateral Thinking Invitations

• Wouldnt it be wonderful
• Reversing conventional thinking
• Adding an unexpected jolt in an ideas
  discussion

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The Wouldnt it be Wonderful Invitation
Old reality
New reality
Wouldnt it be wonderful if .. Eg Roads could
renew their surfaces like skin
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The Reversals Invitation
Lets 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)
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The Jolt that Triggers Insights (1)
Blocked Goal
New Goal
Jolt
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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)?