Lateral Thinking: Creativity Step by Step

Edward de Bono
Synopsis by Hernan Cortes

The way the mind works

Communication is the transfer for information. Communication by code can only work if
there are preset patterns worked out beforehand. Language itself is a code system.
The mind is a pattern making system creating and recognizing patterns.
The mind provides an opportunity for information to organize into patterns.
A fundamental feature of a passive self-organizing memory system is limited attention
span. As such it becomes self-maximizing, which means that the process of selection,
rejection, combination, and separation all become possible.
The trouble with a self-maximizing system that must make sense at each moment is that
the sequence of arrival of information determines the way it is to be arranged and the
arrangement of information is thus always less than the best possible arrangement.
A switch over to a new arrangement is humor (if temporary) or insight (if permanent).
The advantage is quickness of recognition and hence quickness of reaction. The
disadvantage is that:
• The patterns tend to become established ever more rigidly since they control
attention.
• It is extremely difficult to change patterns once they have become established.
• Information that is arranged as part of one pattern cannot easily be used as part of
a completely different pattern.
• There is a tendency towards centering which means that anything which has any
resemblance to a standard pattern will be perceived as the standard pattern.
• Patterns can be created by divisions which are more or less arbitrary. What is
continuous nay be divided into distinct units which then grow further apart. Once
such units are formed they become self-perpetuating. The division may continue
long after it has ceased to be useful or the division may intrude into areas where it
has no usefulness.
• There is great continuity in the system. A slight divergence at one point can make
a huge difference later.
• The sequence of arrival of information plays too important a part in its
arrangement. Any arrangement of information is thus unlikely to be the best
possible arrangement of the information that is available.
• There is a tendency to snap from one pattern to another instead of having a
smooth change over.

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 • Even though the choice between two competing patterns may be very fine one of
them will be chosen and the other one completely ignored.
• There is a marked tendency to polarize. This means moving to either extreme
instead of maintaining some balanced point between them.
• Established patterns get larger and larger. That is to say individual patterns are
strung together to give a longer and longer sequence which is so dominant that it
constitutes a pattern on its own. There is nothing in the system which tends to
break up such long sequences.
• The mind is a cliché making and cliché using system.
The purpose of lateral thinking is to overcome these limitations by providing a means
for restructuring and putting information together in new ways to give new ideas.

Difference between lateral and vertical thinking

Vertical thinking is selective, lateral thinking is generative.
Vertical thinking moves only if there is a direction in which to move, lateral thinking
moves in order to generate a direction.
Vertical thinking is analytical, lateral thinking is provocative.
Vertical thinking is sequential, lateral thinking can make jumps.
With vertical thinking one has to be correct at every step, with lateral thinking one does
not have to be.
With vertical thinking one uses the negative in order to block off certain pathways. With
lateral thinking there is no negative.
With vertical thinking one concentrates and excludes what is irrelevant, with lateral
thinking one welcomes chance intrusions.
With vertical thinking categories, classifications and labels are fixed, with lateral thinking
they are not.
Vertical thinking follows the most likely paths, lateral thinking explores the least likely.
Vertical thinking is a finite process, lateral thinking is a probabilistic one.

Basic nature of lateral thinking

Lateral thinking is concerned with changing patterns.
In a self-maximizing system with a memory the arrangement of information must always
be less than the best possible arrangement.
Lateral thinking is an attitude and a method of using information.
Lateral thinking is never a judgment.
Lateral thinking is directly related to the information handling behavior of the mind.

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The use of lateral thinking
New ideas
Problem solving
Processing perceptual choice
Periodic reassessment
Prevention of sharp divisions and polarizations

The generation of alternatives

The most basic principle of lateral thinking is that any particular way of looking at things
is only one from among many other possible ways.
In order to change the search for alternatives from being a good intention to a practical
routine one can set a quota.
The three ways of encouraging lateral thinking are:
• Awareness of the principles of lateral thinking, the need for lateral thinking, and
the rigidity of vertical thinking patterns.
• The use of some definite technique which develops the original pattern and may
bring about restructuring.
• The deliberate alteration of circumstances so that they can stimulate restructuring.

Changing assumptions
It is historical continuity that maintains most assumptions—not a repeated assessment of
their validity.
In challenging assumptions one challenges the necessity of boundaries and limits and one
challenges the validity of individual concepts. Lateral thinking restructures patterns and
assumptions are patterns which usually escape the restructuring process.
The ‘why technique’ repeatedly directs questions at some particular aspect of a previous
explanation. The purpose is to create discomfort with any explanation.

Suspended judgment
The purpose of thinking is not to be right but to be effective, being right only at the end.
The suspension of judgment can have the following effects:
• An idea will survive longer and will breed further ideas.
• Other people will offer ideas which their own judgment would have rejected.
Such ideas may be extremely useful to those receiving them.
• The ideas of others can be accepted for their stimulating effect instead of being
rejected.
• Ideas which are judged to be wrong within the current frame of reference may
survive long enough to show that the frame of reference needs altering.

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In practice:
• One does not rush to judge or evaluate an idea. One prefers exploration.
• Attention is shifted from the fact that an idea is obviously wrong to how it can be
useful.
• One delays the moment that an idea must be eventually thrown out in order to
extract as much usefulness as possible.
• One follows along behind an idea instead of forcing an idea in the direction that
judgment dictates.

Dominant ideas and crucial factors

A dominant idea is the organizing theme in a way of looking at a situation. The dominant
idea organizes the situation. The dominant idea resides not in the situation itself but in the
way it is looked at. One of the main purposes of picking out a dominant idea is to be able
to escape from it.
It is not a matter of finding the correct dominant idea but of getting into the habit of
trying to pick out the dominant idea to avoid it.
The dominant idea may include the whole subject or only one aspect of it.
A crucial factor is some element of the situation which must always be included no mater
how one looks at a situation. The crucial factor tethers the situation. A crucial factor may
be an assumption.

Fractionation
Fractionation is breaking down a situation in a unnatural parts to provide material which
can be used to restructure the original situation.
Whenever there is difficulty in dividing something into fractions it can be useful to adopt
the artificial technique of division into two units or fractions. The two fractions produced
are themselves further divided into two more fractions until one has a satisfactory number
of fractions.
The purpose of fractionation is to escape from the inhibiting unity of a fixed pattern to the
more generative situation of several fractions.

The reverse method

Whenever a direction is indicated then the opposite direction is equally well defined.
Whenever there is a one way relationship between two parties the situation can be
reversed.
One uses the reversal procedure in order to escape from the absolute necessity to look at
the situation in the standard way.
By disrupting the original way of looking at the situation one frees information that can
come together in a new way.

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The reversal technique helps to overcome the terror of being wrong, of taking a step that
is not justified.
The main purpose is provocative. By making the reversal one moves to a new position.
Then one sees what happens.
Occasionally the reversal approach is useful in itself.

Brainstorming
Cross stimulation
Suspended judgment
Formulation of the problem

Analogies
Analogies are used to provide movement. The problem is related to the analogy and then
the analogy is developed along its own lines. At each stage the development is transferred
back to the original problem. Thus the problem is carried along with the analogy.

Choice of entry point and attention area

“Attention area” refers to the part of a situation or problem that is attended to. “Entry
point” refers to the part of a problem or situation that is first attended to. It is useful to
develop some skill in picking out and following different entry points. Attention usually
settles over the most obvious areas. A slight shift in attention may by itself restructure a
situation. One deliberately tries to rotate attention over all parts of the problem especially
those which do not seem to merit it.

Random stimulation
With random stimulation one deliberately mixes in an unconnected piece of information
in order to disturb the original pattern., From this disturbance may come a restructuring
of the pattern or late least a new line of development.
The two main ways of bringing about random stimulation are:
• Exposure
o Accepting and welcoming random inputs
o Exposure to the ideas of others.
o Exposure to ideas from completely different fields.
o Physical exposure to random stimulation.
• Formal generation
o Use of a dictionary to provide a random word.
o Formal selection of a book or journal in a library.
o The use of some routine to select an object from the surroundings.

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Concepts/divisions/polarization
Separation into units, selection of units, and combination of units in different ways
provides a very powerful information processing system. Units can be created by
reassembling units to form a new one that its then treated as a complete unit.
It is easier to establish two completely different patterns than to change an established
pattern. If a new pattern is only slightly different then it will shift toward the established
pattern.
In order to escape labels:
• Challenge the labels.
• Try and do without them.
• Establish new labels.

Blocked by openness
There are three ways in which thinking can be blocked:
• One is blocked by a gap (e.g. lack of information).
• One is blocked by obstruction
• One is blocked from exploring alternatives because there is nothing in the way of
the established path.
Lateral thinking is about avoiding the third type of block.

Description/problem solving/design
There are three practical situations which encourage the use of lateral thinking:
• Description: there can be as many descriptions as there are points of view. Some
descriptions may be more useful than others. Bu there is no one description which
is correct leaving all the others to be wrong.
• Problem solving:
o To resolve some difficulty.
o To bring about something new.
o To do away with something unsatisfactory.
• Design: to bring about a desired state of affairs.

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