Lateral thinking is a term coined by Edward de Bon in the book New Think: The Use of Lateral Thinking published in 1967; it refers to solving problems through an indirect and creative approach.One of the articles on Thinking Manager , De Bono says "Once you learn the processes and tools of lateral thinking, you can use them formally and deliberately to generate new ideas. One workshop in South Africa generated 21,000 new ideas in an afternoon using just one of the tools of lateral thinking".
A person would use lateral thinking when they want to move from one known idea to creating new ideas. Following are the tools to generate Ideas through Lateral thinking. You might find it bit complex to understand however readers are advice to read the tools explanation and find out examples solved based on that tool on google, it will clear your ideas about how to use tool. Few examples are incorporated with explanation.
Random Entry Idea Generating Tool: Choose an object at random, or a noun from a dictionary, and associate that with the area you are thinking about. For example imagine you are thinking about how to improve a web site. Choosing an object at random from an office you might see a fax machine. A fax machine transmits images over the phone to paper. Perhaps this could be a new way to embed the web site's content in emails and other sites (A new medium to transmit the web content).
Provocation Idea Generating Tool: choose to use any of the provocation techniques—wishful thinking, exaggeration, reversal, escape, or arising. Create a list of provocations and then use the most outlandish ones to move your thinking forward to new ideas.
Challenge Idea Generating Tool: A tool which is designed to ask the question "Why?" in a non-threatening way: why something exists, why it is done the way it is. The result is a very clear understanding of "Why?" which naturally leads to fresh new ideas. The goal is to be able to challenge anything at all, not just items which are problems. For example you could challenge the handles on coffee cups. 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.
Concept Fan Idea Generating Tool: Ideas carry out concepts. This tool systematically expands the range and number of concepts in order to end up with a very broad range of ideas to consider.
Disproving: Based on the idea that the majority is always wrong (Henrik Ibsen, Galbraith[who?]), take anything that is obvious and generally accepted as "goes without saying", question it, take an opposite view, and try to convincingly disprove it.
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