Lateral Thinking ... Create Chaos to Succeed

This newsletter is devoted to lateral thinking that is commonly referred to as out-of-the-box (OTB) thinking. Coined by Edward de Bono, founder of the Cognitive Institute Trust in Cambridge in 1969, his instruction is sought by leading companies such as IBM, Shell, Unilever and Du Pont.

The case study presented in our Web site, an example of our strategic business planning process, and our newsletter puzzle are pivoted upon his tool, lateral thinking.

Lateral thinking is different from the traditional logical process that Edward de Bono calls vertical thinking. Lateral thinking is most useful in generating new ideas and concepts. This is why it is valuable in generating strategic business plans. It is not Kaizen, the on-going process of incremental improvement, but tied very closely to its ability to assist developing global performance and acceptance.

Lateral thinking must be learned, not taught. It is a process to explore different ways of looking at an issue as opposed to accepting the most promising and proceeding. To be global, one must expansive, view a larger picture.

Lateral thing is chaos as opposed to procedure - vertical thinking - structure. Compare the two as building blocks. Stacked blocks are vertical. Scattered blocks are lateral period. This comparison shows that global planning, like building blocks, is best served with blocks scattered about (chaos) where a pattern may emerge as a more useful vertical structure.

The Bug Puzzle

Four bugs are seated on each corner of a ten inch square. They begin to walk directly toward each other forming a logarithmic path to meet in the center. How far does each bug walk in inches?

Bonus: same puzzle, but with three bugs on an equilateral triangle. How far do they travel and where do they meet?

A Case in Lateral Thinking

Our Web site case study is an example of lateral thinking. The client's large department devoted to instrument clusters was staffed entirely by engineers. They used logic, vertical thinking, to approach each year's improvements. They never solved their main concern, layout depth, with this approach.

We approach the issue with lateral thinking. We brought in experts from other fields and skills. We brainstormed and the building block pattern that emerged was to integrate the electronics directly without circuit cards. This reduced the product depth from four inches to less than one inch while increasing function (microprocessor-based), reducing cost 58%, increasing reliability and durability while providing longer product cycle life (software upgrades vs. hardware).

The successful program team formed from the clients and a selected A-group base had a polymer and operations expert in addition to engineers.

View Case Study