Lateral Thinking

by Edward de Bono

The Way the Mind Works
The mind is a pattern-making system -- the information system of the mind creates and recognises patterns. How effective the mind is in its one-way communication with the environment depends directly on this ability to create patterns, store them and recognise them. It is possible that a few patterns are built into the mind and these become manifest as instinctual behavior. The mind does not actively sort out information. Instead, the information sorts itself out and organises itself into patterns. In other words, the mind is passive. The mind only provides an opportunity for the informaton to behave in this way. This special environment is a memory surface with special characteristics.

The mind has a limited attention span. Hence, only part of the memory surface can be activated at any one time. It means that the activated area will be a single coherent area and this area will be found in the most easily activated part of the memory surface, which is the most familiar one -- the one which has been encountered most often, the one which has left most trace on the memory surface. And because a familiar pattern tends to be used, it becomes even more familiar. In this way, the mind builds up the stock of preset patterns which are the basis of code communication.

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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 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.
  

The difference between lateral and vertical thinking are very fundamental. It is not a matter of one process being more effective than the other, for both are necessary -- it is a matter of realising the differences in order to be able to use both effectively.

- With vertical thinking, one uses information for its own sake to move forward to a solution.
- With lateral thinking, one uses information not for its own sake, but provocatively in order to bring about repatterning.

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Further thinking~
The Generation of Alternatives
Challenging Assumptions
Innovation
Suspended Judgement
Design
Dominant Ideas and Crucial Factors
Fractionation
The Reversal Method
Brainstorming
Analogies
Choice of Entry Point and Attention Area
Random Stimulation
Concepts / Divisions / Polarisation
The New Word - Po
Blocked by Openness
Description / Problem Solving / Design