Lateral thinking for Business Management

Lateral Thinking
Thinking that is Outside
the Box!

Lateral Thinking
 Lateral thinking is a term coined by
Edward de Bono, a Maltese
psychologist, physician, and writer
 de Bono defines Lateral Thinking as
methods of thinking concerned with
changing concepts and perception.

Lateral Thinking Example
It took two hours for two men to
dig a hole five feet deep. How
deep would it have been if ten
men had dug the hole for two
hours?
The answer appears to be 25 feet deep

But did you consider…?
 A hole may need to be of a certain size or
shape so digging might stop early at a
required depth.
 The deeper a hole is, the more effort is
required to dig it, since waste soil needs to
be lifted higher to the ground level. There
is a limit to how deep a hole can be dug by
manpower without use of ladders or hoists
for soil removal, and 25 feet is beyond this
limit.

 Deeper soil layers may be harder to dig
out, or we may hit bedrock or the water
table.
 Are we digging in soil? Clay? Sand? Each
presents its own special considerations.
 Digging in a forest becomes much easier
once we have cut through the first several
feet of roots.
 Each man digging needs space to use a
shovel.

 It is possible that with more people
working on a project, each person may
become less efficient due to increased
opportunity for distraction, the
assumption he can slack off, more people
to talk to, etc.
 More men could work in shifts to dig faster
for longer.
 There are more men but are there more
shovels?

 The two hours dug by ten men may be
under different weather conditions than
the two hours dug by two men.
 Rain could flood the hole to prevent
digging.
 Temperature conditions may freeze the
men before they finish.
 Would we rather have 5 holes each 5 feet
deep?

 The two men may be an engineering crew
with digging machinery.
 What if one man in each group is a
manager who will not actually dig?
 The extra eight men might not be strong
enough to dig, or much stronger than the
first two.

What is Lateral Thinking?
 Lateral thinking is about reasoning that is
not immediately obvious
 Ideas may not be obtainable by using only
traditional step-by-step logic.
 Techniques that apply lateral thinking to
problems are characterized by the shifting
of thinking patterns away from entrenched
or predictable thinking to new or
unexpected ideas.

What is Lateral Thinking?
 A new idea that is the result of lateral
thinking is not always a helpful one
 When a good idea is discovered in
this way it is usually obvious in
hindsight

The Six Thinking
Hats
A Lateral Thinking Strategy by
Edward De Bono

The Six Thinking Hats
 Six Thinking Hats' is an important
and powerful technique.
 It is used to look at decisions from a
number of important perspectives.

 This forces you to move outside your
habitual thinking style, and helps you to
get a more rounded view of a situation.
 It has the benefit of blocking the
confrontations that happen when
people with different thinking styles
discuss the same problem.
 Each 'Thinking Hat' is a different style of
thinking.

 Many successful people think from a very
rational, positive viewpoint. This is part of the
reason that they are successful.
 Often, though, they may fail to look at a
problem from an emotional, intuitive, creative
or negative viewpoint.
 This can mean that they underestimate
resistance to plans, fail to make creative leaps
and do not make essential contingency plans.

 Similarly, pessimists may be excessively
defensive, and more emotional people may
fail to look at decisions calmly and rationally.
 If you look at a problem with the 'Six Thinking
Hats' technique, then you will solve it using
all approaches.
 Your decisions and plans will mix ambition,
skill in execution, public sensitivity, creativity
and good contingency planning.

White Hat
 With this thinking hat you focus on the data available.
Look at the information you have, and see what you
can learn from it.
 Look for gaps in your knowledge, and either try to fill
them or take account of them.
 This is where you analyze past trends, and try to
extrapolate from historical data.

Red Hat
 'Wearing' the red hat, you look at problems using
intuition, gut reaction, and emotion.
 Also try to think how other people will react
emotionally.
 Try to understand the responses of people who do not
fully know your reasoning.

Black Hat
 Using black hat thinking, look at all the bad points of
the decision.
 Look at it cautiously and defensively.
 Try to see why it might not work. This is important
because it highlights the weak points in a plan.

 It allows you to eliminate them, alter them, or
prepare contingency plans to counter them.

Black Hat
 Black Hat thinking helps to make your plans 'tougher'
and more resilient.
 It can also help you to spot fatal flaws and risks
before you embark on a course of action.
 Black Hat thinking is one of the real benefits of this
technique.

Black Hat
 Many successful people get so used to thinking
positively that often they cannot see problems in
advance.
 This leaves them under-prepared for difficulties.

Yellow Hat
 The yellow hat helps you to think positively.
 It is the optimistic viewpoint that helps you to see all
the benefits of the decision and the value in it.
 Yellow Hat thinking helps you to keep going when
everything looks gloomy and difficult.

Green Hat
 The Green Hat stands for creativity.
 This is where you can develop creative solutions to a
problem.
 It is a freewheeling way of thinking, in which there is
little criticism of ideas.

Blue Hat
 The Blue Hat stands for process control.
 This is the hat worn by people chairing meetings.
 When running into difficulties because ideas are
running dry, they may direct activity into Green Hat
thinking.
 When contingency plans are needed, they will ask for
Black Hat thinking, etc.

Lateral thinking for Business Management

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