ABC Amber ePub Converter Trial version, http://www.processtext.com/abcepub.html PENGUIN BOOKS LATERAL THINKING Edward de Bono has had faculty appointments at the universities of Oxford, London, Cambridge and Harvard. He is widely regarded as the leading authority in the direct teaching of thinking as a skill. He originated the concept of lateral thinking and developed formal techniques for deliberate creative thinking. He has written sixty-two books, which have been translated into thirty-seven languages, has made two television series and there are over 4,000,000 references to his work on the Internet. Dr de Bono has been invited to lecture in fifty-two countries and to address major international conferences. In 1989 he was asked to chair a special meeting of Nobel Prize laureates. His instruction in thinking has been sought by some of the leading business corporations in the world such as IBM, DuPont, Shell, Ericsson, McKinsey, Ciba-Geigy, Ford and many others. He has had a planet named after him by the International Astronomic Union and was named by a group of university professors in South Africa as one of the 250 people in all of history who have contributed most to humanity. Dr de Bono runs the most widely used programme for the direct teaching of thinking in schools. This is now in use in many countries around the world. Dr de Bono’s key contribution has been his understanding of the brain as a self-organizing system. From this solid base he set out to design practical tools for thinking. His work is in use equally in the boardrooms of some of the world’s largest corporations and with four-year-olds in school. His design of the Six Hats method provides, for the first time, Western thinking with a constructive idiom instead of adversarial argument. His work is in use in élite gifted schools, rural schools in South Africa and Khmer villages in Cambodia. The appeal of Dr de Bono’s work is its simplicity and practicality. For more information about Dr de Bono’s public seminars, private seminars, certified training programmes, thinking programmes for schools, CD Rom, books and tapes, please contact: Diane McQuaig, The McQuaig Group, 132 Rochester Avenue, Toronto M4N 1P1, Ontario, Canada. Tel: (416) 488 0008. Fax: (416) 488 4544. Internet: http://www. edwdebono.com Page 1 ABC Amber ePub Converter Trial version, http://www.processtext.com/abcepub.html E d w a r d d e B o n o Lateral Thinking A Textbook of Creativity Penguin Books Page 2 ABC Amber ePub Converter Trial version, http://www.processtext.com/abcepub.html PENGUIN BOOKS Published by the Penguin Group Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Putnam Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA Penguin Books Australia Ltd, 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 10 Alcorn Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4V 3B2 Penguin Books India (P) Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi – 110 017, India Penguin Books (NZ) Ltd, Cnr Rosedale and Airborne Roads, Albany, Auckland, New Zealand Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank 2196, South Africa Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England www.penguin.com First published by Ward Lock Education 1970 Published in Pelican Books 1977 Reprinted in Penguin Books 1990 35 Copyright © Edward de Bono, 1970 All rights reserved Except in the United States of America, this book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser ISBN: 978-0-14-193831-8 Page 3 ABC Amber ePub Converter Trial version, http://www.processtext.com/abcepub.html Contents Preface Introduction Use of this book The way the mind works Difference between lateral and vertical thinking Attitudes towards lateral thinking Basic nature of lateral thinking The use of lateral thinking Techniques 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/polarization The new word po Blocked by openness Description/problem solving/design Summary Page 4 ABC Amber ePub Converter Trial version, http://www.processtext.com/abcepub.html Preface This book is intended for use both at home and at school At school the emphasis has traditionally always been on vertical thinking which is effective but incomplete. This selective type of thinking needs to be supplemented with the generative qualities of creative thinking. This is beginning to happen in some schools but even so creativity is usually treated as something desirable which is to be brought about by vague exhortation. There is no deliberate and practical procedure for bringing it about This book is about lateral thinking which is the process of using information to bring about creativity and insight restructuring. Lateral thinking can be learned, practised and used. It is possible to acquire skill in it just as it is possible to acquire skill in mathematics. The book should be of use to teachers who are looking for a practical way to handle this type of thinking which is becoming ever more important The book provides formal opportunities to practise lateral thinking and also an explanation of the processes involved. The teacher may either use the book for his or her own interest or, better still, as a basis for classroom work. Since the universal introduction of practical creativity into school education may take some time to come about, parents might not wish to wait for this. They might prefer to supplement the school situation with home instruction in lateral thinking. It is emphasized that there is no antagonism between the two sorts of thinking. Both are necessary. Vertical thinking is immensely useful but one needs to enhance its usefulness by adding creativity and tempering its rigidity. Eventually this will be done at school but until that time it may be necessary to do it at home. The book is not intended to be read through at one sitting but worked through slowly — over months or even years. For that reason many of the principles are repeated at intervals throughout the book in order to hold the subject together and prevent it fragmenting into mere techniques. In using the book it is important to remember that practice is far more important than understanding of the process. Page 5 ABC Amber ePub Converter Trial version, http://www.processtext.com/abcepub.html Introduction Lateral thinking is closely related to insight, creativity and humour. All four processes have the same basis. But whereas insight, creativity and humour can only be prayed for, lateral thinking is a more deliberate process. It is as definite a way of using the mind as logical thinking — but a very different way. Culture is concerned with establishing ideas. Education is concerned with communicating those established ideas. Both are concerned with improving ideas by bringing them up to date. The only available method for changing ideas is conflict which works in two ways. In the first way there is a head on confrontation between opposing ideas. One or other of the ideas achieves a practical dominance over the other idea which is suppressed but not changed. In the second way there is a conflict between new information and the old idea. As a result of this conflict the old idea is supposed to be changed. This is the method of science which is always seeking to generate new information to upset the old ideas and bring about new ones. It is more than the method of science — it is the method of human knowledge. Education is based on the safe assumption that one only has to go on collecting more and more information for it to sort itself into useful ideas. We have developed tools for handling the information: mathematics for extending it, logical thinking for refining it The conflict method for changing ideas works well where the information can be evaluated in some objective manner. But the method does not work at all when the new information can only be evaluated through the old idea. Instead of being changed the old idea is strengthened and made ever more rigid. The most effective way of changing ideas is not from outside by conflict but from within by the insight rearrangement of available information. Insight is the only effective way of changing ideas in a myth situation — when information cannot be evaluated objectively. Even when information can be evaluated objectively, as in science, an insight rearrangement of information leads to huge leaps forward. Education is not only concerned with collecting information but also with the best ways of using information that has been collected. When ideas lead information rather than lag behind progress is rapid. Yet we have developed no practical tools for handling insight. We can only go on collecting information and hope that at some stage it will come about. lateral thinking is an insight tool. Page 6 ABC Amber ePub Converter Trial version, http://www.processtext.com/abcepub.html Insight, creativity and humour are so elusive because the mind is so efficient The mind functions to create patterns out of its surroundings. Once the patterns are formed it becomes possible to recognize them, to react to them, to use them.