LATERAL THINKING TECHNIQUES

LT - basics
 The most basic principle of
LT is that any particular way
of looking at things is only
one from many other
possible ways.
 Are we
all
receiving
the
same
message
????
 Is it an
old man
or a
kissing
couple?
 LT Technique 1
 GENERATION OF ALTERNATIVES.
In the natural search for alternatives
one is looking for the best possible
approach.
In the Lateral search for alternatives
one is trying to produce as many
alternatives as possible. – DELIBERATE.
 Generation of Alternatives

 QUOTA

 A fixed number of alternative ways of looking

at a solution.
 Advantage: Even if the solution is successful
in early stages – one acknowledges it and
continues generating more ( Not captured by
it)
 Advantage : To make one put effort to
generate alternatives.
 Exercise
 Alternate Descriptions
Alternatives

 Two Overlapping Squares

 Three squares

 Two L shapes embracing a square shape

 A rectangle divided into half with two

pieces pushed out of line.
 Exercise
 Alternate Descriptions
Alternatives
 ALTERNATE STATEMENT
 Getting to COLLEGE on time
can be challenging.

 There is nothing more

exciting – than thinking of a
new idea.
LT Technique 2
 CHALLENGING THE ASSUMPTIONS
MADE
Sometimes a problem cannot be solved
by trying different arrangement of the
given pieces but only by reexamination
of the pieces themselves.
Challenging the Assumptions
 This might sound like cheating – it reveals the
use of certain assumed boundary.
Challenging the assumptions
 In problem solving one always assumes
certain boundaries – for ease.

 These boundaries do not and need not

exist. Because the boundaries are self
imposed.
 Challenging the assumptions
 Example : Vegetable vendor saying brinjals for
Rs.5

 Planting four trees equidistant from each

other.
Four Equidistant trees
 LT Technique 3
Why Technique- a deliberate technique
Usually when why is asked – the answer
should be able to express something
unfamiliar in terms of familiar terms
Lateral use of Why: why is asked when one
knows the answer but the familiar
terms are questioned
Why?

 The intention is to create

discomfort in any explanation
 Example
 Obvious question such as “ Why are blackboards Black?”

 Because otherwise they would not be called black

boards.
 Because otherwise you would not see what is written.

 There is a very natural tendency to say because.

Such st. put a full stop to the thought process.
 The whole point of Lateral Why is to avoid
feeling that anything is so obvious that it merits
a because. Nothing is Sacred…
 ASK WHY?
 WHY DO WE COME TO COLLEGE?
 WHY ARE NOTEBOOKS SQUARE OR
RECTANGULAR?
 LT Technique 4
 SUSPENDED JUDGEMENT
 The purpose of thinking is not to be
RIGHT but to be EFFECTIVE.
 Being effective eventually involves being
right.
 Our mind is a self maximizing one _
selection, rejection, combination etc., -
Cliché making – This need is met by
DELAY IN JUDGEMENT.
Uses of Suspended judgement
 An idea will survive longer and will
breed further ideas.

 Ideas which are judged to be wrong

within the current frame of reference
may survive long enough to show that
the frame of reference need altering.
Uses of Suspended judgement
 Some ideas are obviously wrong even
when no attempt at judgement is made
– In such cases one shifts attention
from why it is wrong to how it can be
useful.
 Even though u know the idea has to be
thrown out you spend some more time
in it to extract as much usefulness from
the idea as possible.
LT Technique 5
 Dominant ideas and crucial factors.
 It is easy to develop alternatives in a
square. Real world problems are much
more complex.
 Unless one can convert a vague

awareness to a definite pattern – it is

extremely difficult to generate
alternative patterns – alternative ways
of looking at situations.
Problems cannot be solved by
thinking within the framework
within which the problems were
created - Albert Einstein.
Dominant ideas and crucial
factors.
 Each situation will have a dominant idea
– organizing theme.
 The dominant idea resides not in the
situation, but in the way it is looked at.
 The main purpose of picking out the
dominant idea is to be able to escape
from it.
 Dominant idea

A B A

 Even if we produce alternatives it might be

within the framework – only when we are
aware of the framework can we escape out
of it.
 Dominant idea
 It is not a matter of analysing the situation but
of seeing it clearly enough to be able to
generate different points of view.
 Example – Apple picking machine

 D. idea For children – Reaching

 D. idea for adults – effectiveness in
commercial terms.

 There may be a lot of dominant ideas in a situation.

Including the whole subject or part of it.
Crucial Factors.
 A crucial factor is some element of the
situation which must always be included
– no matter how one looks at the
situation.
 The purpose of isolating crucial factors
is to examine them.
 Ex: Space requirements – we examine
them to find out how best they could be
manipulated.
Dominant ideas and crucial
factors.
 D. Idea one wants to know “ Why are
we always looking at this thing in the
same way?
 In Crucial Factors one wants to know
‘What is holding us up, What is keeping
us to this old approach?’
 These are steps in seeing the pattern of
thought process.
 L. Technique 6
 FRACTIONATION
 If one takes any situation and breaks it
down into fractions one can then
restructure the situation by putting the
fractions together in a new way.

 It is not that u split the situation into its

component parts – but TRY TO CREATE
PARTS .
 FRACTIONATION
 Ex. Apple Picking machine
1. Reaching 1. Contribution of tree to
2. Finding apple picking
3. Picking 2. Contribution of apples
4. Transport to to apple picking
the ground 3. Contribution of machine
5. Undamaged to apple picking
apples

Solution : Shaking tree (1,2,3) Solution : Growing the trees in

a special way that would make
Canvas platform – (4,5) easy plucking.
Fractionation
 If the fractions created does not cover
the whole – that does not matter
 Also if the fractions created overlap –
no probs
 Eg. Transport by bus
Fractionation
 Choice of Bus
 Frequency
 Convenience
 Number of people using the service
 Number of people using the service at
different times
 Size of bus
 Alternative transport.
 Fractionation method

 Two unit division

If the WHOLE is difficult to

separate – the whole
could be seperated as 2,
and then the 2 could be
further divided into 2 and
so on.
 Two Unit division
 Example : Apple Picking Machine
damaging
delicate
damaged
Apple
finding
separate
Apple density
Picking hold
Problem remove
jerk
Picking
To ground
transport
container
 Fractionation Practice.
 Group of 3
 Cleaning the campus.
 Organising a cultural program
 Canteen meals
 Team analysis of information
 Suggest a subject for essay competition
 Selling vegetables
 Work separately then combine and pick out
fractions and come out with a solution.
 L. Technique 7
 The Reversal Method.
 Wherever a direction is indicated the
opposite direction is equally well defined.
Ex. If u fill something, u empty something.
 one takes things as they are and then turns
them round, inside out, upside down, back
to front. Then one sees what happens.
 A provocative rearrangement of information.
Different types of Reversal
 Several different ways possible – No
one correct way.
 Ex. The teacher teaches the students.
 The students teach the teacher.
 The teacher confuses the students.
 Either reversal will do. Until one can prove its
usefulness by working further both are good
enough – to provocate by the arrangement of
information.
Example explanation
 In the first sentence - ’ The students
teach the teacher.’
An interactive class
Need for efficient teachers
Every student does teach a teacher,
how does the teacher react or respond
to this…
Example explanation
 In the second sentence – ‘The teacher
confuses the students.’
 Question teacher’s ability.
 Question teachers receptivity.
 Is self learning a better practice?
 Are facilities good enough for self learning.
 Other ways of learning.
 Purpose of the reversal
method
 To escape from the absolute necessity to look
at the situation in the standard way.
 By disrupting the original way of looking at
the situation one frees information that can
come together in a new way.
 To overcome the terror of being wrong, of
taking a step that is not fully justified.
 One moves to a new position and then sees
what happens.
Practice in class

 Going on a holiday….