Lateral | Thinking

To actively practice lateral thinking, Dr. Edward de Bono established several core techniques to break the brain out of its natural, habitual processing patterns:

: Using unrealistic or absurd statements (provocations) to shock the mind out of standard channels and move toward new ideas. Lateral Thinking

: Introducing a completely unrelated random word, object, or concept into the problem-solving process to spark new mental connections. 🆚 Lateral vs. Vertical Thinking To actively practice lateral thinking, Dr

: Actively question the "givens" or boundaries of a problem that everyone else takes for granted. 🆚 Lateral vs

To see lateral thinking in action, consider how these real-world problems and famous brainteasers were approached from the side rather than head-on:

: Forcing yourself to find multiple solutions to a problem, even if a perfectly satisfactory one has already been found.