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Vesa Purho
Development Manager, Nokia
One day I was talking with a colleague who said that everybody talks about the
importance of being innovative and creative but she didn't feel that she could be
like that. I think that creativity is somewhat connected with our genes, but there
must be something that can help everybody to think creatively. I searched Amazon.com
and came across the book Lateral Thinking—Creativity Step by Step by Edward de Bono
(Harper & Row, New York, 1970).
In his book, de Bono talks about vertical and lateral thinking, stating that
lateral thinking is needed in creativity and innovation. Vertical thinking is the
traditional step-by-step thinking in which you eliminate options, whereas
lateral thinking is used to create more options. "With vertical thinking one
concentrates and excludes what is irrelevant, with lateral thinking one welcomes
chance intrusions" (p. 40). de Bono explains the nature of lateral and
vertical thinking. He also offers many tools that can be used actively; therefore,
the book is not about theory, but practice.
The most basic tool in support of lateral thinking is to generate as many alternatives
as possible without judging
them immediately. One may set a quota that must be met before work proceeds.
For example, you could request five different solution alternatives to a problem.
When thinking vertically, one is tempted to select the first viable option that comes
to mind, but the lateral way forces you to come up with other ideas. They may sound
stupid at first, but they may generate new thoughts that lead to a good solution.
The point is to delay the judgment in the idea-generation phase so that new ideas can
really be processed.
The book offers many other tools as well. Fractionation is used to divide a problem
into smaller parts and then see whether the parts can be combined in new ways to find
a different end result. Reversal means looking at ideas from the opposite direction
and see what happens. For example, you are designing a content management system and
one of the aspects you are planning is version control. You have the idea that you need to
have version control, but what if you thought about not needing a version control?
What kind of ideas and solutions would that generate? Selecting the entry point, the
first thing you start analyzing in a problem, and changing the attention area,
thinking about some other aspect of the problem, are also things you can vary to generate
new lines of thought. One interesting technique is random stimulation, in which you bring
a random word or object into the discussion and see what kinds of thoughts are generated.
You can select the word from a dictionary or from a newspaper, just as long as it is random.
Suddenly, you might find yourself thinking about "kangaroo" when discussing architecture of
the documentation.
After selecting the entry point, the first thing is to start analyzing a problem and
changing the attention area, thinking about some other aspect of the problem. This shift
of attention can help you generate new lines of thought.
Another interesting technique is random stimulation, in which you bring a random word
or object into the discussion and see what kinds of thoughts are generated. You can select
the word from a dictionary or from a newspaper, just as long as it is random. Suddenly, you
might find yourself thinking about "kangaroo" when discussing the architecture of the
documentation.
At the end of the book, de Bono introduces a new word, "po." According to de Bono, po could
be used instead of "no" to state "I'm just introducing provocative information without
placing any judgment on whether it is right or wrong." It is used to challenge the
current idea without saying that the idea in itself is right or wrong, it just brings
a new point-of-view to the discussion. Naturally, to be able to use "po," all individuals
in the discussion would need to be aware of it and what it means.
I think the book introduces a lot of good ideas that can be used in real life to generate
innovative ideas and move forward in a discussion that seems to be at a dead-end. The main
message is that one should allow time for thinking before making selections. Using vertical
thinking and making logical selections and moving forward may naturally lead to good
solutions, but accepting controversial ideas into the discussion may actually lead to
better solutions. Or, one may get to the same conclusion faster than one would have done
with vertical thinking. The book is written as an instructor guide. It contains a lot
of exercises that can be used when teaching others these techniques. Most of the examples
and exercises are shown in a group situation, but one person can use them as well.
Although the book is old, the ideas are still very valid, and I intend to use them in
daily work. After reading the book, I have paid attention to these things in meetings
and have noticed how easily we dismiss ideas that don't seem reasonable at first glance.
We try to go as fast as possible to the "correct" solution. I think that allowing
some more time to come up with different kinds of solutions would enable us to
innovate and perhaps come up with solutions that will eventually save more time and
resources than the "obvious" solution that is generated in a short time.
This article is the personal opinion of the author and does
not necessarily reflect the opinion or practice of Nokia.
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