We spend much of our lives solving problems, but while many of the solutions to those problems are purely logical, there is always room for out of the box thinking in our personal and professional lives. Is lateral thinking innate to some people, and can lateral thinking be taught?
Lateral thinking is a malleable problem-solving method that allows for the generation of new ideas and can be taught, even to people who struggle to think laterally.
There is always room to grow and learn as we get older, but lateral thinking is one of those concepts that gets dismissed as something that you either have or you don’t. The rest of this article will define and discuss lateral thinking, as well as addressing whether it can be taught.
How Does Lateral Thinking Work?
Before diving into why it’s so difficult for some people to think laterally, it’s worth discussing how lateral thinking works in both an abstract and practical way.
Put simply, lateral thinking is a measure of a person’s ability to solve complex problems in a nontraditional way.
The term was coined by Maltese psychologist Edward De Bono in 1967. De Bono’s originally saw merit in this way of thinking in the business sector, where he perceived that the logical, rigid format of evaluating consumer needs by evaluating market data and creating new products would eventually lead to fragmentation.
As a response, he proposed what he described as lateral thinking, an unfettered approach to problem solving that allows individuals to think outside of the confines of vertical thinking to generate new, wild ideas. From those ideas, the best one can be selected for the betterment of the company.
You can think of lateral thinking as “thinking outside the box” or “looking at it from a new angle.” The capacity to think laterally about problems and generate ideas, regardless of the merit they may have on the surface, is what we might describe as a creative or artistic person.
And if we’re honest, we might feel a little jealous of people who seem to have this natural capability to think laterally.
Can Lateral Thinking Be Learned?
It’s certainly true that some people excel in lateral thinking without any kind of skill development, but you shouldn’t let that frustrate you. Lateral thinking can become a learned skill, but, at the end of the day, it’s a hard one to quantify. After all, how do you define someone’s progress with regard to something so abstract?
If you struggle to think laterally, it’s entirely possible to learn and develop your mindset to think both laterally and logically. First, if you excel in logical reasoning, then don’t discount that strength out of hand.
Knowing how to evaluate situations by thinking critically and logically is a valuable skill in both a personal and professional capacity. More to the point, your logical reasoning skills can be used to help you learn lateral thinking. Here are some basic steps you can follow:
Practice Awareness
It’s not much good trying to learn how to think laterally if you don’t recognize when a situation demanding lateral thinking skills presents itself. Consider the way your brain processes information and take note of that thought process.
You might find you’re able to identify what patterns you continuously fall into. Understanding these is the first step in knowing when to apply lateral thinking or, at least, when lateral thinking is an option.
A mind map is a useful tool to this end since it allows you to represent concepts, tasks, and ideas all in one place, with links between them to demonstrate how they are interconnected.
Not only can a mind map help you organize information into a more natural way your brain can process, but it also simplifies the process of thinking laterally by helping you coordinate your thought process.
Rather than thinking about all of the information vertically, i.e., A leads to B, which leads to C, and so on, you can dynamically shift your mind’s process to allow lateral thinking.
Search for Alternative Solutions
That’s what it’s all about, right? Finding better solutions to problems, both in your personal life and in the workplace.
Setting aside your innate logical thought process can take time, and when you get started, you might find it relatively easy to recognize when you’re relying on logical thinking but have a much harder time actually doing the creative work of generating new ideas.
The process will be frustrating at first, but with perseverance, you’ll find that, at the very least, your brain patterns shift such that you try to incorporate lateral thinking into every problem you encounter.
Question Everything
When it comes down to it, just like everything else in life, you’ll need to practice both the recognition of old thought patterns and the opportunity to incorporate new ones. Start by questioning absolutely everything. Is there an alternative solution to this problem?
Is there another method to approaching this issue? Can I reverse the relationships between these characteristics? Can this problem be broken down into smaller parts? How might others react to this?
This last question is a particularly relevant one since it allows you to use your proficiency in logical reasoning to participate in lateral thinking.
Think of a friend, family member, or even just your favorite TV show character and evaluate how they might approach the same problem you’re addressing.
For someone who thinks logically, these steps certainly seem inefficient and random, but, truth be told, that’s often the point of lateral thinking. You’re going to have to go through a lot of misses before you land on a hit, and that’s just part of the process.
Final Thoughts
Lateral thinking is a way of problem solving that tends to be easier for some rather than others and is a useful tool for seeing a problem from a new perspective. With a little bit of practice (and yes, even some logical reasoning as well), anyone can incorporate lateral thinking in their lives.
References
https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/lateral-thinking
https://www.mindmapping.com/mind-map
