Edward de Bono's

Gift to the world, lateral or nonlinear thinking can help you conjure creative solutions to emerge a winner in an increasingly complex world
There is a story of a salesman in America who became a multimillionaire selling life insurance. On being asked about the secret of his success, he answered that he told his clients he was there to buy life insurance for them rather than sell it. He did this to pre-empt the instinctual American skepticism and abhorrence of salesmen. In Canada, Ron Barbaro, chief executive of the Prudential Insurance Company, made one of the most innovative changes in life insurance. He introduced a system where a person diagnosed with a terminal disease could be paid off during his lifetime to enable him to afford his treatment. This was the most revolutionary and successful idea in life insurance in 120 years. Barbaro used the methods of Edward de Bono, whose name has become synonymous with lateral thinking.
A Ph.D. in psychology, de Bono has held high academic positions at Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard universities. He has written over 40 books translated into 25 languages and has also made two television series aired around the world. He is the author of the famous "coRT" thinking program used internationally to directly teach thinking in schools. Examples of applications of lateral or nonlinear thinking abound in several fields. In cricket, Kerry Packer introduced day/night matches and colorful balls and clothing, a departure from tradition that became so successful, the whole world of cricket adopted it. Australia recently experimented with two different captains for the Test and one-day matches.

Lateral thinking is a step-by-step method of creative thinking with prescribed techniques that can be used consciously. According to de Bono, intelligence is a potential and thinking is a skill to use that potential. He adds that thinking is no substitute for information but information may be a substitute for thinking. While information is swamping us, the need is for appropriate thinking techniques to avoid being weighed down by excessive information. Just as the skill of the driver determines how a car is used, thinking determines how intelligence is used. One may be a good thinker without being an intellectual and vice-versa.

There is a spiritual dimension to lateral thinking that has more to do with perception than logic. Good conduct that arises from right thoughts and perceptions is as important as meditation and spiritual practices. De Bono compares cleverness to a sharp focus camera and wisdom to a wide-angled lens and wisdom depends heavily upon perception. Nearly all systems of meditation aim at purity of heart and mind to refine perceptions for sound judgment. Philosophy, literally 'love for wisdom', is also a means of spirituality. Wisdom to a large extent involves correction of perception by experience when one considers the dictum, "knowledge comes but wisdom lingers". Focusing directly on 'thinking' sharpens perceptions and lateral thinking is one of the best means to achieve that objective. In the introduction to his book Serious Creativity Using the Powers of Lateral Thinking, de Bono states that human perception works as a self-organizing information system.
A Skill That Can Be Learnt
There is a misleading belief that creativity belongs to the world of art and is a matter of talent and chance and nothing can be consciously done about it. Lateral thinking is specifically concerned with changing preconceived notions to bring out new ideas and can be acquired and practiced as a skill. It is a special information handling process like mathematics, logical analysis or computer simulation. Thinking techniques, once mastered, can be used both individually and in a group, dispensing with brainstorming. In all the examples of lateral thinking given in this article, unconventionality clearly comes to the fore. According to de Bono, one should be free of constraints, tradition and history in order to be creative. But that freedom is more effectively obtained by using certain deliberate techniques rather than by hoping to be free. There is a prevailing belief that structures are restrictive for creative thinking but this is not entirely true. A cup does not limit one's choice of drink, so one can consciously avoid being limited by structures and apply them to one's field.

De Bono has developed several techniques of lateral thinking under the three broad categories: Challenge, Alternatives and Provocation. The creative challenge is a challenge to exclusivity, which does not accept status quo and is particularly relevant in those areas where ideas have become obsolete with time. Circumstances and situations often restrict the choice of alternatives and, therefore, it is better to assume a dynamic state of affairs. Limits and components are changed to enable new ways of doing things to emerge successful. Provocation is more in the nature of hypothesis where a situation is first conceived or imagined and then one proceeds to arrive at unique plausible conclusions. According to De Bono, the words hy(po)thesis, sup(PO)se, (PO)ssible and (PO)etry all indicate the forward or proactive use of a statement, which implies that we make a statement first and see where it takes us. This is against prose and description, in which we seek to show something as it is, currently.

De Bono's 6 Thinking Hats

The most popular technique presented by de Bono is the six thinking hats. Acting on the presumption that doing different things at the same time is difficult and confusing, we normally make use of one type of thinking at a given time. The hats denote the following:
l. White Hat: facts & figures, (what information do we have and need to get?)
2. Red Hat: emotions, intuition, feelings (how do we feel about the situation?)
3. Black Hat: judgment (does this fit the facts?)
4. Yellow Hat: advantages, benefits (how is it a good thing to do?)
5. Green Hat: explorations, alternatives, etc. (are there different ways?)
6. Blue Hat: thinking about thinking (control of the thinking process)

Hats are often used to denote the role one is playing such as a baseball cap, soldier's helmet, and can be easily taken off and worn again. When a person puts on a hat he or she plays the role that belongs to that hat. This makes it a game where individuals are encouraged to contribute all kinds of ideas under diverse hats. The role-playing detaches the ego from thinking, which leads to objectivity, one of the most difficult things to achieve in a group discussion. The western tradition of argument results in taking positions whereby discussions are reduced to verbal wars of attrition with a clash of personalities rather than of issues. With the six hats, instead of confrontation there is supportive scrutiny of an issue, which is useful where there are fierce arguments, bickering or obstinacy. It is easy to switch thinking without causing offense. The six-hats method works as well everywhere and can also be used in family situations. Its most fruitful advantage is that it forces you to think more broadly.

De Bono further states that generating creative ideas using his various techniques is not enough. Ideas, by nature, are risky. Because the idea is new, one is not sure that it will work or be practicable at the operational level. There may be a need to invest time, money and energy before an idea bears fruit. Most people are reluctant to make this effort so necessary as complexities multiply at the turn of the 21st century. One person who did and became a stupendous success is Dhirubhai Ambani.

Lateral thinking can save your life, as illustrated in this story. Two men were on a jungle safari in Africa. Suddenly, they came across a tiger that started roaring. Both men were frightened and one of them started wearing his shoes. The other one said: "How is this going to help? We can't outrun the tiger." The first man replied: "I don't have to outrun the tiger, I only have to outrun you."