SESSION FIFTEEN: LATERAL AND VERTICAL THINKING

We talk about creativity frequently in some circles. However, although most workplaces want to foster creativity, we often do a pretty poor job at it. Creativity requires time to think, which is often in short supply in many hectic workplaces.

In this session, you’ll review the aspects of lateral and logical thinking and how they influence creative thinking.

The Importance of Lateral Thinking

A team that experiences a long period of success uninterrupted by difficult challenges is likely to find that its members are firmly settled within their respective comfort zones. Success that is tempered by mistakes and failure that is not seen as negative will encourage innovation and continued creative efforts. One way to look at this is to consider lateral versus vertical thinking, something offered to us by Edward de Bono.

Lateral Thinking vs. Vertical Thinking

The emphasis in education has long been on logical, sequential thinking. Traditionally, this was seen as the appropriate way to use information and to learn. Creativity was considered as a mysterious kind of approach for artists and musicians, but is actually used by people everywhere in all kinds of efforts. Creativity, or lateral thinking, is not a substitute for logical (vertical) thinking but is instead a much needed complement.

Lateral thinking makes quite a different use of information from logical (vertical) thinking. For instance, the need to be right or come to a correct and measured result at every step is absolutely essential to logical thinking, but quite unnecessary in lateral thinking. It is sometimes necessary to be wrong to eventually come to the right conclusion. With logical thinking one makes immediate judgments, but with lateral thinking one may delay judgments in order to allow information to interact and generate new ideas.