If you’re trying deliberately to think creatively – to come up with new ideas – having a set of stimulating tricks can help. It is quite possible to stimulate lateral thinking in mechanical ways. Lateral thinking is where, instead of following the usual step-by-step logical paths of thinking, you deviate away from the path and come up with something entirely unexpected.

An effective way of encouraging lateral thinking is to introduce a random element; these exercises show how using random words can help develop lateral thinking skills.

Exercise 1

Choose five types of businesses or situations, obtain one random word and then show how this word connects back to each business or situation. The link back should be significant, for example if the word is light, it would not be enough to say that every business has a light.

For example the five businesses are life insurance; motor car sales; travel agent; restaurant; private school, and the random word is passport.

Your thoughts might include: you could have a type of passport that lists insurance policies. A service record for a car is a type of passport for the motor trade. A travel agent may hold a second passport to obtain visas. Restaurants might keep a record or passport of customers’ favourite foods and wines, and, finally, as the word passport suggests overseas, private schools might attract students from abroad.

Exercise 2

Here we explore needs as a type of value; some needs could be viewed as a luxury but, for this exercise, needs are needed. Start with a list of needs, obtain four random words and then examine those words to see which of them could apply to your list of needs. Explain how the random word would satisfy that need.

Your defined needs are protection; food; shelter; money, and friends, and your four random words are: spanner; ankle; surgeon, and book.

Spanner or surgeon suggests a trade or profession that might earn you money. A spanner is a tool that might help you build shelter. A book might contain recipes to make your food more interesting. A book might also indicate a shared interest with friends as with a book club or reading group. A spanner could be used for self protection. You might use your ankle playing a sport where you’d meet friends.

You could vary this exercise by picking just one need and then obtain random words one by one, showing how each would help with that need. Or lay out your list of needs, obtain one random word and show how that one word could fulfil the needs. Finally, again selecting one need, obtain five random words and then rank them in the order of how well they help that need.

Remember:

• There is no need for a time limit to the exercises or games, although you may want to set yourself five minutes per exercise and, as you get better, reduce this to two or three minutes.
• Avoid simple similarities based on letters, spelling and so on.
• There is no one ‘right answer’; any answer that fits the stated requirements of the exercise is equally valid.

These exercises are taken from How to have Creative Ideas: 62 exercises to develop the mind, Edward de Bono, Vermilion 2007. For further information on the work of the De Bono
Foundation UK visit www.debonofoundation.co.uk

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