Lateral Thinking
De Bono's approach to generating ideas by deliberately disrupting linear logic.
Lateral Thinking, coined and developed by Edward de Bono in his 1967 book The Use of Lateral Thinking and elaborated through subsequent works including Lateral Thinking: Creativity Step by Step (1970), is the deliberate generation of ideas through methods that disrupt the brain's tendency toward incremental, pattern-locked vertical thinking. De Bono argued that the mind's pattern-recognition strengths come at the cost of pattern-lock — once a thought enters a familiar groove, vertical thinking carries it forward predictably — and that deliberate techniques are needed to break out of locked patterns. Specific lateral-thinking tools include Random Word stimulation (using an unrelated word to spark new associations), Provocation (deliberate absurd statements with the prefix 'po'), Challenge (questioning assumptions held implicitly), and Concept Extraction. The framework has had considerable popular influence and is the parent of de Bono's later Six Thinking Hats and DATT (Direct Attention Thinking Tools), though academic creativity research has not strongly validated his specific techniques.
Core components
- Distinction between vertical (logical, sequential) and lateral (pattern-breaking) thinking
- Random Word technique
- Provocation technique (po-statements)
- Challenge technique (questioning assumptions)
- Concept Extraction
- Movement value over judgment
- Patterns of the mind theory
Primary use case
Creative problem-solving and ideation; corporate creativity training; teaching tool for breaking habitual thinking; foundation for de Bono's later thinking-tools work; influence on broader creativity-techniques literature.
Common criticisms
- Empirical validation in academic creativity research is limited — specific techniques have not been rigorously demonstrated to produce better creative output than alternatives
- pattern-theory of mind is a simplification not based on contemporary cognitive science
- commercial certification industry around de Bono's frameworks limits independent assessment
- some techniques (Random Word, Provocation) work in workshops but produce diminishing returns with repeated use
- concept can become a label for any non-obvious thinking rather than a specific methodology
- doesn't address the editing and selection that creative work requires after generation.
Lineage
- Parent of
- Six Thinking Hats
- Siblings
- Six Thinking Hats, SCAMPER, Mind Mapping