Think! 2014 July 15

FORMAL TOOLS OF LATERAL THINKING - greatly increase the chance of having new ideas CHALLENGE - if there is an obvious and attractive route in one direction we are blocked from taking other, unknown routes - the path leads us that way and we don't explore the edges or beyond - the first of the lateral thinking tools requires that we block this obvious path - this block is never a criticism - the block acknowledges: This may be the best way - it may even be   the only possible way. But for the moment we are going to block it   and seek alternatives - it is very important that "challenge" is never used as an attack - this is because we must be able to challenge even the best and most successful ideas - otherwise we would be limited to dealing with imperfect ideas - why had it taken so long to develop this idea? while the original idea worked, there was no impetus to look for an alternative FOCUS - "we are all very creative. now, what shall we be creative about?" - if you cannot define your focus, you cannot generate ideas deliberately - you would just have to wait for ideas to arise by chance - types: ・purpose focus ・area focus purpose focus - type we are most familiar with - there is a problem that has to be solved, a process to be simplified, a task to be achieved, conflict to be resolved, improvement to be made - with purpose focus it is always possible to state the purpose very clearly - similar to travelling towards a destination: you know where you want to get to area focus - very different from purpose focus - we simply define the "area" where we want the new ideas, not the purpose for the ideas - eg: we want some new ideas about pencils - the new ideas about pencils may make pencils cheaper, may make pencils easier to sharpen, may add another function to pencils may make pencils more attractive may simplify the manufacture of pencils - random word tool is particularly useful because it works even when there is no defined starting point - area defined as the focus may be broad or very narrow - eg: i want new ideas about public transport buses bus routes seats in buses first seat in buses - all these focuses are usable - what they need is the willingness of a person or people to pause and to focus on a point and then set out to do some lateral thinking - at this moment no specific techniques might be involved - what is needed is the investment of time, effort and focus - the will to find a new idea RANDOM WORD: SKIPPER, BEN LEXCEN - The Cup had only ever been won by America for 130 years so John Bertrand told me how he and his crew had focused on point after point on their boat and set out to find new ideas of how to do it - by investing this time effort and focus, the most obvious change they made was the design of the (now famous) winged keel - for the first time in history, the America's Cup was taken away from the US - this is a classic example of the will to find new ideas, the will to use lateral thinking