Lateral thinking and innovation B.N. van Eikema Hommes Course Number and Name: 2027 De Bono on Innovation Program/Major: MBA Submission Date: September 12, 2009 Date Course was Started: August 15, 2009 Date Program was Started: July 2008 Type of Course: Custom Practical Problem: Lateral thinking and innovation Number of Words in the Body of the Course Paper: 2529 Graphics in Your Paper: Yes Number of Hours Spent on this Course: 45 Advisor: Gary Smith Date of Last Edit / Editor: September 14, 2009 / Laurel Barley English Spelling Used: US Permission to Publish on the Rushmore Website: Yes Your Website Address: Http://eikemahommes.co.nr Resources: Lateral Thinking (Creativity Step-by-Step) Reasons for taking this course: To develop lateral thinking. Page 1 of 8
Executive Summary In this course paper lateral thinking plays a central role. Lateral thinking is used to generate new ideas or insights and to break with existing patterns. Lateral thinking is different compared to our usual way of thinking that starts with a certain idea and develops it along a logical path. This path, although it may seem accurate, is still based on an assumption and this assumption is arbitrary. Lateral thinking in fact challenges these basic assumptions and is focused on generating more ideas from which to start the process of deduction. From this perspective, lateral thinking can be seen as horizontal thinking while the deductive method can be looked at as vertical thinking. However, lateral thinking is not a substitute for vertical thinking, but must be seen as a complementary way of thinking. Vertical thinking develops the ideas generated by lateral thinking. The difference between the two is that lateral thinking is generative while vertical thinking is selective (a good theory has to exclude things otherwise it applies to anything). Idea generation by means of lateral thinking is difficult because of the way the mind works. The mind is a pattern-making system and this behavior depends on the functional arrangement of the nerve cells of the brain. In this system the information organizes itself; the mind only provides the necessary conditions to behave in this way. This system can be described by means of an analogy in which the mind is represented by a landscape and the information is represented by rainfall. In the long run the rainfall forms drainage channels and these patterns on the surface of the landscape tend to become deeper over time. In the end, all the future rain (information) is caught by the fixed patterns and new patterns on the surface do not appear. It is the rainfall that is doing the sculpting while the landscape provides the possibilities to form patterns. From the above analogy it becomes clear that the mind is passive and that the information is arranging itself. It depends on the sequence of the information which patterns are formed first and these patterns become fixed over time. A system that creates its own patterns and recognizes them is capable of efficient communication with the environment and although this characteristic has enormous advantages, it also has limitations. The brain is very good at creating patterns but lateral thinking is required to keep patterns up to date by restructuring them. In this course paper several techniques will be used to restructure fixed ideas and attention will be focused on innovation, which is only a part of lateral thinking. The following points will be discussed: The general starting point (dominant ideas and crucial factors) The fractionation technique The reversal method The analogy technique The random stimulation method Conclusion Page 2 of 8
Problems and Proposed Solutions The general starting point (dominant ideas and crucial factors) To start using the different techniques, a brief definition of the problem or situation is important, as it enables one to generate alternative ways of looking at a problem or situation, which is the ultimate aim of the lateral thinking process. If one can not grasp the actual dominant idea then one is going to be dominated by it, and escaping from it will not be possible. The dominant idea resides not in the situation itself, but in the way it is looked at. For example, a feed fence for cows can be looked at from different angles: a method of blocking cows to avoid stress while eating after they leave the milk parlor, a way to select cows for the purpose of carrying out various tasks (e.g. insemination by a veterinarian) and a way of preventing cows leaving the barn while still enabling them to eat (primitive feed fence). These are all valid dominant ideas that show us that the usefulness of a product can be viewed in different ways. Another important issue that prevents us from changing our point of view is the crucial factor in a situation. This crucial factor is supposed to be part of the situation, no matter from which angle one is looking at it. It is important to isolate this crucial factor and to challenge its necessity, for the purpose of structuring the situation in a different way. For example, it is always supposed that the food for the cows has to be placed next to the feed fence, because feed fences are immobile (crucial factor). But what would happen if feed fences could move towards the food; would this be more efficient for the farmer? In itself, the search for dominant ideas or crucial factors is not a lateral thinking process. It just creates the conditions to use lateral thinking more effectively. It is difficult to restructure a pattern unless one has a clear understanding of the pattern and at the same time it is not easy to loosen up a pattern unless one can locate the rigid points. Page 3 of 8
The fractionation technique As discussed before, the mind is very good at creating fixed patterns. Not only does the mind create these patterns, but it is also capable of making patterns by combining other patterns, so patterns tend to grow larger and larger with the passage of time and this tendency is seen clearly with language. Individual words describing a specific situation are put together in one single word so that a new standard pattern is formed. A disadvantage, however, is that when a pattern becomes more unified it becomes at the same time more difficult to restructure it and to bring about a different point of view. To restructure a situation one has to break this situation into smaller components and then reassemble these components differently to generate a new situation. The whole purpose of the fractionation technique is to escape from fixed patterns to the more generative situation of several components. The following example makes use of the two-fraction division method in which a situation or problem (slurry scraping) is divided in two fractions. These fractions are then further divided into two more fractions and so on until one has a satisfactory number of fractions. The fractions are then put together again in an attempt to generate a new way of looking at the situation. Applying the two-fraction division method to the slurry scraping problem, we get the following: Page 4 of 8
Usually, slurry handling is executed by pulling (electrical motor with control box) a scraper with a chain or cable from one side of the barn to the other. In Holland, cows walk mostly on slatted floors and the slurry is stored underneath, while in other countries cows walk on solid floors and the slurry is taken to an external storage. In our example the slurry scraping problem was divided into eight fractions. Combining these fractions in a different manner provided me with a refreshing new idea. A robot guided by GPS on a solid floor will suck up the slurry with a vacuum pump while at the same time cleaning the floor with rotating brushes. The slurry will be stored for a short period of time by the robot and as soon as he reaches an access point, the slurry will be injected over there and a network of tubes in the floor will transport the slurry to an external storage tank. The reversal method In the reversal method one takes a problem or situation as it is and then turns it around. The main purpose is provocative and by turning the situation around one moves to a new position and sees what happens. In lateral thinking one is not looking for the right answer but for a different arrangement of information that brings about new insights. In our next example we will make use of the reversal method to create an innovative feed fence. Normally a feed fence is looked at as an immobile blocking and selecting system for cows. When we pick out the immobile feature and turn that around, we get a mobile feed fence for dairy cows. Having a mobile feed fence means that the farmer can put grass and maize silage on the feed alley with a block cutter once a week while the feed fence advances slowly to enable the cows to eat from the shrinking food blocks. The constant supply of fresh food ensures a natural eating rhythm for the cows and the farmer can be more effective because he spends only one hour a week feeding his cows instead of one hour per day. In this example the applied reversal proves useful in itself. However, reversals are usually not particularly useful in themselves but only in what they lead to. One ought to get into the habit of reversing factors in situations and then seeing what happens. Page 5 of 8
The analogy technique An analogy in itself is just a simple story or situation that is compared to something else. An important feature of an analogy is that is has a specific and recognizable line of development. The analogy technique is used to provide movement by relating a certain problem to an analogy. The analogy is then developed step by step in its usual way while each step is referred back to the underlying problem. It is not necessary for the analogy to fit the related problem exactly. On the contrary, it is even better when the analogy does not fit because then one is forced to relate it to the problem and this can generate a different point of view concerning the problem. The analogy technique is just a challenging way of generating new ideas. In the following example, the problem of cow routing in a barn with a milking robot will be related to the analogy of a double blood circulatory system. At this moment there are two dominant routing systems that are used in combination with robot milking. First, there is the free circulation in which the cows choose to go to the robot; this system can be compared to the open blood circulatory used by simple organisms. Second, there is the forced circulation in which the cows need to go through the robot to be able to enter the feed fence area to eat, and this system can be compared to the simple circulatory system, heart - lungs - body activities - heart. In a double circulatory system there are two independent circulations: heart lungs heart, and heart body activities heart. If the feeding area represents the lungs, the robot represents the heart and the cows activities represent the body activities; then we can create a cow routing system with two independent circulations. The robot decides, based on information, whether a cow should first go to the feeding area, to take in energy, before entering the cow activity area (moving, resting in cubicles and milk producing). Of course the robot should also decide whether a cow should be milked or not, but that was its core business in the past. The new idea that sprang from this analogy technique is that a robot is not only a milking robot but should be used to improve the individual cow management by gathering and analyzing information and acting accordingly. Page 6 of 8
The random stimulation method Until now we used techniques that worked from within the idea or pattern. But instead of trying to work from within the idea one can purposely generate external stimulation to disturb a fixed pattern from the outside, and this is how random stimulation works. With random stimulation one uses any information available, in combination with a certain problem or situation. The more unrelated the information may seem, the better it is. The best way to pick a random word out of a dictionary is to make use of a table of random numbers. In the next example, the word that was located by using a table of random numbers and an English dictionary was: to turn. The problem under consideration was slatted floors for dairy cows. At first, it was difficult to relate the word turn to the stated problem, but after a while an idea began to emerge in my mind that changed the standard way of looking at slatted floors for dairy cows. A typical barn with slatted floors and under-floor storage channels is illustrated in the following picture: This configuration has several disadvantages. First, half of the storage channels are completely covered by concrete because the dairy cows are lying on mattresses in cubicles, so the slurry in the storage channels is not proportional divided and this poses a problem for mixing the slurry. All the storage channels are connected and the number of agitators can be calculated from the length and the number of channels. The homogenization of the slurry by the agitators is an important process, because this enables the farmer to empty the storage channels without problems. A second disadvantage is that the agitator(s) is/are mostly placed on the front side of the barn and this means that a future extension of the barn on this side becomes difficult. If we are able to turn the slatted floor with the cubicles ninety degrees while the storage channels remain unmoved, then it is possible to tackle these disadvantages in a single move so that the slurry in the storage channels is well divided and an extension of the barn remains an option, because the agitator is placed on the side of the barn. Page 7 of 8
Conclusion The use of lateral thinking by means of the four techniques proved highly successful in this course paper and I firmly believe that these innovations deserve a real chance to be developed. Of course, not every innovation will be achievable or successful in the market, but that is not the fundamental idea of lateral thinking. Lateral thinking is all about idea generation and challenging clichés. Traditional education focuses more on vertical thinking and creativity is seen as some mysterious talent. Lateral thinking shows us that creativity is a skill that can be developed, like for example physics. Vertical thinking is a very useful way of thinking and it proved quite successful over time, but in combination with lateral thinking it would be more effective. Lateral thinking provides the basis for vertical thinking and is used to change perceptions (paradigms). Vertical thinking accepts these changed perceptions and develops them further in a scientific (vertical) way. In this paper the differences between vertical thinking and lateral thinking were emphasized, but I want to end this discourse with a characteristic that both vertical thinking and lateral thinking have in common and that is the search for effectiveness. Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one s thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world. Goethe Page 8 of 8