Sometimes in business unusual, different and hostile situations do occur. This was recently the case when G. contacted me. Recently they had been going through some rough times at his workplace, due to issues with some hostile competitors. G.’s boss had recently started frequently demanding that G. and his co-workers ‘Be more creative. Think differently’. G. came to me through my Small Business Advice consulting service and wanted clarification on what his boss meant.
To start with I advised G. that before we could understand the concept of creative thinking we first would have to take a look at the ‘regular’ way of thinking. A simple example of ‘Regular’ thinking can be observed in the process that most of us use; say when we cannot find our keys: we search the pockets, then the briefcase, then the table and thereafter the last place that we remember them having been, according to our memory.
An expert in the field of creative thinking Dr. Eduard DeBono, labeled this process as ‘Vertical Thinking’: the stream of thoughts moves like an arrow that continues its motion until the target is hit. ‘Vertical Thinking’/’Regular Thinking’ is the more conventional and common type of thinking and decision making. “Vertical thinking” is the ‘logic’, sometimes called ‘analytic’ thinking process. It is usually described as an ongoing flow type of a process, in which one stage of conclusion is leading to the next one, until the best solution is reached.
Taking a closer look at G.’s instructions to ‘Be More creative. Think differently’ we can see that his boss obviously wanted him to use an alternate way of thinking. With my experience in Small Business Advice I was familiar with situations similar to the one in which G. Found himself. Many times a simple understanding of the concept of “Creative Thinking” can help to achieve the results his boss was looking for.
‘Creative Thinking’ is referred to by Dr. Debono as ‘Lateral Thinking’. The proper way to describe the creative thinking process is sometimes by matching it to a dotted or spiral line that can be related to a birds flight route or a frog’s elastic jump track also sometimes to the shapes of water waves or even at times to a fire works sparking lights. Dr. Debono labeled the process ‘Lateral Thinking’, to reflect the unstructured, not too easy to predict and often irrational pathway of the thinking process. Every creative process has a unique shape, which implies that every creative solution will have its unique and one time original pattern.
Here’s an old folk tail to help further understand the concept of ‘Lateral Thinking’.
”There was a guy who was traveling in the jungle. One night a monkey stole his hat. The man had another hat but was not ready to just give up and continue his journey. The stolen hat was very precious indeed, being used often for his traveling. The man went to the king lion with a very friendly posture and complained against the hostile attitude that he, as a guest in the kingdom, has experienced.
The monkey made it clear to the lion’s aids the there is no chance that the lion’s authority would make a difference. A jungle is a jungle, he reminded them. Our poor guy tried therefore to negotiate, with bananas of course, but there was no prospect for a real deal, since the hat was so precious and the monkey able to get his own bananas. Then he had no choice but to play into the jungle rules, so he threatened the monkey, with his gun. The smart monkey remained cool and warned him that it is illegal and threatened back that it would be cause for an immediate arrest.”
So far we have seen the common, known, logic, ‘Vertical Thinking’: we try to be nice, we bargain, and then we threaten. Our story takes us now to the creative thinking process ‘Lateral Thinking’ that the desperate fellow started to employ at this stage.
“The man remembered something from his childhood about the various characters that the children used to attach to animals: the lion is strong, the fox is smart, the chicken is afraid… and monkeys are bunch of imitators! They have no ‘ego’ of their own they would imitate and follow what they see…’Monkey see, monkey do.’
In a sudden, but well thought out plan, our fellow started to shout toward the monkey who was sitting safely high above on a nearby tree. The man was loud and sounded very angry. He moved his hands with rage. Then, as an act of contempt, he took his other precious hat, the only one that he had left and put it on his head. He then took it off and threw it hard with a lot of anger to the ground.
Our monkey did what his genes instructed his brain to do: he imitated the angry man. He screeched loudly, waved his hands in the air angrily and finally took the hat, and threw it on the ground. The man quickly grabbed it up and went on his way.”
Was our hero lucky, smart, genius? Well, it is up to you to decide. My story attempts to show how a spark of memory combined with a good application of common know-how (the genes…) lead to a creative solution that was necessary since the old methods were not effective any more.
I advised G that we were at the point, in our Online Counseling session, where it should be possible to understand why his boss wanted to see more of the creative, lateral thinking. It is definitely NOT because there is a natural biased preference towards creative thinking, no matter how nice and cultured it may sound. On the contrary: most of our daily challenges are better solved with the ordinary, vertical thinking method. To stress this point I’ll testify that most trainings and improvements processes are giving best results when they present learners with logical / vertical methods of analyzing situations and screening for the best decision that is appropriate for a given case. To conclude this point: the call for the creative thinking approach is neither the natural best bet nor the ‘politically correct’ thing to do.
It is the situation itself that call for creative thinking. Through my Small Business Advice experience, once the situation becomes unique or extraordinarily complex that is when ‘Lateral Thinking’ is called for. It is time now for the creative approach.
I advised G that if the company’s competitors were not playing according to the rules or if the common known tactics that had been already employed did not result with the expected turnarounds that your boss hoped for. Then the call for creative measures is justified. It implies that you all would welcome the ‘unthinkable’ thoughts; the non-logical but intuitive and gut-feeling reasoning for your suggestions; the application of new and yet unused ideas and methods; the fixture of your current problems with other tools then you have tried before. Your boss has determined that now is the time to “Think outside the box” for new possibilities and solutions.
Originally posted 2010-03-18 15:46:57.
