A term established by psychologist and physician Edward De Bono in his book Creativity Step By Step, lateral thinking refers to a person's strategy of solving problems imaginatively rather than deductive reasoning.

"If vertical thinking entails digging a hole in which to plant your idea, lateral thinking entails looking for new areas to dig." 

To understand lateral thinking, we first need to tackle the idea of vertical thinking. Vertical thinking is what most people are used to on a day-to-day basis, which is constituted by going "straight to the obvious and logical answer." Vertical thinkers will use logical clues and steps to solve puzzles or problems, deducing an answer from facts rather than "outside the box," thinking usually related to lateral thinking.

An Example of Lateral Thinking

If you were asked how to get from A to C, knowing the alphabet, you'd give the logical answer: B is in between A and C and would be the perfect answer! Now that you understand how to get from A to C through B, which would constitute vertical thinking, let's brainstorm another way to get to C and start at A. 

Ignoring the order of the alphabet, let's think of a word that starts with A and ends with C— let's go with an arc. R is an acceptable answer when viewing this question as a lateral thinking puzzle. However, it's pretty open-ended— but that's the whole point —thinking outside of the box is an exercise in open-ended thinking. By training yourself to think laterally instead of vertically, you're putting creative and imaginative answers in place of something calculated.

How to Challenge Vertical Thinking

One of the enemies of creative thinking is our reliance on default thinking. Lateral thinking helps us break out of these patterns and refurbish the mind's preconditioned patterns of thought. 

Vertical thinking is a crucial way to understand facts and data, but lateral thinking allows us to test new paths to answers— and in some cases, new solutions entirely. Both are important, but expanding your thinking laterally can explore more imaginative approaches to problem-solving.

One way to expand your thinking laterally is to complete creative exercises. These exercises put you in a mindset that looks for the bizarre and the imaginative rather than the obvious. A great way to complete some of these exercises is through the best-selling Pilgrim Soul Creative Thinking Journal.

Equally important to being a successful lateral thinker is removing judgment from your scenarios. This includes judgment of your own ideas, as well as others. When you express your ideas creatively, it's essential to be open to all the ways an idea can benefit you, rather than why it won't work. One of the classic rules of improvisational acting is to think 'yes and.', opening you to any possibility in the scene. Though life may not always be 'yes and,' there are many opportunities within ideas that live outside your perceived parameters.

A Lateral Thinking Test

Now that your thinking has been flipped on its side, we've compiled some puzzles with the help of Parade Media to test your lateral thinking skills. (Don't worry, we've included the answers, but you'll have to scroll down for those.)

1. A carrot, a scarf, and five pieces of coal are found lying on your neighbor's lawn. Nobody put them on the lawn, but there is a simple, logical reason why they are there. What is it?
2. Jane is in the forest, where it is raining. Jane isn't wearing a coat, she doesn't have an umbrella, and she isn't standing under a tree or canopy to cover her head, but the rain does not touch Jane, why?
3.  A man is running away from home. A second man is running after him. The second man is wearing a mask. Who are they and where are they going?
4. You are driving a school bus. The bus is empty when you begin your route. At the first stop, 4 people get on. At the second stop, 8 people get on and 2 get off. At the third stop, 3 people get off and 4 get on. What color are the bus driver's eyes?
5.  A man is sentenced to death. He has to choose from three rooms to receive his punishment. The first room has a firing squad with guns loaded. The second room has a blazing fire. The third room is full of tigers that haven't eaten for six months. Which room should he choose?
6. Three kids enter a room, but only two walk out. The room is empty. Where is the third kid?

When faced with a situation or problem that needs resolving, it's easy to rely on default thinking or investigate what people have done before, looking for a set of guidelines on how to operate. Instead, point your mindset towards the lateral thinking method by remembering to use words like 'challenge',' shortcuts', or 'alternatives' - these will orient your perspective towards opening up multiple opportunities. 

The interesting thing about thinking creatively in this way is that once you see one alternative possibility, you'll suddenly be able to see many.

ANSWERS TO LATERAL THINKING QUESTIONS ARE BELOW IMAGE

ANSWERS

1. The items were used by children to build a snowman that has now melted.

1. Jane is a fish, she is underwater and the rain cannot reach her.
2. It is a baseball game. The man running away from home just hit the ball. The man with the mask is the catcher who retrieved the ball and is chasing the runner to tag him out.YOU are the driver, the color is your eye color.
3. The tigers, if they haven’t eaten for 6 months then they are already dead.
4. The third kid uses a wheelchair, so they roll out of the room instead of walking out.

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