Coaching practices for Lateral Thinking at Work
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Lateral Thinking at Work, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- I keep generating "alternatives" but they’re all just minor variations of the same basic approach
- My mind keeps circling the same few obvious ideas about this problem, all of them clearly related to it, and I can’t break out
- I’m stuck and every realistic option I can reach from here is no good, and I sense the workable answer is somewhere I just can’t get to from inside the feasible
- When I try to brainstorm how to make this work I freeze up and self-censor every idea as not good enough
- My mind keeps running down the exact same worn grooves on this problem
Practices that may help
- Lateral Thinking, Made Practical
Lateral thinking, coined by Edward de Bono, is a set of deliberate techniques for disrupting habitual thought patterns so that a problem can be approached from an unexpected angle. Unlike vertical (logical) thinking, which deepens the current line of reasoning, lateral thinking deliberately abandons it to find a new entry point. Evidence for specific techniques is largely observational and practitioner-reported; the underlying cognitive principle — that breaking pattern-lock enables novel solutions — has support in creativity research. - Concept fan: map the solution space before picking a direction
Expand from specific solutions to the broader concept behind them, then generate alternatives at the concept level.
Lateral Thinking, Made Practical - Random entry: force a random stimulus into the problem
Open a dictionary to a random word, then connect it to the problem — the forced association breaks the current pattern lock.
Lateral Thinking, Made Practical - Use a stepping-stone idea: an intermediate impossible idea
Generate a deliberately impractical intermediate idea to use as a bridge to a practical one you could not have reached directly.
Lateral Thinking, Made Practical - Reverse brainstorm: solve the opposite problem first
Ask "How would we guarantee the worst possible outcome?" — then invert every answer.
Lateral Thinking, Made Practical - Break associative barriers through randomness
Introduce random stimuli — words, objects, images — into your problem-solving sessions and force connections.
The Medici Effect: Innovation at the Intersection - Provocation (PO): make a deliberately absurd statement to escape the pattern
Prefix an impossible or absurd idea with "PO" to signal it is a provocation, not a proposal — then follow it to see what it unlocks.
Lateral Thinking, Made Practical - Exaptation: look for how a tool or skill in one context could serve a different one
Ask of any existing skill, tool, or process you already use: "What else could this do that it was not designed for?"
The Adjacent Possible, Made Practical - Import a frame from a different domain
Describe your problem as if it were a challenge in an unrelated field, then steal the solutions from that field.
Problem Reframing: Solving the Right Problem First - Actively connect ideas across projects and topics
When working on a project, deliberately search your notes for ideas from unrelated domains that might apply.
Building a Second Brain (BASB), Made Practical
Related concerns
- Lateral Thinking On A Budget
Lateral thinking, coined by Edward de Bono, is a set of deliberate techniques for disrupting habitual thought patterns so that a problem can be approached from an unexpected angle. Unlike vertical (logical) thinking, which deepens the current line of reasoning, lateral thinking deliberately abandons it to find a new entry point. Evidence for specific techniques is largely observational and practitioner-reported; the underlying cognitive principle — that breaking pattern-lock enables novel solutions — has support in creativity research.
- Lateral Thinking Techniques
Lateral thinking, coined by Edward de Bono, is a set of deliberate techniques for disrupting habitual thought patterns so that a problem can be approached from an unexpected angle. Unlike vertical (logical) thinking, which deepens the current line of reasoning, lateral thinking deliberately abandons it to find a new entry point. Evidence for specific techniques is largely observational and practitioner-reported; the underlying cognitive principle — that breaking pattern-lock enables novel solutions — has support in creativity research.
- Provocation Po Lateral Thinking
Prefix an impossible or absurd idea with "PO" to signal it is a provocation, not a proposal — then follow it to see what it unlocks.
Provocation (PO): make a deliberately absurd statement to escape the pattern
- Challenge Assumptions Lateral Thinking
Lateral thinking, coined by Edward de Bono, is a set of deliberate techniques for disrupting habitual thought patterns so that a problem can be approached from an unexpected angle. Unlike vertical (logical) thinking, which deepens the current line of reasoning, lateral thinking deliberately abandons it to find a new entry point. Evidence for specific techniques is largely observational and practitioner-reported; the underlying cognitive principle — that breaking pattern-lock enables novel solutions — has support in creativity research.
- Lateral Thinking Alternatives
Lateral thinking, coined by Edward de Bono, is a set of deliberate techniques for disrupting habitual thought patterns so that a problem can be approached from an unexpected angle. Unlike vertical (logical) thinking, which deepens the current line of reasoning, lateral thinking deliberately abandons it to find a new entry point. Evidence for specific techniques is largely observational and practitioner-reported; the underlying cognitive principle — that breaking pattern-lock enables novel solutions — has support in creativity research.
- Lateral Thinking As A Caregiver
Lateral thinking, coined by Edward de Bono, is a set of deliberate techniques for disrupting habitual thought patterns so that a problem can be approached from an unexpected angle. Unlike vertical (logical) thinking, which deepens the current line of reasoning, lateral thinking deliberately abandons it to find a new entry point. Evidence for specific techniques is largely observational and practitioner-reported; the underlying cognitive principle — that breaking pattern-lock enables novel solutions — has support in creativity research.
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