When solving a problem, do you use a process, or do you do something completely out of the ordinary? With the technology boom that began in the late 1970s, we began eroding our mental abilities. Here’s a clue: How many telephone numbers and addresses of your closest friends and clients do you know instantly, without looking them up?
I’ve always been fascinated with the concept of innovation. The spark is continuous improvement of what we already know, it’s the building upon the past. Think about a simple process you use. To change the process, are you adding more steps, reducing steps, or revising the steps so the process flows faster? Innovation is the bridge to breakthrough leaps.
In my prior role as a COO, there was much more demand and value in achieving breakthrough leaps. My business today initially won an Innovation Award from The Practical Accountant in 2006 and 2007. The value I provided my CPA firm at that time was conceptualizing a niche that focused on helping and solving non-accounting type issues for our clients, expanding firm management, and stepping up the advisory skills of our professional staff. The niche was a ‘value-add’ to what the Firm already did well.
I really love solving puzzles and problems. It’s a big part of what I do daily. Most of us primarily use traditional problem-solving skills that usually follow a sequential approach (known as vertical thinking). Several years ago, I came across a fascinating way to solve problems, or at least to look at problems. Rather than thinking vertically, think horizontally. This is called lateral thinking which involves steps that are not sequential, and the answers are not so obvious.
Lateral thinking was coined in 1967 by Edward de Bono and is the process of solving a problem using an unusual or creative approach. Have you ever wondered why Uber and AirBNB became overnight hits? I think it’s because the developers asked, “what is impossible that I wish were possible?” These are breakthrough leaps.
The switch from vertical to horizontal thinking takes the following minimum steps:
- Assess if it would add value to your life
- Determine if you have the time
- Take a course in lateral thinking (check out The de Bono Group)
- Commit to applying what you learn
- Share with others
Here is a lateral thinking puzzle example: A woman lives on the 30th floor and takes the elevator down to the lobby floor to go to work. When she comes home from work, she takes the elevator to the 20th floor and walks the rest of the way up, except on days when it rains. Those days she takes the elevator all the way to her apartment on the 30th floor.
Why does she walk the last ten flights of stairs if she hates it so much? No internet cheating, think about it and add your answer in the comments below. Share also if lateral thinking would be of value to you and how you would use it.