{"id":3945,"date":"2026-09-30T13:03:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T13:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpblog.indigobusiness.co.uk\/?p=3945"},"modified":"2026-10-14T09:07:44","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T09:07:44","slug":"what-is-lateral-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpblog.indigobusiness.co.uk\/what-is-lateral-thinking\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Lateral Thinking? A plain-English guide"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/Workshop\/de-bonos-lateral-thinking\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-3952 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/wpblog.indigobusiness.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/What-is-Lateral-Thinking-240x300.png\" alt=\"What is Lateral Thinking\" width=\"240\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wpblog.indigobusiness.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/What-is-Lateral-Thinking-240x300.png 240w, https:\/\/wpblog.indigobusiness.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/What-is-Lateral-Thinking-819x1024.png 819w, https:\/\/wpblog.indigobusiness.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/What-is-Lateral-Thinking-768x960.png 768w, https:\/\/wpblog.indigobusiness.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/What-is-Lateral-Thinking.png 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 240px) 100vw, 240px\" \/><\/a>\u201cLateral Thinking\u201d, usually said to mean something vague like \u201cthinking outside the box\u201d or \u201cbeing creative\u201d.\u00a0That&#8217;s not wrong, exactly. But it doesn&#8217;t tell you what to actually do differently.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/Workshop\/de-bonos-lateral-thinking\">Lateral Thinking<\/a> is a structured approach to generating alternatives and finding different ways forward. The term was coined by Edward de Bono in 1967 and describes a set of techniques that anyone can learn and apply. It isn&#8217;t a personality trait, and you don&#8217;t have to be naturally \u201ccreative\u201d to use it.<\/p>\n<p>This guide explains what <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/Workshop\/de-bonos-lateral-thinking\">Lateral Thinking<\/a> actually is, how it differs from conventional problem-solving, and where it fits alongside other structured thinking tools such as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/Workshop\/de-bonos-six-thinking-hats\">Six Thinking Hats\u00ae<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>What is Lateral Thinking?<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/Workshop\/de-bonos-lateral-thinking\">Lateral Thinking<\/a> is a way of deliberately moving beyond the obvious way of looking at a problem.<\/p>\n<p>Most problem-solving follows a logical, sequential path. You start with what you know, build on it step by step and work towards a conclusion. That&#8217;s useful for many situations.<\/p>\n<p>But when a team keeps approaching a problem in the same way, it can also keep producing the same kinds of answers.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/Workshop\/de-bonos-lateral-thinking\">Lateral Thinking<\/a> introduces techniques designed to disrupt that familiar pattern.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of simply asking:\u00a0<em>\u201cWhat&#8217;s the logical answer?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>You might ask: <em>\u201cWhat assumption are we making?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWhat if we approached this completely differently?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cWhat other starting point could we use?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The aim isn&#8217;t to abandon logic. It&#8217;s to deliberately generate alternatives that conventional, sequential thinking may not readily produce and then use judgement to decide which ideas are worth developing.<\/p>\n<p>Crucially, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/Workshop\/de-bonos-lateral-thinking\">Lateral Thinking<\/a> isn&#8217;t about waiting for inspiration to strike.\u00a0It&#8217;s a method that you can learn.<\/p>\n<h2>Lateral Thinking isn&#8217;t just \u201cthinking outside the box\u201d<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cThink outside the box\u201d is a useful phrase, but it&#8217;s not a method.\u00a0It tells people they should find a different idea without telling them how to find one.\u00a0That&#8217;s the important distinction.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/Workshop\/de-bonos-lateral-thinking\">Lateral Thinking<\/a> provides specific techniques for deliberately changing the way a problem is approached, challenging assumptions and generating alternatives.<\/p>\n<p>So instead of telling a team:\u00a0<em>\u201cLet&#8217;s think outside the box.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>You can give them a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/Workshop\/de-bonos-lateral-thinking\">Lateral Thinking<\/a> technique that changes the way they think about the problem.\u00a0The difference is between being told to think differently and knowing how to do it.<\/p>\n<h2>What does Lateral Thinking actually involve?<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/Workshop\/de-bonos-lateral-thinking\">Lateral Thinking<\/a> includes specific, named techniques such as challenging assumptions, provocation, random entry and generating alternatives.<\/p>\n<p>You don&#8217;t need to master every technique to understand the principle behind them. Each is designed to help a team break away from its usual route through a problem and generate alternatives deliberately.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Challenging assumptions<\/strong> surfaces the unstated \u201crules\u201d a team has been treating as fixed. Once those assumptions are visible, the team can question whether they actually need to remain in place.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Provocation<\/strong> deliberately disrupts the normal pattern of thinking, creating a starting point that would not normally arise from a straightforward discussion.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Random entry<\/strong> introduces an unrelated word, object or concept to create new associations and connections with the problem.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Alternatives<\/strong>\u00a0 encourage the team to approach the problem from a different starting position, rather than automatically using the same route every time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The common thread is simple:\u00a0<strong>Don&#8217;t wait for a different idea to appear. Use a technique to deliberately generate one.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Can Lateral Thinking be taught?<\/h2>\n<p>Yes.\u00a0That&#8217;s one of the fundamental ideas behind the approach.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/Workshop\/de-bonos-lateral-thinking\">Lateral Thinking<\/a> isn&#8217;t presented as an innate ability that some people have and others don&#8217;t. It is a set of techniques that can be learned, practised and applied to real problems.<\/p>\n<p>That makes it particularly useful in organisations.\u00a0Rather than hoping the right person happens to have the right idea at the right moment, teams can develop a shared approach to generating alternatives.\u00a0You don&#8217;t have to be naturally creative to think laterally, you need to know how.<\/p>\n<table style=\"width: 100%; border-collapse: collapse;\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td style=\"width: 50%; vertical-align: top; padding: 16px; background: #F2F5FB;\">\n<h2>If your team doesn&#8217;t use AI<\/h2>\n<p>Without AI in the mix, businesses have always faced the same problem: the first workable idea often becomes the final one.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A discussion starts.<\/li>\n<li>Someone suggests the obvious solution.<\/li>\n<li>A few people agree.<\/li>\n<li>The conversation moves on.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The team may never discover whether there was a better alternative because nobody deliberately looked for one.<\/p>\n<p>Idea generation can also become concentrated in the hands of the people who are most confident, most senior or most comfortable speaking up.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/Workshop\/de-bonos-lateral-thinking\">Lateral Thinking<\/a> changes that by giving everyone a repeatable way to generate alternatives.<\/p>\n<p>It means teams don&#8217;t have to rely entirely on inspiration, confidence or whoever happens to have an idea first.<\/td>\n<td style=\"width: 50%; vertical-align: top; padding: 16px; background: #FBF2F2;\">\n<h2>If your team does use AI<\/h2>\n<p>With AI in the mix, the risk changes shape rather than disappearing.<\/p>\n<p>AI can produce a plausible-sounding answer in seconds. That&#8217;s incredibly useful, but it also makes it easier to stop thinking once something usable appears on screen.<\/p>\n<p>The team still ends up settling for the first workable idea.<br \/>\nIt just arrived faster and looks more polished.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/Workshop\/de-bonos-lateral-thinking\">Lateral Thinking<\/a> provides a way to treat an AI-generated answer as a starting point rather than a finished one.<\/p>\n<p>The team can challenge the assumptions behind it, explore alternative directions and deliberately develop something that is better suited to the actual problem.<\/p>\n<p>AI can generate possibilities.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/Workshop\/de-bonos-lateral-thinking\">Lateral Thinking<\/a> helps people generate different possibilities.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>The underlying issue is the same whether the first idea comes from a person or a machine:\u00a0<strong>If you don&#8217;t deliberately look beyond the first answer, you may never find the better one.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h2>Where does Six Thinking Hats\u00ae fit in?<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/Workshop\/de-bonos-lateral-thinking\">Lateral Thinking<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/Workshop\/de-bonos-six-thinking-hats\">Six Thinking Hats\u00ae<\/a> are often mentioned together because both were developed by Edward de Bono, but they do different jobs.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/Workshop\/de-bonos-lateral-thinking\">Lateral Thinking<\/a> is primarily about opening up new perceptions and generating alternatives most teams wouldn&#8217;t otherwise reach.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/Workshop\/de-bonos-six-thinking-hats\">Six Thinking Hats\u00ae<\/a> can provide a structured way to examine an idea from different perspectives. Those perspectives include facts, feelings, risks, benefits and possibilities, alongside managing the overall thinking process.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The distinction matters.<\/p>\n<p>Generating more ideas doesn&#8217;t automatically mean making better decisions. Teams also need to examine ideas properly, identify what they may have missed and consider the implications before deciding what to do.<\/p>\n<p>The two approaches are complementary rather than competing. One can help a team move beyond the obvious. The other can help them examine what they have before deciding how to proceed.<\/p>\n<h2>Lateral Thinking, creative thinking and critical thinking<\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/Workshop\/de-bonos-lateral-thinking\">Lateral Thinking<\/a> is closely related to creative thinking, but the terms aren&#8217;t interchangeable, and it isn&#8217;t fully separate from critical thinking either.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Creative thinking<\/strong> is the broader concept: generating new or useful ideas and possibilities. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/Workshop\/de-bonos-lateral-thinking\">Lateral Thinking<\/a> is a defined set of techniques that sits within it: a specific, deliberate way of generating alternatives and moving beyond established patterns of thinking.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Critical thinking<\/strong> is concerned with examining, questioning and evaluating information, assumptions and conclusions. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/Workshop\/de-bonos-lateral-thinking\">Lateral Thinking<\/a> is mostly about generating rather than evaluating. But a Lateral Thinking technique like challenging assumptions is really doing both at once: it generates a new direction by questioning something the team has been treating as fixed. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/Workshop\/de-bonos-lateral-thinking\">Lateral Thinking<\/a> even has its own techniques for this: Treatment and Assessment are used to shape, strengthen and conduct a preliminary evaluation of an idea before it goes any further, effectively an early pass at what <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/Workshop\/de-bonos-six-thinking-hats\">Six Thinking Hats\u00ae<\/a> does in full. The two aren&#8217;t as neatly separable as the labels suggest.<\/p>\n<p>In practice, a team typically moves between them: using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/Workshop\/de-bonos-lateral-thinking\">Lateral Thinking<\/a> to generate alternatives, then <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/Workshop\/de-bonos-six-thinking-hats\">Six Thinking Hats\u00ae<\/a> to challenge and evaluate what&#8217;s been generated \u2014 with a fair amount of overlap between the two along the way.<\/p>\n<p>This is particularly relevant when AI is involved. AI can make it easier to generate a plausible answer, but people still need to decide whether that answer is appropriate, what it may have missed and what other possibilities are worth considering.<\/p>\n<h2>Who uses Lateral Thinking?<\/h2>\n<p>Despite the name, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/Workshop\/de-bonos-lateral-thinking\">Lateral Thinking<\/a> isn&#8217;t a niche technique for creative industries.<\/p>\n<p>It can be applied anywhere a team needs to generate options, solve problems, challenge assumptions or find a different way forward.<\/p>\n<p>That includes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Strategy<\/li>\n<li>Marketing<\/li>\n<li>Product development<\/li>\n<li>Operations<\/li>\n<li>Customer service<\/li>\n<li>Leadership<\/li>\n<li>Project and change management<\/li>\n<li>Process improvement<\/li>\n<li>Innovation<\/li>\n<li>Sales and business development<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>And because <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/Workshop\/de-bonos-lateral-thinking\">Lateral Thinking<\/a> is based on techniques rather than personality, it isn&#8217;t reserved for people who consider themselves \u201ccreative\u201d.\u00a0You don&#8217;t have to be naturally creative to think laterally.<\/p>\n<h2>Learn Lateral Thinking in practice<\/h2>\n<p>Understanding what <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/Workshop\/de-bonos-lateral-thinking\">Lateral Thinking<\/a> is only takes you so far.<\/p>\n<p>The value comes from being able to use the techniques when you&#8217;re faced with a real problem, challenge or opportunity &#8211; particularly when the obvious answer isn&#8217;t good enough. Our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/Workshop\/de-bonos-lateral-thinking\">Lateral Thinking workshop<\/a> teaches the techniques directly, giving participants the opportunity to apply them to real problems and challenges.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/https:\/\/training.indigobusiness.co.uk\/acton\/fs\/blocks\/showLandingPage\/a\/9727\/p\/p-0244\/t\/page\/fm\/0\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-3953\" src=\"https:\/\/wpblog.indigobusiness.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Same-thinking-same-problems-download-300x123.png\" alt=\"Same thinking, same problems \u2013 download the guide\" width=\"300\" height=\"123\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wpblog.indigobusiness.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Same-thinking-same-problems-download-300x123.png 300w, https:\/\/wpblog.indigobusiness.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Same-thinking-same-problems-download-768x316.png 768w, https:\/\/wpblog.indigobusiness.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Same-thinking-same-problems-download-500x206.png 500w, https:\/\/wpblog.indigobusiness.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Same-thinking-same-problems-download.png 880w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/contact-us\">Get in touch<\/a> to talk about bringing Lateral Thinking to your team, or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/calendar\">view upcoming public workshop dates<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>Frequently asked questions<\/h2>\n<h3>Who invented Lateral Thinking?<\/h3>\n<p>The term \u201cLateral Thinking\u201d was coined by Edward de Bono in 1967. He subsequently developed the concept into a broader set of techniques and thinking tools.<\/p>\n<h3>Is Lateral Thinking the same as creative thinking?<\/h3>\n<p>They overlap, but they aren&#8217;t exactly the same.\u00a0Creative thinking is a broad term covering the generation of new or useful ideas. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/Workshop\/de-bonos-lateral-thinking\">Lateral Thinking<\/a> is more specific: it refers to a defined set of techniques for deliberately generating alternatives and moving beyond established patterns of thinking.<\/p>\n<h3>Can Lateral Thinking be taught?<\/h3>\n<p>Yes. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/Workshop\/de-bonos-lateral-thinking\">Lateral Thinking<\/a> is based on learnable techniques rather than an innate personality trait. The techniques can be taught, practised and applied to real business problems.<\/p>\n<h3>How is Lateral Thinking different from Six Thinking Hats\u00ae?<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/Workshop\/de-bonos-lateral-thinking\">Lateral Thinking<\/a> focuses primarily on generating alternatives and finding different ways to approach a problem.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.indigobusiness.co.uk\/Workshop\/de-bonos-six-thinking-hats\">Six Thinking Hats\u00ae<\/a> can provide a structured way to examine an idea or situation from different perspectives, including facts, feelings, risks, benefits and possibilities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The two approaches are complementary and can support different parts of the thinking process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cLateral Thinking\u201d, usually said to mean something vague like \u201cthinking outside the box\u201d or \u201cbeing creative\u201d.\u00a0That&#8217;s not wrong, exactly. But it doesn&#8217;t tell you what to actually do differently. Lateral Thinking is a structured approach to generating alternatives and finding &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/wpblog.indigobusiness.co.uk\/what-is-lateral-thinking\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":3989,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5,253],"tags":[229,264,74,265,25,168,165,143,263,169,16,11,166,29,27,13,259,15],"class_list":["post-3945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-creativity","category-edward-de-bono","category-lateral-thinking","tag-ai","tag-ai-and-creativity","tag-collaboration","tag-corporate-training","tag-creative-thinking","tag-critical-thinking","tag-decision-making","tag-dr-edward-de-bono","tag-edward-de-bono","tag-idea-evaluation","tag-innovation","tag-lateral-thinking","tag-leadership-issues","tag-on-demand-innovation","tag-problem-solving","tag-six-thinking-hats","tag-team-training","tag-thinking"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What is Lateral Thinking? A plain-English guide - the indigo blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What is Lateral Thinking, really? A plain-English guide to Edward de Bono&#039;s technique for generating alternatives, challenging assumptions and finding better ideas.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wpblog.indigobusiness.co.uk\/what-is-lateral-thinking\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What is Lateral Thinking? A plain-English guide - the indigo blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What is Lateral Thinking, really? A plain-English guide to Edward de Bono&#039;s technique for generating alternatives, challenging assumptions and finding better ideas.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/wpblog.indigobusiness.co.uk\/what-is-lateral-thinking\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"the indigo blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Indigo-Business-Services-140481199304927\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-09-30T13:03:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-10-14T09:07:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wpblog.indigobusiness.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/What-is-Lateral-Thinking-a-plain-English-guide.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"880\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"362\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Richard Evans\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@indigotraining\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@indigotraining\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Richard Evans\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wpblog.indigobusiness.co.uk\\\/what-is-lateral-thinking\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wpblog.indigobusiness.co.uk\\\/what-is-lateral-thinking\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Richard Evans\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/wpblog.indigobusiness.co.uk\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/349834f9c980ec8163e9186fc92058e4\"},\"headline\":\"What is Lateral Thinking? 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