Is the idea to make a decision? Or is the idea to be creative?
Is the idea to make a decision?
Or is the idea to be creative?
Or is the idea to be creative and then make a decision using the best ideas?
Edward de Bono, he wrote a book called “Lateral Thinking”. De Bono says there are vertical thinking and lateral thinking.
Vertical thinking is sequential.
A plus B equals C, plus D equals E. You follow the sequence to the end, and each step must be correct in order for the final step to be also correct. That’s the answer you want. It’s the equation in a maths exam. It’s the maths you do when you solve logic problems.
Then there’s lateral thinking.
You pose a question. Then you ask, how can I do this differently? What would be the answer if I did it this way? Or that way, or a completely different way?
What we’re trying to do here, is to specifically seek multiple correct answers.
We want multiple possible answers; as many as possible. Then we take those multiple answers and filter out the best ones to use.
Then we return to the starting point, now with many possible alternative solutions. Of those, one seems to be the best option, and so we pick that. Then we can use vertical thinking again, to join the dots between start point and solution, to make sure everything is as expected.
It’s what very smart people say
That’s what De Bono says. I’m not making this up.
It’s also what John Cleese says, “when you’re in creativity mode, whatever you come up with is not stupid. It’s all valuable. There are no stupid ideas.”.
You generate lots of ideas in order to get many potential solutions. The best solution is the one you select, which meets your selection criteria.
So here’s the challenge.
If you’re in business, do you really want to be right all the time?
Or do you want to be right enough, most of the time?
Your creativity brings you something unusual.
It allows you to be seen to be different and gives you the edge.
Correct and boring – or correct and interesting?
Do you want to be correct and boring?
Do you want to be correct and plain vanilla?
Or do you want to be seen to be different?
Do and have something interesting, which is also correct?
Up or across? Good question.
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