How to improve your flexibility?

The landlord hasn't been exposed to lateral thinking, has he? Let's take a look at the following introduction first, and then look at the book Lateral Thinking by Edward de Bono, the most famous thinking trainer in the world. By the way, I am engaged in the creative industry, and the pursuit of creativity is to break the routine and find a unique solution to the problem. Lateral thinking is very useful. To use it skillfully, you should not only understand the mystery, but also practice more every day. It's like a martial arts secret book, and no one can read it again.

Lateral thinking has been included in the Oxford English Dictionary, which is interpreted as "seeking solutions to problems in an unorthodox way or in an obviously illogical way". The simplest description of lateral thinking is: "You can't dig the same hole deeper and deeper, and dig different holes in different places." The emphasis here is on seeking different ways and paths to look at things.

When using "vertical thinking", you first choose a position, and then use it as a basis for perception; Then, you have to see where you are at the moment; Then, you should make a logical analysis from your place and time.

When using "lateral thinking", we move to the side road and try different perceptions, different concepts and different entry points. We can use various methods, including a series of stimulation techniques, to get rid of the conventional thinking path.

In lateral thinking, we are committed to putting forward different viewpoints. All viewpoints are correct and compatible; Every different viewpoint is not derived from each other, but produced independently.

Conventional logic focuses on truth and what it is, while horizontal thinking, like perception, focuses on possibility and what it may be.

Here are some examples of using lateral thinking to inspire.

random entry method

This is the simplest of all creative techniques. Any organization or individual, such as rock bands and playwrights, can use this technology to get wonderful ideas. In this way, we first choose a focus that we want to get creative (such as "office copier"), then randomly choose a noun from a dictionary, newspaper or glossary, and then link the two for creative thinking. For example:

"Office copier" Po "nose"

Immediately, we thought of the smell. How to use the smell? Maybe we can design a simple ink cartridge and inject a certain smell into the office copier, so that the copier will emit different "smells" when it breaks down. If you stand by the copier and smell lavender, you know you should add copy paper. Smell the mothballs and you will know that the copier needs to change the ink cartridge. This technology should be simple. One of its advantages is that you don't have to stand next to the copier. If you are working at your desk and smell lavender, you can stand up and add paper to the copier. It is a very useful concept to express the working state of a machine by smell, which can be applied to various types of machines.

Reverse excitation

Reverse is to find out the "normal" or normal direction of doing things first, and then put forward the opposite excitation direction. The idea caused by stimulation is not necessarily related to the initial focus. For example:

"I drink orange juice for breakfast."

Po, have orange juice for breakfast.

Imagine "Drink my orange juice for breakfast". I fell into a large glass of orange juice and smelled like orange juice when I climbed out. From this, an idea about bathing arises, that is, installing several perfume tubes with different flavors on the shower head, and the shower can choose which perfume flavor he/she likes to shower.

When a phone calls, it will ring.

Po, the phone keeps ringing, only when there is a phone.

This seems difficult to use because it is ridiculous. But you can also get useful ideas from here. If the phone keeps ringing, then at least you will know that the phone is running. This led to the idea of installing a small red light on the mobile phone to indicate that the mobile phone is running. The second idea is to connect the telephone with the TV. When a phone call came, the TV suddenly became silent, so you immediately knew there was a phone call. The TV can also remain silent until the call is over.

Free excitation

Anyway, there are some things that we take for granted. For example, teacups should have plates and handles, shoes should have soles, and calls should be paid.

The first step to get rid of type motivation is to say what we take for granted. The second step is to get rid of these natural things, that is to say, cancel, deny, abandon and remove.

We take it for granted that restaurants should charge customers for food.

Po, the restaurant doesn't charge for food.

Maybe restaurants can charge "time" instead of food. You pay a certain fee per minute, but the food is free during the payment time. This idea is instructive for coffee shops and other commercial places, because customers there often just want a cup of coffee and sit for a long time. We don't have to sell coffee at a high price to make up for the loss of time. We can sell coffee at a low price, but we should put a timer in the middle of the coffee table to make it convenient to charge by time. A simpler way is that when you enter the coffee shop, the waiter hands you a bill recording the current time, and when you leave, you will be charged according to the length of your stay.

Torsional excitation

In any case, there is always a certain connection between things. Any action also has a certain time sequence. Twisting excitation is to find these regular arrangements and then twist them.

Po, you didn't finish the envelope until you sent the letter.

This is a typical distorted excitation. An interesting idea arises from this. If you don't want to pay the postage, you can send the letter without opening it. Other advertisers can put advertising leaflets in your letter, and then write a letter to pay the postage for you. Your advantage is to get free mail, while the advantage of advertisers is to send information directly to potential customers. Obviously, advertisers need to choose postal areas in order to obtain the customer groups they are looking for.

Wishful excitement

Put forward a fantasy that you know is impossible, "wouldn't it be great if …?" If pencils can write automatically, if shoplifters find themselves, if they sit with interesting people every time they fly. ...

Po, if you are caught in a traffic jam, the plane will wait for you.

This leads to the idea that all flights are scheduled half an hour earlier than the actual departure time. If you are late, you have to pay extra, but you can still board the plane. Or, if you check in early, there will be a certain discount. Another idea is to automatically book the next flight for those passengers who have missed the flight, but the reservation only lasts for one hour.

(Source: Lateral Thinking: A Systematic Method for Individuals and Teams to Continuously Acquire New Ideas, by Edward de Bono, Beijing Science and Technology Press)

Attached:

1969 In late September, advertisers from all over the world gathered in Japan to attend the World Advertising Conference.

What caused the biggest response at this meeting was the speech by Professor Edward de Bono of Cambridge University in England on the method of lateral thinking.

Professor Edward de Bono believes that when you think about realizing a new idea, it is necessary to get rid of the shackles of those inherent ideas that have always been considered correct. For example, according to people's inherent concept, water always flows downwards. If we only start from this concept, there will be no siphon in the world that can lead water to high places.

The lateral thinking method is aimed at the vertical thinking method.

Vertical thinking mode is a traditional thinking mode represented by logic and mathematics. The most fundamental feature of this mode of thinking is that it can be deduced step by step according to the premise, and it can neither cross the line nor make mistakes step by step. Of course it makes sense, but if a person can only use a vertical thinking method, then he can't be creative.

The following examples given by Professor Edward debono can best illustrate this way of thinking.

(1) A borrowed a sum of money from B, and if it is not paid, it will have to go to jail;

(2) B is a usurer, and he wants to marry A's daughter.

(3) Girls will not obey until they die;

(4) B said a solution to the girl: "Now I pick up a white stone and a black stone from the ground and put them in a bag for you to touch. When you touch the white stone, your father's debt will be written off; What you found was a black stone, so you must marry me. "

(5) Say that finish, I picked up two black stones from the ground and put them in my pocket. However, this action was discovered by girls.

Professor Edward de Bono asked the participants: What would you do if you were A's daughter?

There are often several answers:

(1) The girl refused to shape the stone;

(2) Girls exposed B's trick of picking up two black stones;

(3) The girl had to grab a black stone and marry B against her will.

However, the above method is not satisfactory. Only by using new thinking methods at the level of thinking skills can we solve the problems of both sides.

Now if you think horizontally, you will break the original concept. That is to move the focus of consideration to the horizontal direction: from the stone in the pocket to the stone on the ground.

When the girl's eyes moved from her pocket to the ground (that is, she shifted her thinking direction), she thought that B's two stones were picked up on the ground. So she reached into her pocket and grabbed a stone. When she took out the pocket, she dropped it on purpose. At this moment, she said to B: "Ah! I was so careless. I dropped a stone. I don't know if what I caught was black. But it doesn't matter. Look at the piece left in your pocket. What I robbed was definitely different from what I had in my pocket ... "

There is no doubt that there is a black stone in the pocket. B didn't dare to admit that she was cheating, so she had to assume that the girl took out a white stone. In this way, the girl reversed the helpless situation with the method of horizontal thinking and achieved satisfactory results.

This example can illustrate the difference between vertical thinking and horizontal thinking. Longitudinal thinking method, the key point is that girls must take out a stone; Lateral thinking, focusing on the stones left in the pocket. Longitudinal thinking is the most reasonable way to analyze and observe things, and then it is solved by logical reasoning; The law of lateral thinking tries to observe things in different ways, instead of observing and dealing with things in the most promising way.

Professor Edward debono also gave an interesting example.

Once, he gave a group of children a question: how to measure the height of a tall building? The children raised their hands to speak, and some said that they could put down a rope from the top floor, touch the ground, and then measure the length of the rope. Some say that it is only to measure the height of a layer and multiply it by the number of layers; Others say that geometric methods can be used and so on. At this time, a child suddenly said, you can push the house to the ground and measure it. Everyone laughed when they heard it, but Professor Edward de Bono agreed that it was unique and other methods were not out of line. Of course, there is no need to demolish the house, just slightly modify the measurement method: draw a white spot on the ground 10 meter away from the house, then take a photo of the house and the white spot, and measure it with a ruler in the photo, and the height of the house can be calculated immediately. Isn't this a new height measurement method? Therefore, the lateral thinking method is to advocate going out of conventional thinking and looking for new ideas.

Lateral thinking is a way of thinking that is neither logical nor causal, and belongs to a transcendental way of thinking. It can think from the answers.

The important secret of lateral thinking is reverse thinking. Even a very mature idea needs to be reversed again and again. This reverse thinking method has become an important thinking skill.