| Lateral
Thinking, Blue Sky, Out of the Box - we hear these phrases bandied
about but what does it all really mean? The term 'Lateral thinking'
was first coined by Edward De Bono who described it as the process
to achieve pattern switching from one way of thinking to another.
Ok, but what does that mean and why should we care?
All thinking is an associating process. We think of one tho ught
and that leads to another thought and that leads to another and
so on. If you could be bothered you could trace your line of thought
back throughout the day and you'd see that you live in a continuous
associative stream of consciousness.
Playing 'word association' is easy - if we had a room of people
and I said apple, the next person may say tree, the next could be
woodland... etc. It's very easy because that is how the mind works.
If we were to play 'word disassociation', we'd find it a lot harder.
The only way to do it is to associate to something else to get away
from the word. It's like our mind has rail tracks on which our thoughts
travel. We're essentially heading in a set direction which, like
a train, is hard to deviate from without crashing.
This is why so many people do exactly the same things, say exactly
the same things and come up with exactly the same solutions when
faced with a problem. They don't have any new ideas because they're
travell ing on the same straight tracks as they always have.
So when we talk about lateral thinking or pattern changing we're
essentially talking about jumping off the tracks onto another railway
line that is going in a different direction. This is only possible
if the rail network of neurones (brain cells) in your brain is a
complex network of intersections instead of a set of parallel tracks.
Einstein's brain is stored in a jar in Kansas City. It has been
studied by many experts for decades. It is by all accounts a very
average male brain, the same weight and size as most. But it differs
from the average in one important respect. When samples were studied
under the microscope it was noticed that the neurones had dramatically
more connections to each other than in the average brain.
So how do you form these connections? Like a muscle, the brain needs
to be exercised. To make new connections you need to make new associations
between disparate things . You need to fantasise, experiment. Force
yourself to change habits of action, speech and thought. Do things
differently. Do different things. Connect the new experience back
to something you've done before. Learn to disassociate! Break out
of that pattern of thinking by being random. Play!
|
