Lateral thinking

Sequence of arrival of info

Alternative ways of looking at thingsset quota
Challenge assumptionspractice the why game
Innovationcreate!
Suspend judgment
Designdesign something, comment on resultsno judgment, do not
choose, look at underlying function,
Dominant ideas and crucial factorsneed to identify so we know how
to look beyond it and know goalcrucial factors things that must
always be includedmust question the assumption of crucial factors
and could determine it is not actually crucial
Fractionationcan use true and false divisionsdoes not have to be
complete and could overlapcould divide by two and then two again
Reversal method
Brainstormingmust be formalneeds specific formulation of the
problemmust suspend judgmentinvolves cross stimulation8-15
people with a chairmannot criticism, not all speak at once,
specifically ask qilent personnotetakerchairman ID central problem
and come back to itends it while still exciting20 minutes usually
goodorganize evaluation sessionat E session pick out directly
useful ideas, extract ideas from wrong or ridiculous ones, list functional
ideas new aspects of problem, pick out ideas that would be easy to use
even if seem wrong at first, pck out ideas that need more info, pick out
ideas that have been tried
Analogiesget out of clichanything is an analogy
Choice of entry point and attention areacould rotate attention
Random stimulation
Division and then reassembly
New name, label, etc.
Polarizationcreate opposite

Po
Description of problemeveryon ehas a different one

Beautiful Mind
Goalsreach agreement, spell out and agree on difference, have as
interesting a time as possible
How to agree
Genuinely seek to find point of agreement
No contribution if you just agree with everything
Do not agree or disagree with everything
Do not always need to be right
Look at other persons point of view
When you disagree look for special circumstance to agree upon
If I had those values,I would agree
Special experience
Generalizationsnone-a few-some-many-most-the majority-by
and large-all
Genuine Delight in agreement
How to disagree
People sometimes disagee in rdue and aggressive way, in order
to do battle and win, to vaunt egos, bullying, demonstrate superiority,
believe that is what conversation is about, do not know any other way
Politeness
I am not sure I follow your reasoning
there might be another way of looking at it
that is only one point of view
how about thisother possibility?
I think I have some doubts about your conclusion
maybe that is so, and maybe it is not so
I can think of an alternative explanation
Errors of Logic
Suggest alternatives
Interpretationmay be many
Selective perceptionsupports pre-formed idea
Emotionsneed to label them

Different experience
Sweeping generalizations
Extrapolationsbe careful
Possible and certainjust possible-possible-likely-very likelyprobably-most probable-certain
Implying these: that is simply wrong, that is possible but not
certain, that is only one of many alternatives, that fits your experience,
that fits your values, that is right for you but not for me, that is based
on emotions and prejudice, that is basaed on selective perception, the
conclusion does not follow, that is one possible view of the future
Distinguish between different opinion and disagreeing
How to differ
Need clear definitionsuch as defining best
Point of view
Must spell out difference and the reason for the difference
I believe that you are looking at if rom that point of view and I am
looking at if from this point of view. We are looking at it in two
different ways, This is my perception and I believe your perception to
be The difference may just arise from personal preference We
are using a different set of valyes. May values are as followsYour
values seem to be. My experience has beenyour experience may
have been difference We seem to have differnet veiews about what
may happen/ My view is based onyour view seems to be different
Accept the difference
How to be Interesting
Information
What if?
Possibilites and laternatives
Speculation
Connections
Creativity and new ideas
Now that is interesting
How to Respond
Clarifications
Is this what you said I understood you to say this..is that
correct I am not sure I understood what you said. Could you repeat
it?
Support
I agree with you. My experience has been exactly the same

I feel exactly the same way as you do about

we may share the same values and that is why I agree with you
about..
there are stats that support what you just said
even add support when you dont agree
Examples and stories
Build upon
Extend
Carry forward
Modify
How to listen
Pay attention to what is being said, respects the speaker, shows
that he/she is genuinely interested in what he or she hears, gets value
from what is heard and shows it
Getting valueinfo you did not know, new facts, new point of
view, new insights and realizations, alternative perceptions, learn how
a point of view is put together, discover values of others
NoticeAdjectives they tell us emotions
Repeat back
I think I heard you say Are you saying? Did I
understand you to say Is it your point that.?
Questions
Ask for more details
Two focuswhat is said and what they are trying to do
Questions
Fishing questions--open ended
Shooting questionswe know the targetand answer is yes or
no
Source and validity
More detail
Explanation
Alternative and possibilities(officially consider and checked out,
official but not yet checked out, speaker has generated by not checked
out, listener suggested) Would you accept this possibility?
Modification Would you accept this modification to your
proposal?
Multiple choice questions
Values
What is the basis of you thinkgin? (clear reason, personal
experience, pragmatism, need to do something, sense of outrage,
compassion, human values)
Six hats

WhiteInfoWhat do we know, what do we need to know, what

is missing, what questions should we ask, how might we get the
information we need
Red-emotionsfeeling, intuition
Blackcritical thinkingdoes this fir our values, resources,
strategy, objectives, abilities? Indicates fault in logic, point out
incorrect info, faults and weakness, why something doesnt fit,
downside, potential problems
Yellowvalue sensitivity
Greenproductive hatideas, alteratives, possibilities, designs
What can we do? What are the possible explanations? We need new
ideas here. Lets have both obvious and new alternatives
Blueorganizes all the other hatsWhat are we here for? What
are we thiknig about? What is the end goal?..lays out sequences of
the hats