Dare to be different

Published: Monday, Oct 24, 2005

When the rest of the pack says `yes', beg to differ. Don't just yell `no.' Be prepared to stand by your view, give solid facts. `Lateral thinking' is the buzzword these days says Sumit Bhattacharje.

At a recently concluded group discussion (GD) round conducted by an MNC to select entry-level executives, 12 persons from different walks of life and pass-outs from reputed MBA institutes participated. But among all the candidates, one stood out.

The topic for GD was `Emergency period - was it good or bad for the country?' While the 11 argued that Emergency was certainly a black spot in a democratic country like India, one person stood firmly to say that it was good, as everything progressed in a disciplined and right way.

He opened up new vistas and avenues, which was beyond the thinking of the others. Though people in general would brand him a man with autocratic thinking, the board members gave him full marks for his different way of viewing things and for his lateral thinking.

Success in interviews and GDs depend a lot on the lateral thinking process of candidates. A lot of interview boards are now using lateral thinking questions as parameters for the process of short-listing candidates.

What is it?

According to A.S. Prasad of CTC Communication, lateral thinking or non-linear thinking is nothing but thinking creatively or initiating the thinking process after moving away from the logical thinking block. "Lateral thinking comes from questioning the obvious or moving away from the situation. In a GD scenario a majority of the people carry perceptions like `initiate the GD', `maintain eye contact', `avoid conflicts', `take lead or conclude the GD to crack a GD round'. But today such techniques are stereotypes. The mantra is, move away from the logical box and stand out," says Prasad.

Citing a real life case on lateral thinking, he says: "In Japan, a few years ago, a soap manufacturer delivered a couple of cases of soaps in the market without the soap in the covers. This put the company into a lot of embarrassment and the top management immediately organised brainstorming sessions to get over the crisis and see that it was not repeated. They were planning to spend a lot of money on research and development when a worker from the shop floor approached the management with a solution. He asked the directors to give him a table fan, which he intended to fix near the conveyor belt that carried the finished products. He said, "I will fix the fan in full speed on the edge of the belt and if any pack goes without the soap it will be blown away." The top management was aghast with this lateral thinking of the worker and immediately promoted him to the supervisor rank

Edward de Bono, the father of lateral thinking, once said: "All great men are lateral thinkers." He rated everybody from Einstein to Edison in that category. There are hundreds of examples and puzzles designed by Bono but this puzzle gives an idea of what is lateral thinking even to a novice: "A man walks into a bar and asks the bartender for a glass of water. The barman pulls out a gun and points it at the man. The man says, `Thank you' and walks out. Why did the thirsty man do this?

General thinkers using their logic would give answers like the man was scared, the barman was mad and so on. But Bono's lateral thinking gives this answer: "The man had hiccups. The barman recognised this from his speech and drew the gun in order to give him a shock. It worked and cured the hiccups - so the man no longer needed the water."

How to improve it?

According to Mr. Prasad, creativity generates from the right side of the brain, which is grossly underused by most. " Enhance the right brain activity by doing creative things like painting, writing a poem or photography. Today lateral thinking technique is also being used by Greg Chappell to make the Indian team think differently and creatively. It has already been proved as a success tool with the Australian cricket team," says Prasad.

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