Unlock Your Creative Potential: A Step-by-Step Guide to Lateral Thinking

Nigel Ward: A great fascinating read.
High quality paperback.

United Kingdom on Oct 20, 2023

C. Bussell '76: This book has some excellent explanations as to why lateral thinking works for setting up one's mindset for creative thinking and solutions. It contrasts lateral thinking with verticle thinking. Both are needed. It gives strategies/exercises for how to set the stage for creative exploration. It suggests when to add the limits structure of vertical thinking in order to arrive at solutions and implement ideas that will be innovative. This is not a new book. It is classic and useful in this very day.

United States on Dec 09, 2022

Albena Ivanova: It can change your perception, if you let it by practicing

Germany on Aug 02, 2022

G: Edward De Bono has not only successfully written a challenging guide on creative thinking, but a manual on how to read and teach it.

De Bono begins by laying out the framework for lateral thinking and how it compares to vertical thinking, the type of thinking we are most often taught early in schools. Where vertical thinking seeks to find one answer, lateral thinking aims to find as many alternatives as possible, no matter how silly the alternatives may appear. The silly alternatives can transform into or inspire something great.

Throughout the book, De Bono reminds readers that the key to creativity is liberating oneself from existing patterns and restructuring them to create something new. Each new chapter offers new techniques on how to achieve this, as well as practice examples that can be utilized when teaching the material to students.

Lateral thinking came to life for me in Chapter 14: “The reversal method.” In this technique, one takes an existing system and reverses it. Simply applying the reversal method does not ensure a new solution, but it is a great way to stimulate creative ideas.

A paraphrased example of this method in...

United States on Mar 29, 2022

Leland M. Holman: Lateral thinking is a concept that so little attention has been paid to, and most dismiss the concept without a second thought. But through this book, Edward De Bono showcases the incredible capability and flexibility of lateral thinking with clear examples and concise definitions that are made practical in day-to-day life and business without dismissing the need for vertical thinking. This book is a lot to swallow, so I would recommend taking your time with it, but the content is rich with many moments that might make you question whether you should try lateral thinking. While there are some moments he gets a bit wordy with explanations or uses one too many examples (hence the 4 of 5 stars), I think this book is an excellent read that can teach you a different way of thinking and approaching problems. If you get lost at any point in a chapter, he also provides a summary at the end, which is really helpful.

United States on Mar 29, 2022

Alessandro Rossi: Libro fantastico. Lo avevo in passato e l'ho perso, ma l'ho ricomprato per rileggerlo. Un must per chi vuole rivoluzionare il suo modo di pensare!

Italy on Sep 29, 2020

Cindy Perez: Good

Canada on Jul 03, 2020

tapas: Book is written with delineate the method very lucidly one can adapt the way of writing very easily and try the mentioned experiments none of the said methods are something which we can't do or we are not doing in day to day life author beautifully bring us the new idea of looking into the things.It has positivity and once anyone go through the book have definitely a new dimension added to his/her perception and way of thinking.Deep understanding of human psychology did by Edward de Brono.The book is written so marvelously whenever I go for this book I make myself prepare for it because this book has its own influence on human perception and each line has its own significance and author has adapted the wonderful methods to change the one's thinking from vertical to lateral thinking.If you read any autobiography of successful manager you find the one of the aspect behind the successful is the way' of thinking i.e.lateral thinking.

India on Aug 13, 2015

Charlie Aukerman: Dr. Edward de Bono coined the term "lateral thinking," and this is the book that explains what it is, how it works, and what it does in the realm of creative thinking. It is one of my favorites -- along with just about everything else de Bono has produced -- and I've used his various teachings to good effect in my classrooms. Creative thinking is sorely needed in the United States today as it transitions from an industrial nation into a technology-based society. This book is the core of de Bono's philosophy, and central to all his teachings. Everyone, from individuals to businesses, can learn from it.

United States on Jul 19, 2014

Arrowcatcher: The book was meaningful to me as I found out that I'm evidently a natural lateral thinker. I've been doing it for years but didn't have a label for it until this month. People label me "creative" based on my arts and technology projects over a period of years. I realized I didn't need to do any of the exercises in the book since I was already there. Lateral thinking is my default, and I didn't know it. I'm first lateral and then test later with vertical logic. So the book was a personal epiphany.

United States on Apr 24, 2009