LATERAL THINKING SKILLS

Lateral thinking, is the ability to think creatively, or "outside the box" as it is sometimes referred to in business, to use your inspiration and imagination to solve problems by looking at them from unexpected perspectives. Lateral thinking involves discarding the obvious, leaving behind traditional modes of thought, and throwing away preconceptions. It's very important in careers such as advertising, marketing, the media and art and design where you may get questions in the selection process along the lines of "Write down one hundred ways to use a brick/paperclip", but it can also be of value in the jobhunting process itself. Lateral thinking in the jobhunting process A number of graduates have tried the old and hackneyed methods of trying to gain the selector's attention, such as enclosing a tea bag with their application, so that the selector could take a break to have a cup of tea before reading it. Others have send their CV to newspapers in a magazine format, but below are a couple of truly original approaches: A graduate had been trying to get into investment banking, but without success and had exhausted all the normal routes. As a last resort, he had 100 postcard-sized CVs printed. He then went round the "Square Mile" in the City, where all the main financial organisations in London are located and proceeded to place one of these CVs under the windscreen of every Rolls Royce and top of the range BMW and Mercedes he came across. Next day, he had several 'phone calls offering him interviews from the senior executives whom the cars belonged to. Note that we are not advocating this approach: one graduate jobseeker put up 200 poster sized CVs around Hull and ended up being fined for bill posting! A student wanted to become a trainee journalist on her local newspaper. She decided to carefully analyse the content of the paper and compared it with similar local papers. She conducted a small survey of readers' opinions on the paper by interviewing passers-by in the city centre. Using this information, she drew up a list of possible changes to the paper, wrote a sample article to show what she had in mind and sent these to the editor. The editor invited her in to discuss her suggestions - they had a long discussion and the next vacancy that arose was offered to her without competition. One New York graduate who wished to work in a top advertising agency Googled the names of the creative directors of these agencies and then spent just six dollars on a set of Google ads that were triggered when the directors searched for their own names. The adverts said "Hey, (creative directors name), Googling yourself is a lot of fun. Hiring me is fun, too" Of the five directors he targeted, four gave him an interview and two offered him a job.

For more examples of lateral thinking in jobhunting see our Creative Careers Search page Lateral Thinking Quiz The following questions will test your ability to think laterally. If you get more than 50% of these right you're certainly strong on your lateral thinking skills (or maybe you're just good at quizzes!) A graduate applying for pilot training with a major airline was asked what he would do if, after a long-haul flight to Sydney, he met the captain wearing a dress in the hotel bar. What would you do? What can you hold in your right hand, but not in your left? If you have two coins totaling 11p, and one of the coins is not a penny, what are the two coins? Jackie Stewart, three times World Champion Formula One racing driver had undiagnosed dyslexia and was unable to complete his school education. He said: When youve got dyslexia and you find something youre good at, you put more into it than anyone else; you cant think the way of the clever folk, so youre always thinking out of the box." How many animals of each species did Moses take into the Ark? Jackie Stewart, three times World Champion Formula One racing driver had undiagnosed dyslexia and was unable to complete his school education. He said: When youve got dyslexia and you find something youre good at, you put more into it than anyone else; you cant think the way of the clever folk, so youre always thinking out of the box." A man built a rectangular house, each side having a southern view. He spotted a bear. What colour was the bear? If you were alone in a deserted house at night, and there was an oil lamp, a candle and firewood and you only have one match, which would you light first? What can you put in a wooden box that would make it lighter? The more of them you put in the lighter it becomes, yet the box stays empty. Which side of a cat contains the most hair? The 60th and 62nd British Prime Ministers of the UK had the same mother and father, but were not brothers. How do you account for this? "The fear of making a mistake, of risking an error, or of being told you are wrong is constantly with us. And thats a shame. Making mistakes is not the same thing as being creative, but if you are not willing to make mistakes, then it is impossible to be truly creative. I f your state of mind is coming from a place of fear and risk avoidance, then

you will always settle for the safe solutionsthe solutions already applied many times before. Failing is ne, necessary in fact. But avoiding experimentation or riskespecially out of fear of what others may thinkis something that will gnaw at your gut more than any ephemeral failure. A failure is in the past. Its done and over. In fact, it doesnt exist. But worrying about what might be if or what might have been if I had are pieces of baggage you carry around daily. Theyre heavy, and theyll kill your creative spirit. Take chances and stretch yourself. Youre only here on this planet once, and for a very short time at that. Why not just see how gifted you are?" Daniel Garr - Presentation Zen How many birthdays does a typical woman have? "The fear of making a mistake, of risking an error, or of being told you are wrong is constantly with us. And thats a shame. Making mistakes is not the same thing as being creative, but if you are not willing to make mistakes, then it is impossible to be truly creative. I f your state of mind is coming from a place of fear and risk avoidance, then you will always settle for the safe solutionsthe solutions already applied many times before. Failing is ne, necessary in fact. But avoiding experimentation or riskespecially out of fear of what others may thinkis something that will gnaw at your gut more than any ephemeral failure. A failure is in the past. Its done and over. In fact, it doesnt exist. But worrying about what might be if or what might have been if I had are pieces of baggage you carry around daily. Theyre heavy, and theyll kill your creative spirit. Take chances and stretch yourself. Youre only here on this planet once, and for a very short time at that. Why not just see how gifted you are?" Daniel Garr - Presentation Zen Why can't a man living in Canterbury be buried west of the River Stour? Divide 40 by half and add ten. What is the answer? To the nearest cubic centimetre, how much soil is there in a 3m x 2m x 2m hole? Is it legal for a man to marry his widow's sister? If you drove a coach leaving Canterbury with 35 passengers, dropped off 6 and picked up 2 at Faversham, picked up 9 more at Sittingbourne, dropped off 3 at Chatham, and then drove on to arrive in London 40 minutes later, what would the name of the driver be? A woman lives on the tenth floor of a block of flats. Every morning she takes the lift down to the ground floor and goes to work. In the evening, she gets into the lift, and, if there is someone else in the lift she goes back to her floor directly. Otherwise, she goes to the eighth floor and walks up two flights of stairs to her flat. How do you explain this?

A window cleaner is cleaning the windows on the 25th floor of a skyscraper, when he slips and falls. He is not wearing a safety harness and nothing slows his fall, yet he suffered no injuries. Explain. The band of stars across the night sky is called the "...... Way"? Yogurt is made from fermented ........ What do cows drink? I once visited a major pharmaceutical company to discuss their graduate recruitment for marketing. They told me that one of the key attributes they looked for was Helicopter Ability: the ability to soar above a problem and to see all aspects of it, to stand back and see the bigger picture, the wood rather than the trees. Creativity involves being able to think outside the box to nd solutions to unpredictable problems. This needs logic and analysis, but also the ability to see the big-picture and this involves a creative mind. A farmer has 15 cows, all but 8 die. How many does he have left? I once visited a major pharmaceutical company to discuss their graduate recruitment for marketing. They told me that one of the key attributes they looked for was Helicopter Ability: the ability to soar above a problem and to see all aspects of it, to stand back and see the bigger picture, the wood rather than the trees. Creativity involves being able to think outside the box to nd solutions to unpredictable problems. This needs logic and analysis, but also the ability to see the big-picture and this involves a creative mind. If a red house is made of red bricks, and a blue house is made of blue bricks, what is a green house made of? In what sport are the shoes made of metal? The Zorganian Republic has some very strange customs. Couples only wish to have female children as only females can inherit the family's wealth, so if they have a male child they keep having more children until they have a girl. If they have a girl, they stop having children. What is the ratio of girls to boys in Zorgania? If a plane crashes on the Italian/Swiss border, where do you bury the survivors? If the hour hand of a clock moves 1/60th of a degree every minute, how many degrees will it move in an hour? How many hands does the clock of Big Ben have? How many degrees are there between clock hands at 3.15 pm? How many times do the hands of a clock overlap in 24 hours?

John's mother has 3 children, one is named April, one is named May. What is the third one named? You are running in a race. You overtake the second person. What position are you in? In the same race, if you overtake the last person, then you are in what position? A cowboy rode into town on Friday, spent one night there, and left on Friday. How do you account for this? How can you throw a ball as hard as you can, and make it stop and return to you, without hitting anything and with nothing attached to it? Using just ONE straight cut, how can you cut a rectangular cake into two equal parts when a rectangular piece has already been removed from it? A man went into a store to buy an item. He asked the assistant: "How much does it cost for one?" The assistant replied 2 pounds, Sir" "And how much for 10?" The assistant replied "4" "How much for 100?" He got the reply "6" What was the man buying? A man and his son were in a car crash. The father was killed and the son was taken to hospital with serious injuries. The examining doctor exclaims: "But, this is my son!". How can this be? There are 23 football teams playing in a knockout competition. What is the least number of matches they need to play to decide the winner? Sarah's father has five daughters. The oldest is called Lala, the next Lele, the third Lili, the fourth Lolo. What is the fifth daughter's name? You have to choose between three rooms. The first is full of raging fires The second is full of tigers that havent eaten in 3 years. The third is full of assassins with loaded machine guns. Which room should you choose?

Three of the glasses below are filled with orange juice and the other three are empty. By moving just one glass, can you arrange the glasses so that the full and empty glasses alternate? Name three consecutive days in English without using the words Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday What's unusual about this paragraph? Just how quickly you can find out what is so funny about it. It looks fairly ordinary and plain that you might think nothing is wrong with it. In fact, nothing is wrong with it! It is highly curious though. Study it and think about it, but you still may not find anything odd. But if you work at it a bit, you could just find out.

Join all the 9 dots on the right using four straight lines or less, without lifting your pen and without tracing the same line more than once. Do copy this onto paper if you wish to make it easier.

One student, desperate to get into advertising, had been rejected by the main London agencies, so he decided to try a different approach. He bought some pink envelopes and a small bottle of expensive perfume. He placed his CV in the envelopes and wrote "Private" on the outside. He liberally sprinkled the envelopes with scent and posted them to the senior agency partner in several of the biggest agencies. When it arrived, nobody dared to open the letters and the graduate was offered several interviews - presumably for his daring. Note that, we don't recommend this approach!

Answers:

Most of the above are what we call "Insight puzzles". Research by Schooler and Melcher (University of California) found that people who wrote down the puzzles and tried to solve them on paper were on average 30% less likely to come up with the right solution than those who didn't write it down and just solved them in their heads. Writing down the puzzles invokes the use of the left side of our brain which deals with verbal and logical (algorithmic) reasoning, rather than the right side which deals with visual and creative (heuristic) thinking. These puzzles tend to require creative rather than logical reasoning to solve them, so we need to use right brain thinking. Offer to buy her a drink! The captain was of course a woman. Many airlines are now hot on equal opportunities and a candidate who had difficulty envisaging that an airline captain might be female would not go very far! Your left hand, forearm or elbow. 10p and 1p - the other coin can be a penny! None. NOAH built the Ark White. Only at the North Pole can all four walls be facing South. The match! Holes The outside Churchill was Prime Minister twice, from 1940 to 45 and from 1951 to 55. One Because he is still alive . 90. Dividing by half is the same as multiplying by 2. None - it's a hole! No - because he's dead YOU are the driver! The woman is of small stature and couldn't reach the upper lift buttons. He was cleaning the inside of the windows. Milky Way Milk Water. After the previous two questions, did you answer milk? Eight Glass Horse racing; or other horse sports About 1 to 1. Any birth will always have a 50% chance of being male or female. You don't bury survivors! One Eight: there are four faces to the clock of Big Ben (see the picture to the right) Not zero degrees as you might at first think. The minute hand will be at 15 minutes (90 degrees clockwise from vertical) but the hour hand will have progressed to one quarter of the distance between 3 pm and 4 pm. Each hour represents 30 degrees (360 / 12), so one quarter of an hour equals 7.5 degrees. So the minute hand will be at 97.5 degrees: a 7.5 degree difference between the hands.

22: the minute hand will go round the dial 24 times, but the hour hand will also complete two circuits. 24 minus 2 equals 22. John If you overtake the second person then you become second. You can't overtake the last person in a race! His horse was named Friday. Go outside and throw it upwards. Cut it horizontally half way up (i.e. parallel to the top) . See right House numbers. The doctor was his mother. Going full circle, this is very similar to the first question. In a knockout competition, every team except the winner is defeated once and once only, so the number of matches is one less than the number of teams in this case 23-1 = 22. Sarah. The second room. Tigers that havent eaten in three years are dead! Pour the juice from the second glass into the fifth. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow. The letter e doesn't appear once in the paragraph. Here is one possible solution. Of course you have to go beyond the boundaries of the square of dots to solve this. Out of interest this particular puzzle is where the expression "to think outside the box" originally came from. Score Over 35. You are a true lateral thinking Guru. Edward De Bono would be proud of you. Or maybe you are the man himself. 28 to 34. Very good. 21 to 27. Quite good. 15 to 20. Average. Under 15 - watch The Matrix, The Simpsons and Dr Who a few more times. The final test! Pick one of the following cards:

When you have chosen your card, focus carefully on it and keep it clearly in your mind for 15 seconds. Once you have done this scroll down to the bottom of the page.Creative thinking is not a talent, it is a skill that can be learnt. Edward de Bono Intelligence is something we are born with. Thinking is a skill that must be learned.

Edward de Bono Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower Steve Jobs (founder of Apple) Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration. Edison The great composers did not set to work because they were inspired but became inspired because they were working. Ari Kiev An essential aspect of creativity is not being afraid to fail. Edwin Land Imagination is more important than knowledge. For while knowledge defines all we currently know and understand, imagination points to all we might yet discover and create. Albert Einstein Inventions dont come in Eureka moments: they are the consequence of experts absorbing themselves for so long in their field that they become pregnant with creative energy: deep immersion in an area of expertise. Bounce, by Michael Syed

Here are some web sites which will allow you to take lateral thinking further. For some more logic problems see our Case Interviews page Timed verbal logical reasoning test Creative Careers Search Page - how to network effectively. Institute of Practitioners in Advertising Diagonal Thinking Self-assessment Tool IPA Copywriting Test The most difficult application forms Can creativity be taught? Edward De Bono: the "inventor" of lateral thinking www.edwdebono.com/debono/lateral.htm

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