Edward de Bono is generally credited with introducing the concept of lateral thinking in 1967 and then in a book, Lateral Thinking: Creativity Step by Step (1970).

Vertical Thinking is what Aristotle has in mind in On Rhetoric when discussing what are generally referred to as the four levels of discourse. Argumentation, for example, convinces with logic (induction or education) and/or evidence. Vertical thinking still has substantial merit but de Bono suggests that we also consider Radical Thinking, a process by which to solve problems through an indirect and creative approach, using reasoning that is not immediately obvious and involving ideas that may not be obtainable by using only traditional (i.e. vertical) step-by-step logic.

As de Bono explains, “The mind is a pattern making system. The mind creates patterns out of the environment and then recognizes and uses such patterns. This is the basis of its effectiveness. Because the sequence of arrival of information determines how it is to be arranged in a pattern, such patterns are always less than the best possible arrangement of information. [Creative or innovative thinking is inevitably messy. How could it be otherwise?] In order to bring such patterns up to date and so make better use of the contained information, one needs as mechanism for insight restructuring. This can never be provided by logical thinking which h works to relate accepted concepts, not to restructure them…

“Lateral thinking works at an earlier stage than vertical thinking. Lateral thinking is used to restructure the perceptual pattern which is the way a situation is looked at. Vertical thinking then accepts that perceptual pattern and develops it. Lateral thinking is generative, vertical thinking is selective. Effectiveness is the aim of both.”

I think of Lateral Thinking as an all terrain vehicle; I think of Vertical Thinking as a railroad engine on a track.

Edward de Bono is regarded as the leading international authority in the field of conceptual thinking and also the direct teaching of thinking as a skill. He originated the concept of “lateral thinking,” which is now officially recognized in the Oxford English Dictionary — and which contributed to the success of the 1984 Olympic Games. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and has held faculty appointments at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, London, and Harvard.

In addition to Lateral Thinking, Six Thinking Hats: An Essential Approach to Business Management (1999) is another of my personal favorites among his 27 books.

To learn more about him and his work, please click here.http://www.amazon.com/Edward-De-Bono/e/B000AQ3GY6/ref=dp_byline_cont_book_1