TILP36: Lateral Thinking

In this episode, Christy and David talk about lateral thinking in a 4.0 organizational environment. They discuss how lateral thinking shows up in leadership, why it matters over linear thinking, and how to exercise it. What is lateral thinking? Lateral thinking builds on traditional logical thinking. It brings creativity, problem-solving, and out-of-the-box thinking into traditional fact-based linear thinking. Lateral thinking takes the whole brain doing it with sometimes being about observation, exploring and examining, or breaking things down into pieces and looking to put them back together in a different way. Why does lateral thinking matter? The solutions to the complex problems need to be different, which requires lateral thinking. For you as a leader to innovate, you need lateral thinking. Lateral thinking draws in highly creative people. How do you do lateral thinking? Practicing in different disciplines gives you different perspectives that you’ll be able to bring to different positions. Learn to ask questions and deconstruct as a leader to get better at lateral thinking. Listen in to learn the importance of exercising linear thinking as a leader to enable your team to have a voice, to see the bigger picture, and to find solutions.