Hiren Shah articles

By Hiren Shah-2292 words<a href="http://www.lifepositive.com/Mind/personal-growth/personal-growth/lateral.asp">THINKING OUT OF THE BOX</a>- 2292 wordsEdward de Bono's gift to the world, lateral or nonlinear thinking can help you conjurecreative solutions to emerge a winner in an increasingly complex worldThere is a story of a salesman in America who became a multimillionaire selling lifeinsurance. On being asked about the secret of his success, he answered that he told hisclients he was there to buy life insurance for them rather than sell it. He did this to pre-empt the instinctual American skepticism and abhorrence of salesmen. In Canada, RonBarbaro, chief executive of the Prudential Insurance Company, made one of the mostinnovative changes in life insurance. He introduced a system where a person diagnosedwith a terminal disease could be paid off during his lifetime to enable him to afford histreatment. This was the most revolutionary and successful idea in life insurance in 120years. Barbaro used the methods of Edward de Bono, whose name has becomesynonymous with lateral thinking.A Ph.D. in psychology, de Bono has held high academic positions at Oxford, Cambridgeand Harvard universities. He has written over 40 books translated into 25 languages andhas also made two television series aired around the world. He is the author of the famous"coRT" thinking program used internationally to directly teach thinking in schools.Examples of applications of lateral or nonlinear thinking abound in several fields. Incricket, Kerry Packer introduced day/night matches and colorful balls and clothing, adeparture from tradition that became so successful, the whole world of cricket adopted it.Australia recently experimented with two different captains for the Test and one-daymatches.Lateral thinking is a step-by-step method of creative thinking with prescribed techniquesthat can be used consciously. According to de Bono, intelligence is a potential andthinking is a skill to use that potential. He adds that thinking is no substitute for information but information may be a substitute for thinking. While information isswamping us, the need is for appropriate thinking techniques to avoid being weigheddown by excessive information. Just as the skill of the driver determines how a car isused, thinking determines how intelligence is used. One may be a good thinker without being an intellectual and vice-versa.There is a spiritual dimension to lateral thinking that has more to do with perception thanlogic. Good conduct that arises from right thoughts and perceptions is as important asmeditation and spiritual practices. De Bono compares cleverness to a sharp focus cameraand wisdom to a wide-angled lens and wisdom depends heavily upon perception. Nearlyall systems of meditation aim at purity of heart and mind to refine perceptions for sound judgment. Philosophy, literally 'love for wisdom', is also a means of spirituality. Wisdom

to a large extent involves correction of perception by experience when one considers thedictum, "knowledge comes but wisdom lingers". Focusing directly on 'thinking' sharpens perceptions and lateral thinking is one of the best means to achieve that objective. In theintroduction to his book Serious Creativity Using the Powers of Lateral Thinking, deBono states that human perception works as a self-organizing information system.A SKILL THAT CAN BE LEARNTThere is a misleading belief that creativity belongs to the world of art and is a matter of talent and chance and nothing can be consciously done about it. Lateral thinking isspecifically concerned with changing preconceived notions to bring out new ideas andcan be acquired and practiced as a skill. It is a special information handling process likemathematics, logical analysis or computer simulation. Thinking techniques, oncemastered, can be used both individually and in a group, dispensing with brainstorming. Inall the examples of lateral thinking given in this article, unconventionality clearly comesto the fore. According to de Bono, one should be free of constraints, tradition and historyin order to be creative. But that freedom is more effectively obtained by using certaindeliberate techniques rather than by hoping to be free. There is a prevailing belief thatstructures are restrictive for creative thinking but this is not entirely true. A cup does notlimit one's choice of drink, so one can consciously avoid being limited by structures andapply them to one's field.De Bono has developed several techniques of lateral thinking under the three broadcategories: Challenge, Alternatives and Provocation. The creative challenge is a challengeto exclusivity, which does not accept status quo and is particularly relevant in those areaswhere ideas have become obsolete with time. Circumstances and situations often restrictthe choice of alternatives and, therefore, it is better to assume a dynamic state of affairs.Limits and components are changed to enable new ways of doing things to emergesuccessful. Provocation is more in the nature of hypothesis where a situation is firstconceived or imagined and then one proceeds to arrive at unique plausible conclusions.According to De Bono, the words hy(po)thesis, sup(PO)se, (PO)ssible and (PO)etry allindicate the forward or proactive use of a statement, which implies that we make astatement first and see where it takes us. This is against prose and description, in whichwe seek to show something as it is, currently.DE BONO'S 6 THINKING HATSThe most popular technique presented by de Bono is the six thinking hats. Acting on the presumption that doing different things at the same time is difficult and confusing, wenormally make use of one type of thinking at a given time. The hats denote the following:l. White Hat: facts & figures, (what information do we have and need to get?)2. Red Hat: emotions, intuition, feelings (how do we feel about the situation?)3. Black Hat: judgment (does this fit the facts?)4. Yellow Hat: advantages, benefits (how is it a good thing to do?)5. Green Hat: explorations, alternatives, etc. (are there different ways?)6. Blue Hat: thinking about thinking (control of the thinking process)Hats are often used to denote the role one is playing such as a baseball cap, soldier'shelmet, and can be easily taken off and worn again. When a person puts on a hat he or she

plays the role that belongs to that hat. This makes it a game where individuals areencouraged to contribute all kinds of ideas under diverse hats. The role-playing detachesthe ego from thinking, which leads to objectivity, one of the most difficult things toachieve in a group discussion. The western tradition of argument results in taking positions whereby discussions are reduced to verbal wars of attrition with a clash of personalities rather than of issues. With the six hats, instead of confrontation there issupportive scrutiny of an issue, which is useful where there are fierce arguments, bickering or obstinacy. It is easy to switch thinking without causing offense. The six-hatsmethod works as well everywhere and can also be used in family situations. Its mostfruitful advantage is that it forces you to think more broadly.De Bono further states that generating creative ideas using his various techniques is notenough. Ideas, by nature, are risky. Because the idea is new, one is not sure that it willwork or be practicable at the operational level. There may be a need to invest time,money and energy before an idea bears fruit. Most people are reluctant to make this effortso necessary as complexities multiply at the turn of the 21st century. One person who didand became a stupendous success is Dhirubhai Ambani.Lateral thinking can save your life, as illustrated in this story. Two men were on a junglesafari in Africa. Suddenly, they came across a tiger that started roaring. Both men werefrightened and one of them started wearing his shoes. The other one said: "How is thisgoing to help? We can't outrun the tiger." The first man replied: "I don't have to outrun thetiger, I only have to outrun you."RELIANCE: STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESSDhirubhai Ambani evokes strong reactions from people but nobody can be indifferent tohis achievements. To the many happy shareholders of Reliance, he is good enough todeserve the Bharat Ratna and at the other extreme he is vehemently reviled for his business methods. On being criticized on his modus operandi of openly using politicalinfluence for corporate gain, Dhirubhai has repeatedly asserted: ''That is only a minor element of our work. Why not focus on the major portion related to implementation,where so many organizations goof up?'' He adds: ''I give least importance to number one.I was nothing but a small merchant but I reached this level here. I consider myself fortunate to be in this position, but I have no pride. I am as I was.''Reliance is globally admired for its rapid and time-bound implementation methods andthose are where lateral thinking is employed to the maximum.Reliance executives are constantly encouraged to think out-of-the-box, rather thantraditionally or sequentially. The top bosses themselves have this tremendous ability tothink laterally and look at business as a series of processes as illustrated by their quotes:''The leadership of Reliance Industries has always shunned incremental thinking,'' saysAnil Ambani, MD of the Reliance group. Older brother Mukesh Ambani says: ''We work in concentric circles, rather than in straight ranks, but there's always a center of accountability. We don't believe in core competence. We believe in building competencearound processes and people to create value.''