“Lateral thinking… is the process of using information to bring about creativity and insight restructuring.”

— Edward de Bono

Source: Lateral Thinking : Creativity Step by Step (1970), p. 5; Preface.
Context: Lateral thinking... is the process of using information to bring about creativity and insight restructuring. Lateral thinking can be learned, practised and used. It is possible to acquire skill in it just as it is possible to acquire skill in mathematics.

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Edward de Bono 33

Maltese physician 1933

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“Lateral thinking... is the process of using information to bring about creativity and insight restructuring. Lateral thinking can be learned, practised and used. It is possible to acquire skill in it just as it is possible to acquire skill in mathematics.”

Edward de Bono (1933) Maltese physician

Source: Lateral Thinking : Creativity Step by Step (1970), p. 5; Preface

“The concept of lateral thinking is insight restructuring and this is brought about through the rearrangement of information.”

Edward de Bono (1933) Maltese physician

Source: Lateral Thinking : Creativity Step by Step (1970), p. 159.
Context: The concept of lateral thinking is insight restructuring and this is brought about through the rearrangement of information. Rearrangement is the basis of lateral thinking and rearrangement means escape from the rigid patterns established by experience. The rearrangement process is incorporated in the concept of the (re) laxative. The laxative is a rearranging device. It is the means whereby one can escape from established patterns and create new ones. The laxative allows the arrangement of information in new ways from which new patterns can arise. The concept of the laxative is crystallized into a definite language tool. This language tool is PO. Once one learns the function and use of PO one has learned how to use lateral thinking. The whole concept of lateral thinking is concentrated in the use of this language tool. Lateral thinking could be said to be the management of PO just as logical thinking is the management of NO.

“Lateral thinking is closely related to insight, creativity and humour.”

Edward de Bono (1933) Maltese physician

Source: Lateral Thinking : Creativity Step by Step (1970), p. 6; First paragraph of the introduction.
Context: Lateral thinking is closely related to insight, creativity and humour. All four processes have the same basis. But whereas insight, creativity and humour can only be prayed for, lateral thinking is a more deliberate process. It is as definite a way of using the mind as logical thinking — but a very different way.

“[A process for encoding qualitative information] used as part of many qualitative method, considers that is not a separate method but something to be used to assist the researcher in the search of insight.”

Richard Boyatzis (1946) American business theorist

Source: Transforming qualitative information (1998), p. as cited in: Graciela Tonon (2012) Young People's Quality of Life and Construction of Citizenship. p. 53.

“Restructuring is a favorite tactic of antisocials who have reached a senior position in an organization. The chaos that results is an ideal smokescreen for dysfunctional leadership. Failure at the top goes unnoticed, while the process of restructuring creates the illusion of a strong, creative hand on the helm.”

Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries (1942) Dutch academic

Source: The Leader on the Couch, 2011, p. 22

“For us, there is no longer a fundamental mystery about Life. It is all the process of extraordinary eruptions of information”

Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English writer and humorist

Parrots, the Universe and Everything (2001)
Context: For us, there is no longer a fundamental mystery about Life. It is all the process of extraordinary eruptions of information, and it is information which gives us this fantastically rich, complex world in which we live; but at the same time that we've discovered that we are destroying it at a rate that has no precedent in history, unless you go back to the point when we are hit by an asteroid!