Collateral thinking is the ability to think laterally while concomitantly respecting traditional thinking and having regard for conventional wisdom. Most of the world’s population has been brought up to think
conventionally. A few are lateral thinkers and a little less are collateral thinkers.I am a proponent of collateral thinking!.
Lateral thinking is a prerequisite to innovation and a condition sine qua non
to invention but usually encounters fierce impedance at the start/ during the course,
almost so that most of the times, the ideas of lateral thinkers hardly ever go
beyond the neurons that conceived them
to come to light. This is because as one of my teachers used to tell me:
Deviate from tradition, Say something new…. and no one will
like to listen to you! Try to convince anyone to accept and you will just be
hated….even if everyone knows deep in the sub-consciously mind that you are
right! This is human nature! Don’t or never force anyone to abide to your idea,
convince him /her to look at his/her own ideas from a different angle—your
angle of vision…this is collateral thinking!
Lateral thinkers are idea developers endowed with the ability not only to see at a distance but also to see rightly whereas collateral thinking is the mindset needed to take the idea everywhere.Collateral thinkers are clairvoyant visionaries ; they
are fighters not affected by controversy and with a positive mindset commendable to be trusted. They believe
adversity happens for them not to them and explore and exploit every situation they find
themselves positively. They have the ability to change negativity into
positivity.
Conventional thinkers simply respect and follow the rules!
Collateral thinking is thus a
subtle way of incorporating and blending “lateral thinking-” into “traditional
ways (the usual)” without causing friction between schools of thought. Everyone
stays within his comfort zone, considers his/her idea as contributive but
sub-consciously accepting the new way! Esene 06-06-2014
To which group do you belong?
Traditional, Collateral or Lateral?
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