What approaches can be utilized to provoke changes in lateral thinking?
The primary objective of provocation is to introduce discontinuity into the thought process by forcing a change in the way the problem is looked at. Both change from within the problem context and change external to the problem context can be provoked. Change from within can be introduced by looking at the problem using a reversal or backward approach. Another method of change from within is to employ exaggeration. In contrast to a reversal, the direction of change is one of increasing the characteristics and boundaries of the problem rather than simply reversing them. Change from outside the problem context can also be used to provoke lateral thinking. The most common method of introducing change from outside of the problem context is to use analogies. By translating the problem into a completely different context, developing and refining solutions for it, and then translating those solutions back into the original problem context, new and creative alternatives can often be discovered
