Lateral Thinking for Every Day

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Cool lateral ideas

There are a myriad of lateral ideas in action to solve everyday problems. We now take them for granted but when they were first proposed they may have been seen as risky, silly or impractical. Here is a random selection of some of my favourites.

Problem:

Customers were waiting in line to be served by a busy assistant in a grocery shop.

Lateral idea:

Michael Cullen turned the shop around and let customers serve themselves. He created the world’s first supermarket, the King Kullen store in Queens, New York, in 1930.

Problem:

Naughty children are being disruptive on a trip.

Lateral idea:

Take a bag of the children’s favourite sweets (unwrapped). Tell the children they will share whatever sweets are left. Every time a child ...