(continued...)
The Logic of Provocation
In humor the storyteller suddenly places us on the side
track and immediately we can see our way back to the starting
point. In humor the punchline serves as the bridge between
the main track and the side track. With lateral thinking,
however, there is no storyteller to make the jump for us.
So we have to devise a practical means for cutting across
the tracks. We can do this by using a combination of provocation
and movement.
I invented the word "PO" which stands for a provocation
operation. It signals that what follows is to be used directly
as a provocation (that is to say, used for its movement
value). A PO provides the some sort of value that has been
provided historically by accident, mistake, eccentricity,
or individual bold- mindedness. The PO (provocation) serves
to take us out of the comfort of an existing pattern.
Provocations in Action
I once asked a group of youngsters how they might estimate
the height of a tall building that stood near some open
ground. They offered several sensible alternatives: ask
the caretaker, who might know the height; lower a weighted
string and then measure the string; measure the height of
one floor and multiply the number of floors in the building;
time the drop of a stone and estimate the height by formula;
pace out fifty yards, measure the angle to sight the top
of the building, and use trigonometry. One youngster wanted
to be facetious and suggested that the simplest way was
to put the building on its side and then to pace out the
length. The idea of placing the building on its side was
intended as a silly idea. But if we choose to treat it as
a provocation (PO), we can get some practical ideas from
it.
We can physically try to place the building on its side.
We can do this in a photograph by cutting the building out
of a photograph and placing it on its side. But before taking
the photograph, we place a large cardboard box twenty yards
from the base of the building. In the photograph the distance
of the box from the base of the building will represent
twenty yards, so by proportionality, we can easily work
out the length (height) of the building. Another way is
to put a model of the building on its side. This can be
done by holding up a stick so that the top end of the stick
is aligned with the top of the building and the bottom end
with the base of the building. The bottom end of the stick
is kept on the base of the building and the top of the stick
is now turned ninety degrees so it is horizontal. A note
is made of where the top of the stick hits the ground. The
distance between this point and the actual base of the building
can be paced out to give the height of the building. Yet
another approach is to say that perhaps the building is
already on the ground-if there happens to be a shadow, you
measure the length of your own shadow and compare this to
your known height. Then you take this ratio and use it to
multiply the length of the shadow of the building.
With this example the thinker chose to treat a silly idea
as a PO. When lateral thinking is used as a deliberate tool,
the thinker must be able to set up deliberate provocations
(PO) and not just wait for them to appear. There are indeed
formal ways to set up provocations. These include escape,
reversal, exaggeration, distortion, and wishful thinking.
Using such step-by-step methods, the lateral thinker can
set up a provocation to provoke his or her own thinking.
There is no need to wait for someone else to set up a provocation.
The PO that, "the factory should be downstream of itself,"
led to the idea of making the input downstream of the output
in order to increase consciousness of pollution.
