Lateral Thinking Tool: Harvesting

Edward de Bono's Lateral Thinking tool, Harvesting, is applied toward the end of a thinking session in order to bank ideas that may prove to be valuable in the current situation or in the future.

Harvesting both increases the number of ideas that are saved and provides a way to organize ideas by how developed they are at present. Harvesting helps you spot ideas that could be implemented right away as well as those that need more work. By Harvesting, you can avoid moving too quickly to choose among all of the ideas you’ve generated. Instead, take a longer look and make the most of the “yield.”

Harvesting Example: A newly launched web-based business that sells sailing gear is thinking of ways to attract likely prospects to its site. Here are two of the ideas produced in a thinking session:

• Use social media.
• Write a white paper on the care and repair of sails.

During Harvesting, “Use social media” was considered a Beginning Idea that would need further development. “Write a white paper on the care and repair of sails” was a Specific Idea that could be executed right away.

Both ideas were saved. The white paper was written and posted within a week and “Use social media” led to the creation of a blog about sailing trends. The team later revisited “Use social media” and used Concept Extraction to produce many further ideas.

Learn more about Edward de Bono's Lateral Thinking Thinking Tools.