原文：
A father is busy putting decorations on the Christmas tree, but as quickly as he puts them on his two-year-old son pulls them off. He is about to put the child in a play-pen when his wife suggests that it might make more sense to put the tree in the play-pen and leave the child outside. Instead of keeping the child away from the tree one can keep the tree away from the child. Lateral thinking involves moving sideways to look at things in a different way. Instead of fixing on one particular approach and then working forward from that the lateral thinker tries to find other approaches.

You cannot dig a hole in a different place by digging the same hole deeper. A committee that is convinced that parking meters are the only way to control city parking will spend its time deciding what meters to use, where to put them and how to patrol them. A lateral thinker would look at other approaches: letting people park anywhere they liked so long as they left their headlights on; giving people licences which would allow them to park free in town only one day a week and so encouraging car sharing; visible licences that the motorist would pay for if he wanted to park anywhere in his town.

我的翻譯：

一位父親正忙著給圣誕樹裝飾，他剛把飾品掛在樹上他兩歲大的兒子就給扯了下來。于是，他想把他兒子放到一個(gè)護(hù)欄里頭，但他老婆建議把樹而不是他兒子放到護(hù)欄里會(huì)更好。與其讓小孩遠(yuǎn)離樹不如把樹遠(yuǎn)離小孩。橫向思維旨在換個(gè)方向，以一種新的視角看待事物。所以說，橫向思維者不會(huì)一成不變，而是會(huì)嘗試各種途徑解決問題。

在同一個(gè)地方挖得再深，也不能挖出一個(gè)新的洞來。如果一個(gè)委員會(huì)相信停車計(jì)時(shí)器是解決城市停車問題的唯一解決方案，他們就只會(huì)花時(shí)間去想用什么樣的計(jì)時(shí)器，把它們放在哪兒，怎么樣去檢查這些問題。而一個(gè)橫向思維者就會(huì)考慮其它辦法，比如只要車主停車時(shí)開著燈，他們想停哪兒就停哪兒；比如給車主們發(fā)放牌照，讓他們一周內(nèi)只能有一天在市內(nèi)免費(fèi)停車，從而鼓勵(lì)他們共享車輛；又比如頒發(fā)一種可見的牌照，車主只要付錢就可以在市內(nèi)任何地方停車。

參考譯文：

父親忙著往圣誕樹上掛裝飾品，剛掛上，兩歲的兒子就給扯了下來。他正要把孩子放進(jìn)游戲圍欄里， 他的妻子卻建議說，也許圣誕樹放在圍欄里而孩子在外面更好些。不讓孩子靠近樹，倒不如把樹放到孩子夠不著的地方。橫向思維就是從側(cè)面換個(gè)角度看問題。進(jìn)行這種思維的人不是把注意力固定在某一方向上并進(jìn)行行動(dòng)而是試試是否還有其他方法。

你把洞挖的再深也不等于你另挖一個(gè)洞。如果有一個(gè)委員會(huì)確信只有使用停車計(jì)時(shí)器才能控制市內(nèi)存車，那么它就會(huì)花時(shí)間去考慮使用何種計(jì)時(shí)器，計(jì)時(shí)器裝在何處以及如何檢查這些問題。橫向思維者則會(huì)考慮其它解決辦法，如只要人們打開車燈，他們?cè)赴衍囃Ｔ谀膬憾夹?；發(fā)給他們停車許可證，允許他們一周只有一天可在城里免費(fèi)停車，這樣可鼓勵(lì)人們合用車；或是發(fā)行一種張貼于車窗上的許可證，駕車人買了它就可以在城里任何地方停車。