The answer to last week’s Mental Floss challenge. Q: An Arab Sheikh tells his two sons that they must race their two camels to a distant city to see who will inherit his fortune. The one whose camel arrives last will win. The brothers, after wandering aimlessly for days, ask a wise man for advice. After hearing his advice they jump on the camels and race as fast as they can to their destination. What did he tell them?

A: The wise man told them to swap camels.

We can start to gain traction on many of the issues and opportunities we face with the inclusion of lateral thinking. Lateral approaches allow us to routinely shift perspectives and see things from another directions, this allows changes in perception and new possibilities that were hitherto unseen or imagined.

The ability to shift perspectives is perhaps the most valuable skill one can have in both business and personal life. Yet, we tend to stick to our own habitual thinking styles and biases and continue to see the world in the same way. We all do this, but …… we can all dramatically improve the ways we think with the application of some simple processes.

We will explore means of shifting perspectives over the coming weeks, but in the interim try thinking about this from a different direction … This week’s Lateral Thinking challenge is:

A painter was painting using an ordinary paintbrush. Something startled him and he dropped the brush and it fell on the ceiling, not the floor. How could this be?

The answer will be posted along with next week’s Mental Floss.

Good Luck!