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.
一位父亲正忙于为圣诞树张灯结彩，而他两岁的儿子却一直同速地摘除它们。他正想把这小淘气包放进游戏栏内，而妻子则建议把圣诞树放进游戏栏，小家伙留在栏外，也许这会更有意思。与其让孩子远离圣诞树，还不如让圣诞树远离小家伙。横向思考要求需要换很多角度来看待问题。与其一条道走到黑，还不如像横向思考这般，寻找其他不同的解决途径。

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.
你不能指望给不同的情况，开同一种治病药方。委员会被说服了认可设置停车收费器是有效控制城市停车的唯一办法，他们也将花时间决定选用什么样的收费器，何处使用以及如何有效检查他们。而横向思考者则会看到其他的解决途径：放任人们停在他们想停的位置，只要他们一直亮着他们的车前灯；给人们发放驾照，且他们在城镇里只能一周停放一天，并以此鼓励他们互相分享车资源；可发放到手的驾照，是指驾驶员想在他居住的城镇任意停车时，就得花钱购买的。

参考译文：

父亲忙着往圣诞树上挂装饰品，刚挂上，两岁的儿子就给扯了下来。他正要把孩子放进游戏围栏里， 他的妻子却建议说，也许圣诞树放在围栏里而孩子在外面更好些。不让孩子靠近树，倒不如把树放到孩子够不着的地方。横向思维就是从侧面换个角度看问题。进行这种思维的人不是把注意力固定子啊某一方向上并进行行动而是试试是否还有其他方法。

你把洞挖的再深也不等于你另挖一个洞。如果有一个委员会确信只有使用停车计时器才能控制市内存车，那么它就会花时间去考虑使用何种计时器，计时器装在何处以及如何检查这些问题。横向思维者则会考虑其它解决办法，如只要人们打开车灯，他们愿把车停在哪儿都行；发给他们停车许可证，允许他们一周只有一天可在城里免费停车，这样可鼓励人们合用车；或是发行一种张贴于车窗上的许可证，驾车人买了它就可以在城里任何地方停车。