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.

我的翻译：

一位父亲正忙着给圣诞树装饰，他刚把饰品挂在树上他两岁大的儿子就给扯了下来。于是，他想把他儿子放到一个护栏里头，但他老婆建议把树而不是他儿子放到护栏里会更好。与其让小孩远离树不如把树远离小孩。横向思维旨在换个方向，以一种新的视角看待事物。所以说，横向思维者不会一成不变，而是会尝试各种途径解决问题。

在同一个地方挖得再深，也不能挖出一个新的洞来。如果一个委员会相信停车计时器是解决城市停车问题的唯一解决方案，他们就只会花时间去想用什么样的计时器，把它们放在哪儿，怎么样去检查这些问题。而一个横向思维者就会考虑其它办法，比如只要车主停车时开着灯，他们想停哪儿就停哪儿；比如给车主们发放牌照，让他们一周内只能有一天在市内免费停车，从而鼓励他们共享车辆；又比如颁发一种可见的牌照，车主只要付钱就可以在市内任何地方停车。

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在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。