Lateral and Critical Thinking

Techniques that apply lateral thinking to problems are characterized by the shifting of lateral thinking patterns, away from entrenched or predictable thinking to new or unexpected ideas. A new idea that is the result of lateral thinking is not always a helpful one, but when a good idea is discovered in this way it is usually obvious in hindsight, which is a feature lateral thinking shares with a joke. Lateral thinking can be used to help in solving problems but can also be used for much more.
Critical thinking is primarily concerned with judging the truth-value of statements and seeking errors. Lateral thinking is more concerned with the movement value of statements and ideas. A person would use lateral thinking when they want to move from one known idea to creating new ideas.