DuPont trains all its employees in the use of five techniques: lateral thinking, metaphoric thinking, positive thinking, association trigger, and capturing and interpreting dreams. Use of these...

DuPont trains all its employees in the use of five techniques: lateral thinking, metaphoric thinking, positive thinking, association trigger, and capturing and interpreting dreams. Use of these techniques has been very profitable. For example, DuPont researchers were trying to work out a way to dye Nomex fibres, which had proved to be impervious to dyes. Using the metaphor of a mineshaft, one researcher realised that timbers (metaphorically speaking) were needed to hold the fibre apart so that the dye could take effect. He then found a chemical agent that acted much like a timber in a mineshaft, holding the hole open until dyes could take effect.