Yes. Think in unusual and unexpected ways. For example, in the lecture below he explains how you should think about what you wouldn't normally want a taxi driver to be like, which is to have no idea where he's driving (before SatNavs were invented), and use that idea to come up with new ideas. This is really clever in my opinion. At 7 mins 39 secs: th-cam.com/video/RdfC-fgRC7E/w-d-xo.html
I bought his Parrallel thinking, when pursuing business and it helped a lot.
Thinking should be a compulsory subject throughout school.
but how does one develop skills in lateral thinking? Is it just practice?
Yes. Think in unusual and unexpected ways. For example, in the lecture below he explains how you should think about what you wouldn't normally want a taxi driver to be like, which is to have no idea where he's driving (before SatNavs were invented), and use that idea to come up with new ideas. This is really clever in my opinion. At 7 mins 39 secs: th-cam.com/video/RdfC-fgRC7E/w-d-xo.html
With that we got geoengineering