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Inverse Thinking involves thinking about the opposite to what you need to achieve.
Inverse Thinking:
Care needs to taken when setting up for this tool. It is a serious tool, however people may think that due respect is not being given to the issue at hand when it is expressed in the ‘inverse’. No disrespect is intended, and this point needs to be emphasised. People also need to be forewarned that it may become apparent through using Inverse Thinking, that even with all the best intentions, some of the things that are already in place may in fact be the opposite of what is needed. Again, no disrespect is intended – this just happens to be one of the advantages and challenges of using Inverse Thinking. Steps for using Inverse Thinking1. Decide on a relevant Focus and then convert it into the ‘inverse Focus’ i.e. a focus that is worded so it means never achieving the result you need or achieving the opposite of the result you need. For example, if your focus was to reduce the number of road accidents in a geographic location, your inverse Focus would be: “To increase the number and severity of road accidents in the region.”
2. Ask people to think of ideas that would help to achieve the Focus (remind them it is ideas to achieve the ‘inverse Focus’), and get them to write their ideas down. 3. Go around the room getting one idea from each person and record them on a whiteboard or paper for everyone to see. Do not allow discussions about the ideas offered, however do allow points of clarification. Go round the room once. 4. Gather all remaining ideas, and allow ‘build-on’ and ‘spin-off’ ideas. 5. Once all the ideas have been gathered, ask the participants if they can see ‘categories’ of ideas that seem to go together. Do not group all ideas under these categories. The idea is more to get to critical factors that the categories are indicating. 6. Record this smaller number of critical factors which will still be expressed as critical factors to ensure the ‘inverse focus’ is achieved. 7. Now is the time to turn the Focus around again. Express it in terms of what actually needs to be achieved, and then look at the critical factors that were developed. Some of these factors will turn out to be possible “critical failure factors” that need to be removed from the current situation or avoided in any future situation. Others, when turned around, will indicate possible “critical success factors” that will need to be built into or strengthened in the current situation. 8. Record the thinking generated during the Inverse Thinking session, and don’t forget to make use of it. |
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