Opposites Attract. The Creativity of 180 Degree Thinking
Micheal Michalko calls it "reversal of assumptions." Tom Monahan calls it "180 Degree Thinking." Ultimately, it's about pushing your mind in the opposite direction to develop accidental or reverse directed brilliance.
Professorial Stuff. Think of ideas as a see saw. On one end is all your conventional ideas. The other end is the opposite: Big is small. Nice is mean. Profitable is unprofitable. Physicist and philosopher David Bohem believed that geniuses were able to think in opposite or incompatible subjects. (Michalko). So the creative technique is to gather up the expected or typical directions you would normally use in solving a problem or exploiting and opportunity. Then, push your idea in the opposite direction. Make a list of attributes and then a list of opposites. Hot/Cold Expensive/Cheap Orange/Not Orange. Let's begin with an example inspired by Michalko: Bars. Bars have menus. Bars charge money for drinks. Bars have drinks. Now reverse each assumption. Bars don't have menus of any kind. Bars giveaway drinks for free. And bars do not serve drinks of any kind.
Now you work with the reversed assumption. (Bars have no menus) Maybe the bar carries a limited selection based on what the owner buys each day. The owner/bartender tells the customers exactly what they have for that day. Or he or she sings the menu. Or they point to pictures on the wall. (Bars have drinks) The bar charges for the time the client sits and drinks. A bar that doesn't have drinks. Maybe it's an oxygen bar. Or it's BYO drinks and you provide the atmosphere and (ice, extras, people etc)
Now you build upon the reversals. Maybe invest in an oxygen bar with your regular bar. Or you create an area where people can bring their own but you charge for food and service. This technique can be used in a group setting. Ask the group to write down their assumptions about a particular problem. Then, they reverse the idea out loud. Michalko has a great example in his book Cracking Creativity. A copier company reversed that assumption from noncooperaton to cooperation. The conventional thinking was not to cooperate with your competitor in any way.
The company reversed their this to a policy that they would not only service the competitions machines, but would honor their service warranties as well. The policy was a success because it was based on an expanded service model.
Is less more? Is small the new big? Is whispering the new loud? Try it on any problem, professional and personal and like the other related lessons in Spring Training for Creativity it will open the door to unexpected thinking.
Check out Tom Monahan's book "The Do-it-Yourself Lobotomy." Or his web site www.do-it-yourselfLobotomy.com.
Posted on Friday, April 13, 2007 at 04:26PM
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