A book by Charles Thompson “What a Great Idea” says “The world is full of opposites. Of course, any attribute, concept or idea is meaningless without its opposite.”
All behaviour consists of opposites…Learn to see things backwards, inside out, and upside down.
How the method works
State your problem in reverse. Change a positive statement into a negative one.
Try to define what something is NOT.
Figure out what everybody else is NOT doing.
Use the “What If” Compass
Change the direction or location of your perspective
Flip-flop results
Turn defeat into victory or victory into defeat
Make the statement negative
For example, if you are dealing with Customer Service issues, list all the ways you could make customer service BAD. You will be pleasantly surprised at some of the ideas you
will come up with.
Doing What Everybody Else Doesn’t
For example, Apple Computer did what IBM didn’t, Japan made small, fuel-efficient cars.
The “What-If Compass”
The author has a list of pairs of opposing actions which can be applied to the problem.
Just ask yourself “What if I ……..” and plug in each one of the opposites. A small
sample:-
Stretch it/Shrink It
Freeze it/Melt it
Personalise it/De-personalise it
…
Change the direction or location of your perspective
Physical change of perspective, Manage by Walking around, or doing something
different.
Flip-flop results
If you want to increase sales, think about decreasing them. What would you have to do?
Turn defeat into victory or victory into defeat
If something turns out bad, think about the positive aspects of the situation. If I lost all of
the files off this computer, what good would come out of it? Maybe I would spend more
time with my family?! Who knows!
And frankly I have implemented it in many ways and got 100% results.
