The Reversal Method
The reversal method is a lateral thinking technique that involves taking a situation and turning it around (upside down, inside out, back to front) to generate new perspectives and ideas. It uses the existing situation as a starting point to move in the opposite direction, helping to overcome creative blocks.
THE IDEA
The Reversal Method
Fractionation is a useful method for generating alternative ways of looking at a situation. But it has certain limitations. The fractions chosen are themselves fixed patterns and usually standard patterns. The choice of fractions is usually a vertical choice which follows the most natural lines of division. The result is that the fractions come together again to give a standard view of the situation. Although fractionation makes it easier to look at a situation in a different way the actual choice of fractions limits the variety of alternatives that can be generated. For example, the way one divides a square determines which new shapes can be made by reassembling its pieces.
The reversal method is more lateral in nature than the fractionation one. It tends to produce more unusual restructuring.
If you give someone an open-ended creative problem there is great difficulty in getting started. There is difficulty in moving at all. The person presented with the problem seems to say, ‘Where do I go, what do I do?’ This was very obvious when I asked a group of people to redesign some feature of the human body. One obvious approach was to take some actual feature as a starting point and then to modify it in some simple way. Thus there were suggestions to increase the number of arms or to lengthen the arms or to make them more flexible.
Unless one is going to sit around waiting for inspiration the most practical way to get moving is to work on what one has. In a swimming race when the swimmers come to turn at the end of the pool they kick hard against the end to increase their speed. In the reversal method one kicks hard against what is there and fixed in order to move away in the opposite direction.
Wherever a direction is indicated then the opposite direction is equally well defined. If you go towards New York you are going away from London (or whatever other place you started from). Whenever there is action then the opposite action is indicated. If you are filling a bath full of water then the opposite action is to empty the bath. If something is happening over time then one merely runs the time scale backwards in order to find the reverse process. This is rather like running a ciné film backwards. Whenever there is a one way relationship between two parties the situation can be reversed by changing the direction of this relationship. If a person is supposed to obey the government then the reversal would imply that the government ought to obey a person (or people).
In the reversal method one takes things as they are and then turns them round, inside out, upside down, back to front. Then one sees what happens. It is a provocative rearrangement of information. You make water run uphill instead of downhill. Instead of driving a car the car leads you.
When to use it
Generating innovative product features by reversing traditional design assumptions.
Reimagining customer service by putting the customer in control.
Solving logistical problems by reversing the flow of goods or information.
Developing new scientific hypotheses by considering the opposite of prevailing theories.
FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE
In practice
Swimming race turn
In a swimming race, when swimmers turn at the end of the pool, they kick hard against the end to increase their speed. Similarly, in the reversal method, one kicks hard against what is fixed to move in the opposite direction.
Redesigning the human body
In de Bono’s body-redesign exercise, participants began by modifying existing features, such as lengthening arms. A reversal could instead ask: what if objects came to the hand, rather than the hand reaching out to objects? The question provides a starting point for ideas, even if the literal reversal is impractical.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Put it to work.
How can you reverse a common assumption in your current project to generate new ideas?
Think of a process that is usually done in a certain sequence. What would happen if you reversed the order?
In a relationship (e.g., customer-company), what would change if the direction of power were reversed?
Often confused with
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Source texts
- Lateral Thinking A Textbook of Creativity (Edward de Bono)