Reverse brainstorming
Overcome mental blocks when problem solving
Practice
109
Reverse brainstorming
Overcome mental blocks when problem solving
Is your group working on a problem and is stuck for ideas of how to solve it? Help them come up with new perspectives and potential solutions using the reverse brainstorming method.
Time needed: 30 à 45 minutes
Materials:
Prerequisite: the scenario or problem to be resolved must have already been identified beforehand.
The purpose of reverse brainstorming is not to come up with the “miracle solution” but to think about the problem differently. It invites the group to tackle the issue in reverse, identifying what isn’t working in the current situation and revealing other ways of resolving it.
When faced with a problem, we often focus on the “what” and end up falling back into old habits rather than looking at the actual issue at hand. Reverse brainstorming helps to get around this by going back to the “why”, encouraging us to adopt a new approach that goes against what we’re used to.
For example, if the problem is “Successfully integrate a new recruit into the team”, the opposite effect would be “Completely ruin the integration of a new recruit into the team.”
For example :
To keep the energy up during the sharing time, encourage the group to stand up and move around to look at the different creations and solutions.