The creativity of the human mind is excellent at making progress back toward something it understands and fairly hopeless at making progress away from its well trodden paths.
For that reason, many creativity techniques tend to take the mind somewhere unfamiliar. Then, in the process of finding its way ‘back home’, the mind discovers new links which were otherwise hidden from us (the premise is that if we can find our way back in, we can use that point of entry as an exit also).
To illustrate how the mind works, try listing as many uses as you can for a paperclip, and then try listing as many possible situations as you you can where a paperclip is impossible to use (even if it is flattened, melted, combined etc.) – you will find there are very few – so why did your mind struggle to identify such a mass of ‘possible’ situations when it was thinking outwards?
Reversal is a technique which exploits this capacity of the human mind. It begins with a list of assumptions about an idea or situation, and then deliberately reverses them and challenges you that you cannot find a way to make it work – and you mind, haughty and contrary as it might be, rises to the challenge. The iFrame is fairly self explanatory.
The following links provide more information on the tool
You can download a PowerPoint template of the tool below.
The template can be printed off (at any size) for use in Physical meetings, or uploaded to suitable meeting or collaboration software so that it can be used in virtual or asynchronous meetings.
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