Thinking in Opposites – "Inversion"

(Deutsche Version ->)

This technique, popularised by Charlie Munger (whom I’ve discussed here), is a powerful tool in business strategy. Munger famously said that it’s better to consistently avoid being stupid than to try to be exceptionally intelligent. Because, it’s much more effective to avoid being stupid.

Donald Keough,

former president of Coca-Cola, was also a strong proponent of this technique. He authored the book The Ten Commandments for Business Failure, which outlines key principles to avoid in order to succeed in business.

Here’s one: Commandment #3

• ‘Isolate yourself’

This will not only leave you unaware of what you don’t know about your business, but you will remain utterly confident that what you do know is right.

So,

what inversion does, is show the way to certain failure. It is an excellent method for uncovering biases and blind spots in decision-making. You could start by inverting questions;.

Instead of asking:

• ‘How can I be healthier?’

You could ask:

• ‘What could I do to become sick and weak?’

In a business context, instead of asking:

• ‘How can we become more profitable?’

You can invert that to:

• ‘What should we do more of to ensure we become less profitable?’

As you can see, inversion is an easy and effective way to shift your perspective and uncover potential risks in business decision-making.

That's all,

RvdL

This article is part of the go-PARALLAX series on decision-making, problem-solving, and sparking innovation.

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