The meaning of reverse thinking 1
Reverse thinking, also known as reverse thinking, refers to the way of thinking from the opposite angle and process to conventional thinking. The characteristics of reverse thinking are to doubt and oppose people's habitual way of thinking, and to be good at playing the devil's advocate. Reverse thinking can often give people surprises and unexpected gains.
For example, water always flows from high to low. What can we do to make it flow from low to high? Therefore, various types of pumps have been invented. Oil leakage of ballpoint pen has always been a difficult problem to solve in daily life. People think it is caused by the wear of steel balls. Therefore, many scientists, engineers and inventors spent a lot of energy on strengthening the hardness and wear resistance of steel balls, but it was difficult to make a breakthrough in materials at that time. Is there no other way except to improve the hardness and wear resistance of steel balls? A Japanese inventor came up with a different idea-the pen will leak oil after the steel ball is worn, but if there is no oil in the pen tube after the steel ball is worn, won't this problem be solved? He bought a large number of ballpoint pens, used them repeatedly, counted how many words were written by ordinary ballpoint pens and how much oil was used, and solved the problem of oil leakage of ballpoint pens by quantitatively oiling the pipes. We don't think in the direction of strengthening steel balls for ordinary people, but use our brains from oil to solve problems. This is called reverse thinking.
The application of reverse thinking should also pay attention to flexibility. If you do it properly, you will get twice the result with half the effort, and it should not be counterproductive. It's like choosing rice when cooking. People unconsciously adopt reverse thinking and choose sand. However, if a handful of rice is mixed with a basin of sand, you can only choose rice with positive thinking!
There is a story about an American, a story between a publisher and the president. In order to increase the sales of his own books, a publisher sent a copy to the president. After the president signed the book, he vigorously publicized that the book that the president of the United States liked was published. So buyers gathered and made a fortune. After the second book came out, he gave it to the president for signature. This time, the president turned a corner and signed that he didn't like the book. But the publisher advertised that the book that the president of the United States disliked the most was published, and he succeeded in making money. When his book was published for the third time, he found the president again, and the president was not fooled by him this time. When I read this story, I admired this shrewd publisher very much.
From the above example, we can see the charm of reverse thinking innovation.
Make money by ugliness.
Bournel, the chairman of American Aslon Company, once walked in the suburbs and happened to see some children playing with a dirty and ugly insect. He couldn't put it down and couldn't help feeling. Inspired by this, he decided to break the conventional thinking mode and make a reverse thinking, "making money by ugliness", that is, attracting children with ugly toys and making their parents pay for it. He immediately organized people to develop a series of toys with ugly fonts. For example, a string of "crazy balls" with many ugly faces printed on them; A "rude man" made of rubber, with orange hair, green skin and a pair of strange eyes, makes strange noises in the blink of an eye. He thinks this set of "ugly toys" must sell well! Sure enough, as soon as the product went on the market, children rushed to buy it, and "making money by ugliness" made the company make a fortune.
(B) the characteristics of reverse thinking
The main feature of reverse thinking is to break away from convention. Think, explore and innovate from a negative perspective. Everything has two sides and opposites, and thinking from the perspective of opposites sometimes has wonderful effects.
There is a positive and negative relationship between things. This kind of "positive" and "negative" is relative, not absolute. From the perspective of connotation, things are mutually conditional and interdependent. Among many things in the objective world, the interchangeability of A and B exists. A can be transformed into B under certain conditions, and B can also be transformed into A under certain conditions. In the process of forming A, B and C are the conditions for their formation. At the same time, B and C may be opposite, but the result is the same.
(C) categories of reverse thinking
Reverse thinking can be divided into functional inversion, structural inversion, causal inversion and state inversion.
1, function inversion
Imagine and seek new ways to solve problems from the opposite function of existing things, and the way of thinking to obtain new inventions is function inversion. For example, in a factory that produces writing paper in Germany, a worker made a mistake in the formula, and as a result, the paper produced could not be written and became waste. For this reason, the factory director fired him. Just when he was depressed, a friend reminded him not to always think about waste, why not think about it the other way around? "Waste" and "supplies" are opposite poles. The words of a friend inspired the worker's thought, and he changed from one pole to the other. Finally, he found that this kind of paper has excellent water absorption, thus obtaining a patent for producing absorbent paper.
2. Structural inversion
The creative thinking mode of conceiving and seeking new methods to solve problems from the opposite structural forms of existing things belongs to structural inversion. For example, the lock tongue of a general door lock is inclined to open, which makes it easier to close the door, but it is easy to pry the door open if something hard is stuffed into the door, and the anti-theft function is poor. A student invented a "simple anti-theft lock", in which an inclined piece was welded on the inside of the lock hole on the door frame, but the lock tongue was changed into a square, which was structurally opposite to the original lock and was still convenient to close the door. However, prying the door from the outside to the inside is not easy, which greatly improves the anti-theft performance.
3. Causal reversal
From the causality of existing things to the discovery of new "causes" (phenomena and laws) from "results", the way to find a solution to the problem is causality inversion. Such as magnetic power generation (generator) → magnetic power generation (electromagnet), sound to electricity (microphone) → electricity to sound (receiver).
4. State reversal
The method of discovering or creating new products or technologies by reversing another attribute of existing things is called state reversal. For example, the aforementioned "Sima Guang smashing the cylinder" and the improvement of the ballpoint pen.
In a word, when the problem of thinking can't be solved by conventional methods, we should consider changing the angle of thinking and rethinking by using thinking methods such as shortcomings, which is a common method when people invent and create.
Breaking the conventional thinking mode: Case 2
Archimedes said: Give me a fulcrum, and I can move the earth. If you want to use this sentence in business, you can find the overlap between your ability and the customer's problems, and you can achieve a business, even if you are in an unfavorable situation, you may have a chance to win.
And this is what happened to me. My friend Mr. A went to other cities to make a proposal. Because the plane was late, he was the last of the three companies. The scale, professionalism and quotation of the first two companies were much lower than their own. In the eyes of many people, this proposal is doomed to failure. But it's all here. Whether you win or lose, my friend wants to talk to the boss of Party A about his suggestion. ..
He told his plan from beginning to end, where are the technical difficulties, how to control the cost, where can't cut the funds, and also talked about the price given by the company before, why can't their company reach the cost? I didn't expect the other boss to listen carefully and ask questions from time to time. More unexpectedly, their company turned the tables and won the proposal.
Afterwards, we sit together and chat and ask: What moved Party A's father? The friend replied: It's not the strength of the company, not the price, but the professionalism of the company, because I found the pain point of Party A's problem, pointed out where the difficulty of this plan is and how to solve it, and talked about Party A's problem.
I recently read "Restart" by Japanese writer Naoki Sakata. In this book, the author tells us how to break the usual thinking mode and find a solution to the problem with 30 marketing cases he has personally experienced. Seeing this book, I thought of my friend's case. The success of my friend's proposal lies in finding the fit point between my ability and customer's needs.
Let's meet the author Naoki Sakata, an entrepreneur with practical experience. Worked in the marketing department of Unilever Japan Branch, responsible for brand strategic planning and new product development. After the establishment of Blabo, the largest platform company in Japan! , Chairman and CEO.
The thinking mode of solving problems put forward by Naoki Sakata is divided into three steps: the first step is to find out the problems that really bother each other; The second step is to know your own potential; The third step, overlapping thinking, summed up as a solution to the problem. How to do these three steps, we use the case in the book to illustrate.
What does reverse thinking mean?
★ Overview of Reverse Thinking Introduction and Training Methods Sharing Reading
★ What is the meaning of innovative thinking?
★ Briefly describe the meaning of creative thinking.
★ Overview of Reverse Thinking Introduction and Training Methods Sharing Reading