1. The process is reversed
In 1984, the market demand for D-shaped cars produced by Swedish Kanlu Automobile Company increased sharply, and the supply exceeded demand. The main reason was that workers assembled the cars manually and the production method behind. General manager Draham was particularly anxious. Once, he visited a meat company and found that the company's slaughterhouse was composed of advanced production lines. He saw that livestock were sent in, passed through the assembly line, and made into pieces and packages of meat products. The whole process only takes ten minutes. He was deeply attracted by this scene and asked himself: Can the production method of the slaughterhouse be applied to automobile production? The automobile production process is opposite to that of the slaughterhouse. Can the automobile parts be sent in and processed? What about assembling a car after the assembly line? So, according to this idea, design experts from various European countries were invited to study together with the company's experts. After repeated tests, they finally developed what is called? The automobile production line using the "Kanlu Production Method" has greatly improved productivity, and soon set off a new production method revolution on a global scale. Various industrial productions have successively been inspired or learned from the "Kanlu Production Method" .
The process of how things work has a definite and significant direction. When the development process of things undergoes major changes that reverse the direction, people's understanding and attitude towards it will also adjust accordingly. Therefore, in the process of thinking about an innovative issue, if you consciously think in the opposite direction about the process of how things work, it may lead to the emergence of new ideas. Draham's "Kanlu Production Method" new idea was born and created by consciously using the process reversal method in reverse thinking.
2. Inverted approach
In the mid-1980s, the Japanese Isuzu Motors Company launched a sensational TV commercial in the United States, starring comedian David Ritter. A "boasting king" named "Isuzu Joseph". In the first scene, Ritter said: The Isuzu RV was rated as the car king by the authoritative car magazine. ?The subtitles printed a line of eye-catching words: He is lying! In the second shot, Ritter said, ?The Isuzu RV can reach a top speed of 300 miles per hour?. The subtitles read: He is lying! In the third shot, Ritter said: The dealer of the Isuzu RV is either rich or expensive, so they sold it for only US$9! The subtitles read: He is lying! The fourth shot, Ritter said: "If you come to see Isuzu tomorrow, you can get a house as a gift." ?The subtitles read: He is lying! In shot five, Ritter said: ?I will never lie, and I will never be a braggart. ?The subtitles read: He is lying! After this advertisement was launched, it created a strong sensation. It not only received unanimous praise from consumers, but also achieved unprecedented sales results for Isuzu in the United States. Why does this advertisement have such an unexpected effect? ??
It turns out that things have their own way of functioning. When this way changes, the nature, characteristics and functions of things will also follow. changes occur. It's the inherent connection between things and the way they work. Based on this connection, in innovative thinking, you can consciously reverse the way things work, leading to opposite changes in the characteristics and functions of things, so as to trigger some new ideas, new ideas and new effects. This is the so-called "method-inversion" reverse thinking. American industrial tycoon Iacocca once said an intriguing saying: To praise someone, use an official document; to criticize someone, use a phone call. ?This sentence tells the profound truth that criticism should be more respectful. As the saying goes, "True words may displease the ears but help the deeds". As everyone knows, sometimes the opposite is more conducive to action. We can reverse it and change it to "loyal words that are unpleasant to the ears are conducive to deeds" and "loyal words that are pleasant to the ears are conducive to deeds". ?This will make the critic more acceptable. Not only does it not hurt the employees' emotions, but it makes the employees willing to accept it, and it also enhances the cohesion of the company. The reason why the above advertisement can achieve such an unexpected effect is that it produces miraculous effects due to the different way of thinking used in ordinary advertisements. Generally, advertisements praise their products, but this advertisement does the opposite and deliberately says that it is lying. This gives consumers a refreshing feeling and makes the product more reliable. As a result, the effect of surprising victory came into being.
3. Inverted functions
The American Parker pen is a world-famous brand and reached its heyday in the 1940s. Later, the popular ballpoint pen, which was simple, lightweight, low-priced, and popular, greatly impacted the sales market of Parker pens and faced a serious crisis of bankruptcy. Although they have tried various ways to reduce sales costs and sales prices, they still cannot compete with ballpoint pens. In this case, Marcoli, the European director of Parker, believes that this is not about using one's own strengths to attack the other's shortcomings, but about using one's own shortcomings to attack the other's strengths. There is no way out for such competition. Later, he bought the Parker Company and adopted the "reverse" approach: instead of continuing to reduce sales costs and sales prices, he reinvested a large amount of money, purchased new production equipment, improved the quality of raw materials, and improved the production process. The new Parker pen is produced, which not only writes smoothly, is more wear-resistant and durable, and especially has a more exquisite appearance, with a particularly elegant and luxurious temperament; the output is also strictly controlled, and the sales price is not lowered, but raised again and again. The purpose of his "reverse" approach is to make the Parker pen no longer a popular general cultural item, but a symbol of higher social status and status. In order to further establish the new image of the Parker pen, in addition to vigorously promoting it through various media, they also tried their best to win over Queen Elizabeth of England to use the Parker pen as the royal pen of the British royal family, which greatly increased the value of the Parker pen. Therefore, although Parker pens are very expensive, their sales are getting better and better. Obviously, the Parker pen has changed from a popular writing tool to a symbol of social status and identity, which is an inversion of the functions of things. This is exactly the purpose of Marcoli's "reverse thinking" by using reverse thinking - to give the Parker pen Repositioned with great success.
Everything has its various functions. People can take certain measures to make things play the opposite role to their original functions due to changes in their nature and characteristics, including turning things against themselves. Transforming an unfavorable function into a beneficial one, that is, thinking in the opposite direction about a certain function of things, may lead to conceptual innovation.
4. The position is reversed
For a long time since the advent of the refrigerator, the freezer compartment has been in the upper part of the refrigerator. People think this design is reasonable. Because cold air has a larger specific gravity, it will automatically flow from top to bottom, so placing the freezer in the upper part of the refrigerator is beneficial to the utilization of cold air. But it brings a new problem: the upper part of the refrigerator, where people do not have to bend down to take food, is the most convenient height for people to use the refrigerator. The average household opens the refrigerator far more often than the freezer. From this perspective, placing the freezer compartment in the upper part of the refrigerator is not ideal. Researchers from Japan's Sharp Company thought about this and thought that the positions of the freezer and the refrigerator could be swapped up and down, as long as the cold air in the freezer below could be lifted to the refrigerator in the upper half of the refrigerator. Following this line of thinking, they quickly came up with a solution to the problem: installing fans and some ventilation ducts in the refrigerator, through which the cold air from the freezer compartment below is lifted to the refrigerator compartment above. In this way, a new type of refrigerator with a cold storage compartment in the upper part appeared on the market.
Following the idea of ??position reversal, not only can the original product be improved, but it can also be used for leadership and management work. In a middle school in the United States, whenever a student violates school rules, the principal calls the student to the principal's office and asks him to sit in his own chair, while the principal sits in the visitor's chair, and then starts talking. The principal said that students in the position of the school leader can better consider and understand the mistakes they have made.
5. Inverted views
A Japanese rayon fabric company once obtained the monopoly rights of nylon and polyester from the American DuPont Company, and easily made a fortune. Later, due to the declining reputation of chemical fiber products, the company had to repeatedly reduce production, so the company experienced a serious crisis. At this time, a monitor of this company discovered that all silk weaving industries spun 5 yarns into 1 thread. In order to improve the quality, they were trying every means to make the 5 yarns uniform in thickness.
He uncharacteristically broke this traditional view and boldly put forward his own idea. Wouldn't it be a better new way to consciously blend threads of uneven thickness? So he took this idea as a project The proposal was sent to the company's senior management, and it immediately attracted great attention from the company. The company immediately organized relevant personnel to conduct research and development. At this time, there was a trend in society to wear clothes with rough and soft surfaces. To make this kind of fabric, it is necessary to add 30% of moth-eaten blended threads with a combination of thickness and thickness. This blended thread is a utility model developed by the company and has been patented. Since the company had a monopoly on this product, it once again gained huge benefits and resolved the company's crisis.
Since objective things can be thought of in reverse, then when reflecting on the thoughts and ideas about objective things as objects, we can also think of them in reverse, that is, thinking about a point of view from the opposite direction in order to gain insights from it. Gain new insights and develop new insights. It's the so-called "perspective reversal". Perspective reversal is also an innovative way of thinking and has important applications in life and work. At first, people felt great regret when facing the statue of the goddess Venus with a broken arm. Many artists have tried to reshape her arms many times, but they have all failed. As a result, artists have realized a "reverse" point of view: under certain conditions, some incomplete and asymmetrical "flaws" can also be a kind of beauty. In recent years, people will be surprised to find many men and women in the streets and alleys, wearing tattered and riddled beggar uniforms, strutting proudly through the streets. This kind of fashionable modern beggar's clothing is designed by fashion designers based on the inverted "beauty of imperfections" aesthetic. Japanese companies also found new life by inverting conventional wisdom.
6. Issues to note when using reverse thinking
In short, reverse thinking plays a very significant role in innovation in corporate management and business activities, and can bring new concepts and new ideas to enterprises. New decisions, new management methods, etc. can open up new prospects for enterprises. Since everything is divided into two and has its own opposite, in practice, to correctly use the reverse thinking method and effectively exert its innovative function, the reverse thinking method cannot be isolated, but must be combined with the forward thinking method. Thinking methods are connected. Specifically, we should pay attention to the following points:
First, reverse thinking is the opposite of forward thinking. Positive thinking is in line with the norm, while reverse thinking is against the norm. Due to long-term and repeated use, positive thinking often becomes a habit and thinking set, and even penetrates deep into the subconscious mind and becomes a subconscious "instinct" activity; while reverse thinking must consciously and consciously break the habit and thinking set, and after repeated thinking It can only be carried out, and it cannot be done without intention or consciousness.
Second, reverse thinking is interdependent on forward thinking. Positive thinking is a kind of habitual and stereotyped thinking that occupies a dominant position in human thinking activities and can handle a large number of routine problems efficiently. However, if there is a problem that cannot be solved by forward thinking and we are stuck in a difficult situation, it is the time when reverse thinking opens up a new situation. Moving forward along the path of positive thinking brings us to the door of reverse thinking. Whether we can break in depends on our mental courage and wisdom.