How to use it:
Put your thinking into reverse. Write out a great question that could be asked about the topic you are studying, and then come up with the exact opposite question. After that, develop some answers for that reverse question.
An example:
Instead of “How can we encourage people to eat healthy foods?”, we would reverse it to “How can we encourage people to eat junk foods”?
Some answers:
- Allow fast food companies to advertise when children are watching TV
- Place giant exciting posters of junk food all around schools
- Tell lies in the media, and state that junk food is actually good for you
Why it’s important to use it:
At first, it seems silly to develop ‘reverse questions’ like this. However, you will find that as you work out answers for your ‘reverse question’, you will generate some great (opposite) ideas for your original question.
Some variations:
Use words such as never, cannot and not in your lists, and then brainstorm some answers eg
- Name 10 things that you could not clean.
- List 5 sounds that you will never hear.
- Name 10 things that you could not photograph.
