Opposite Thinking
Everybody – Flipchart & Markers – 10 Minutes
How to Run Opposite Thinking
- Phrase your prompt in opposition to the subject the group will be brainstorming about
- Share the prompt with the group
- Capture their ideas on a flip chart that everyone can see
Example & Prompt
When coming up with the “opposite” framed prompt, we find it helpful to start with the usual positive prompt, and then flip the language to make the opposite question.
“What are positive leadership qualities?” → “If you wanted to be known as a terrible leader, what would you do?”
Keep the prompt future-focused in order to avoid the brainstorm feeling like a call-out session. In this example, “If you wanted to be a terrible leader, what would you do?” gets more applicable results than, “Tell me about all the worst leaders you’ve had in the past.”
Prompts:
- “If we wanted to make sure everyone left this session feeling really disheartened about the future, what could we do?”
- “How can we make this union really ineffective?”
- “How could we make sure this is an unproductive meeting?”
Opposite Thinking is one of our favorite Facilitator Cards! Check out this video for more about how we use Opposite Thinking to get fresh ideas from our groups during brainstorms.
Have more questions?
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Contact hello@facilitator.cards and we’ll be in touch soon!