[[Design thinking]] tags:: #on/decisions #on/innovation dates:: 2022-02-26 people:: Lewin, Kurt # Inversion *I am the process for flipping a problem upside-down, inside-out, or backwards to reframe solutions.* This reminds me of [[Thinking Fast and Slow]], employing both Type I and Type II decision making. Looking at problems in ways that avoid [[Deciding]]. It also reminds me of ways that [[Design thinking]] can help create innovation in solutions. It's kind of like Mary's WOOP segment in the CME HSE program. In this case you are looking for barriers to remove as opposed to ways to augment. Inversion is the idea that instead of asking how to achieve something, we can ask the question in different ways to find different solutions and be creative. For example, when considering how to make a Massive Online Community of Practice for DASH and AIRS, we might ask the question in different ways: - what would the world need to be like in which the MOCOP would exist? - what is currently preventing the MOCOP? - what else would have to be true for this MOCOP to be in existence? - How could I show that the MOCOP could never happen? - Instead of identifying this as a goal, what do we want to *avoid* as a goal? In this case it would be the cessation of people using DASH for research that we want to avoid. Innovation happens when we look at the same problem from a new angle. Inversion is one such way that we can consider problems from new angles. The opposite to Inversion would be playing to your strengths. There's an argument to be made that this is a waste of energy, and the straight path is the easiest path. This could be a diversion from the reality, and it could cause us to try to overcome barriers that actually don't exist. Here's where it might make sense to employ [[Probabilistic Thinking]] around a problem. Once the [[Inversion]] process identifies several ways of approaching a problem, one's time and energy can be employed by creating a matrix of possible ways to solve the problem, naming the [[Assumptions]] that we have about the situation, and using [[Probabilistic Thinking]] to try to identify the correct approaches. This might help avoid [[Deciding]]. ## Sources: [[The Great Mental Models Volume 1]]