PO (Protection and Rescue)
PO is a thinking tool used to delay judgment and protect ideas from rejection, including bringing back previously rejected ideas for reconsideration. It temporarily overrides 'NO' to reexamine the underlying frame of reference.
THE IDEA
Protection and rescue
This function of PO is used to delay judgement. In effect it is used to delay rejection for that is the only sort of judgement which would remove an idea from consideration. PO may be used to protect an idea before it has been judged or it may be used to bring back into consideration an idea which has already been judged and rejected. In practice PO is attracted by the NO label. Whenever the NO label is used it is a direct indication of the current frame of reference against which every judgement must be made. By temporarily overriding the rejection with PO one is really reexamining the frame of reference itself.
- A discussion is started between two students or between the teacher and a student. The discussion continues until either one or the other uses a NO rejection. At that point PO is used to overcome the rejection and the rejected statement is considered in itself to see what ideas it can trigger off.
Possible subjects for discussion might include:
Should people be encouraged to live in the country or in towns?
Does a welfare state encourage people to be lazy?
Is changing fashion in clothes a good thing?
How much should one do for oneself and how much should one pay other people to do for one?
Are classroom lessons too long?
A discussion might go something as follows:
TEACHER: People should be encouraged to live in the country because towns are not healthy.
STUDENT: Towns are not healthy. PO towns are healthy. Towns could be healthy with better planning and better traffic control. Perhaps towns could be more healthy mentally because of more social interaction.
TEACHER: Towns would have better health services because they would be more centralized and communication would be better.
- A subject is selected and the students are asked to think of all the negative things they can say about that subject. These are listed and then some of them are reexamined using PO. Quite obviously the number of negative things one can say about something is infinite. For instance about an apple one could say: ‘It is not black. It is not purple. It is not mauve etc. It is not an orange. It is not a tomato etc.’ In practice one would simply ignore that sort of list or pick out of it certain items. For instance ‘An apple is not a tomato’ could lead to the following idea: ‘In some languages the word for tomato is derived from that for apple. In Italian a tomato is called a golden apple. In Sweden the word for an orange is derived from the word for an apple.’ To avoid this sort of thing it is probably better to deal with abstract concepts or with functions rather than objects.
Possible subjects might include:
Work.
Freedom.
Duty.
Truth.
Obedience.
Boredom.
When to use it
In brainstorming sessions to prevent premature rejection of unconventional ideas.
During conflict resolution to postpone judgment and explore underlying assumptions.
When evaluating new strategies in business to consider possibilities that initially seem unworkable.
In education to encourage students to explore ideas they might dismiss too quickly.
FROM THEORY TO EVERYDAY LIFE
In practice
Town vs. Country Discussion
Teacher claims towns are not healthy. Student uses PO: 'PO towns are healthy. Towns could be healthy with better planning and traffic control. Perhaps towns could be more healthy mentally because of more social interaction.' This delays rejection and opens new possibilities.
Apple as a Trigger
Starting from the negative statement 'An apple is not a tomato,' PO leads to the insight that in Italian a tomato is called a golden apple, and in Swedish the word for orange derives from apple. This shows how delayed judgment can uncover unexpected connections.
A MOMENT TO REFLECT
Put it to work.
Recall a recent idea you quickly rejected. How might applying PO have changed your evaluation?
In what situations do you tend to use 'NO' most reflexively? How could PO help you explore alternatives?
Think of a strongly held belief. What would it mean to temporarily override that belief with PO and examine the frame of reference?
Often confused with
CONTINUE THE CONVERSATION
Source texts
- Lateral Thinking A Textbook of Creativity (Edward de Bono)