Reversal Procedure

The purpose of the reversal procedure

Very often the reversal procedure leads to a way of looking at the situation that is obviously wrong or ridiculous. What then is the point of doing it?

One uses the reversal procedure in order to escape from the absolute necessity to look at the situation in the standard way. The new way need not make sense: once one escapes the standard view, it becomes easier to move in other directions as well.

By disrupting the original way of looking at the situation one frees information that can come together in a new way.

The procedure also helps one overcome the terror of being wrong, of taking a step that is not fully justified.

The main purpose is provocative. By making the reversal one moves to a new position. Then one sees what happens.

Occasionally the reversed approach is useful in itself.

Consider a policeman controlling traffic. The first reversal supposes that the traffic is controlling the policeman. This would lead to consideration of the demand for more policemen as traffic became more complex, the need for redistribution of policemen according to traffic conditions. It would make one realize that in fact the traffic does actually control the policeman since his behaviour depends on the traffic build up in different roads. How quickly does he react to this? How sensitive is he to this? How well informed can he be of this? Since the traffic is controlling the policeman who is controlling the traffic why not organize things so that the traffic controlled itself?

The second reversal in the policeman situation supposed that the policeman was disorganizing the traffic. This would lead to a consideration of whether natural flow, traffic lights or a policeman was most efficient. If a policeman was more efficient than the lights, what was the added factor — could this be built into the lights? Was it perhaps easier for the traffic to adjust to fixed patterns of direction rather than to the unpredictable reactions of the policeman?

A flock of sheep was moving slowly down a country lane which was bounded by high banks. A motorist in a hurry came up behind the flock and urged the shepherd to move his sheep to the side so that the car could drive through. The shepherd refused since he could not be sure of keeping all the sheep out of the way of the car in such a narrow lane. Instead he reversed the situation. He told the car to stop and then he quietly turned the flock round and drove it back past the stationary car.

In Aesop’s fable the water in the jug was at too low a level for the bird to drink. The bird was thinking of taking water out of the jug but instead he thought of putting something in. So he dropped pebbles into the jug until the level of water rose high enough for him to drink.

The duchess was much overweight. Physician after physician tried to reduce her weight by putting her on a near starvation diet and each physician was in turn dismissed on account of the unpleasantness of the diet. At last there came a physician who fussed over the good lady. Unlike the others he told her that she was not eating enough to sustain her huge body. He recommended that she drink a glass of sweetened milk half-an-hour before all meals (which of course reduced her appetite very much).

The rich man wanted his daughter to marry the richest of her suitors. But the daughter was in love with a poor student. So she went to her father and said that she wanted to marry the richest of her suitors but how could they tell which was the richest. It would be no use asking them to show their wealth by giving a present since it would be easy to borrow money for this purpose if the daughter was to be the prize. Instead she suggested that her father should give a present of money to each of the suitors. Then one would be able to tell how rich each was by the difference that the present of money made to their usual way of life. The father praised her for her wisdom and gave a present to each suitor. Whereupon the daughter eloped with her now enriched true love.

In each of these examples a simple reversal proved useful in itself. More often reversals are not especially useful in themselves but only in what they lead to. One ought to get into the habit of reversing situations and then seeing what happens. If nothing happens then there is no loss and there must be some gain in the challenge to the established way of looking at things.