“What would things look like if everything went wrong tomorrow? And what does this tell us about how we should prepare today?”
“This way of thinking,” he wrote, “in which you consider the opposite of what you want, is known as inversion.”
Throughout the rest of his essay, Mr. Clear explained the advantages accrued when considering the negative as well as the positive possible outcomes of the plans we make. Inversion “forces you to treat your decisions like a court of law.”
In court, the jury has to listen to both sides of the argument before making up their mind,“ he wrote. ”Inversion helps you do something similar.”
Mr. Clear then demonstrated the benefits of this tactic when applied to several arenas of our work and personal lives: project management, productivity on the job, decluttering, relationships, and personal finance.
Whether we wish to up our performance at work or enhance our marriage, Mr. Clear contended that inversion “teaches you what to avoid.”
There’s a great deal of sound thinking in this strategy of inversion. Recently, for instance, Anheuser-Busch InBev featured a transgender influencer advertising Bud Light beer. The corporation’s failure to anticipate the public backlash to this ad indicates that some executives had failed to practice inversion, to consider the negative outcomes of their decision.
Yet some precautions involving inversion are in order.
First of all, inversion is best practiced once you’ve already decided on a course of action. Otherwise, brooding on negative outcomes during the early planning stages of any project may breed pessimism and result in the cancellation of an enterprise that might have succeeded.
Moreover, while we can envision what we might do if our plans go awry, we must also recognize that unforeseen events occur over which we have little or no control. Wise entrepreneurs prepare for downturns in the economy, but few of them in March 2020 could have foreseen months of government-mandated COVID-19 lockdowns. These measures dumped small business owners into a jungle without maps.
Several couples I’ve known have retired with the expectations of travel and leisure, only to have a spouse fall desperately ill. Could they have anticipated these disasters and so eased the hammer blows accompanying them? Of course. Yet, the foresight required to take into account every calamity that might befall us is surely beyond our capacity for preparedness.
If we keep these limitations in mind, then Mr. Clear’s conclusion to his article offers good advice to all of us:
“Inversion is an essential skill for leading a logical and rational life. It allows you to step outside your normal patterns of thought and see situations from a different angle. Whatever problem you are facing, always consider the opposite side of things.”
