Anti-Solutions brainstorming is one of the greatest tools I have found for problem solving.
This presentation will teach you what this extraordinary tool is, how it works, and how you can
use it at your business to your advantage. Enjoy.
We all have problems to face at one time or another, so it is best to have several tools at
your disposal to make your problems disappear forever.
There are many excellent brainstorming tools that can be used for solving problems.
Mind mapping is a fine brainstorming tool, and Fishbone diagrams are great for cause and effect analysis,
or Brain writing just to mention a few.
But my absolute favorite brain storming tool of all is anti-solutions,
because it is about as much fun as a day on the beach,
and it is a tool that is very easy to learn, understand and to use.
Plus it is an extremely effective and valuable tool to have in your problem solving arsenal.
Typically if you ask a team of people how they can solve a problem or make improvements,
you will see people start to scratch their heads, or maybe shrug their shoulders.
Or perhaps you are familiar with the death stare...
They may look like they are deep in thought, or maybe the answer is right on the tip of their tongue.
But when you ask the same team of people, 'how can we make this problem worse?'
it's like a light bulb suddenly comes on in everyone's head,
and the entire room will be anxious and excited to reply.
Don't ask me why, but we all know how to make things worse without even thinking.
You won't even be able to write all of their ideas down fast enough.
To give you an example of how this works, let's say our problem is that shoppers are not able to
find what they are looking for in our store.
After your brainstorming session you come up with a list as to how to make this problem even worse.
You simply have to take each anti-solution, and as a team, determine what the exact opposite
would be in order to turn this list of anti-solutions into solutions.
Let's solve one of the anti-solutions on the list to see how this would work.
Don't train employees where products belong.
Brainstorm as a team and determine what the exact opposite would be for not training the
employees where the products belong.
You will quickly see the solution; the exact opposite of no training would be excellent training.
All employees would know the location of each product to ensure great customer service.
When developing your solutions, remember that out-of-the-box thinking is good, but
don't just get outside the box, get as far away from the box as you possibly can!
While some solutions are obvious, using anti-solutions will cause your mind to think creatively
and will hatch perfect solutions everytime.
Repeat this process for each anti-solution turning them into solutions.
Using Anti-Solutions to help you solve your biggest problems is just one of the tools that
will help you on your journey to a leaner and more competitive business.
We have many years experience in helping businesses become Lean using the tools of Lean and Six Sigma.
We are ready to help your business, Call us today!
Dave is the Executive Vice President of Xtreme Lean Consulting.
He has over 42 years experience working with senior management teams in planning and implementing growth and profitability initiatives, with an emphasis on driving market share through efficiency and extraordinary customer service. Dave is a well organized professional with strong conceptual and practical skills. He has a proven ability to identify a company's market-driven improvement needs, and then use Lean/continuous improvement techniques to increase performance and earnings.
