Think About Failure First

Insight

We’re wired to focus on how to make things work. Inversion thinking challenges this approach.

Inversion thinking is a problem-solving technique where you approach a challenge by deliberately considering the opposite of your desired outcome. Instead of asking how do we make this succeed?, you explore how might this go wrong?

For example, if your goal is to create equitable access to job opportunities, instead of only focusing on how to expand workforce programs, you might ask, “What barriers are preventing underserved communities from accessing quality jobs?”—then work to remove those barriers.

It’s not about being negative. It’s about increasing chances of success.

Insight in Practice

How to make inversion thinking part of your solution design process:

• Use structured methods.
  Use tools like premortems to make failure planning a structured part of your process. A premortem is a project management technique where a team imagines that a project has already failed and then works backward to identify all the possible reasons for that failure.

• Map unintended consequences.
  Who could be impacted negatively? What ripple effects might emerge in connected systems?

• Build feedback loops early.
  When piloting or launching minimum viable programs, include robust ways to catch early warning signs of failure modes identified in your planning.

• Make it safe to speak up.
  Teams need psychological safety to raise concerns without fear of being labeled "difficult." Leaders set the tone.

A few hours spent upfront in structured inversion thinking can prevent costly corrections months down the line.

Case Study

The Federal Reserve System in the U.S. was a direct result of inversion thinking.

After the Panic of 1907—a severe financial crisis when banks failed, the stock market crashed, and public panic led to widespread bank runs—the government realised that previous policies focused on strengthening the financial system but not preventing disasters.

In the aftermath, policymakers asked a fundamentally inverted question: “How can we make sure this doesn’t happen again?”

Question to Consider

What are all of the possible ways our solution could fail?  How can we plan for these issues in our approach?

Quote of The Week

"An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

—Benjamin Franklin