--- title: "Negative Brainstorming" description: "Participants deliberately invent the worst, most counterproductive solutions to a problem, then invert those ideas into practical, constructive alternatives. They work in small groups and share transformed concepts with the whole room." last_updated: "2026-09-07" canonical: "https://unitedwetransform.com/exercises/bad-solutions-project-of-how/" --- # Negative Brainstorming Participants deliberately invent the worst, most counterproductive solutions to a problem, then invert those ideas into practical, constructive alternatives. They work in small groups and share transformed concepts with the whole room. **Time:** 25 minutes. UWT suggested timing. The source notes a brief overview; 25 minutes allows structured ideation, inversion, and debrief. **People:** 4 to 24. Subgroups of 3 to 5 people ## Choose this exercise **Purpose:** Generate unconventional ideas by intentionally exploring and reversing flawed or destructive proposals. **Use it when:** Use when a team is stuck on obvious answers, facing creative fatigue, or needs to loosen rigid thinking on a defined challenge. **Skip it when:** Skip when the team is in acute conflict, addressing genuine safety hazards, or needing immediate operational consensus rather than divergent ideas. ## Materials and tools - Sticky notes (1 pad per subgroup) - Markers (1 per participant) - Chart paper or whiteboard space (1 sheet per subgroup) - Countdown timer ## Before participants arrive 1. Write the core challenge question clearly at the top of each chart paper or shared board. 2. Divide chart paper into two columns labeled 'Worst Possible Solutions' and 'Transformed Solutions'. ## Say this to open Welcome. Today we will tackle our challenge backward. Instead of straining to find good ideas right away, your job in this round is to come up with the worst, most absurd, or most destructive solutions possible. Make them truly terrible. Later, we will flip those bad ideas into workable insights. ## How to run it ### 1. Introduce challenge and bad solutions (3 minutes) State the challenge question clearly. Explain that the immediate goal is to produce actively bad ideas that worsen the issue. Offer an explicit neutral example: If the problem is 'How do we encourage attendance at community meetings?', a terrible idea is 'Lock the doors and turn off the heat.' Set a timer for 6 minutes. ### 2. Brainstorm worst ideas (6 minutes) In subgroups of 3 to 5, participants write one bad solution per sticky note and post them in their left column. Encourage quantity and extreme concepts. Stop when the timer sounds. ### 3. Invert and transform (8 minutes) Direct each subgroup to pick 2 or 3 of their most extreme bad ideas. Instruct them to ask: 'What is the opposite of this?' or 'What useful principle is hidden inside this bad idea?' They write positive, plausible solutions and stick them in the right column alongside the originals. ### 4. Share transformed solutions (5 minutes) Call the room together. Invite one spokesperson from each subgroup to share one bad idea and its transformed constructive counterpart. Keep each report to 45 seconds. ### 5. Debrief the exercise (3 minutes) Lead a brief whole-room reflection using the debrief questions. Take 2 or 3 brief comments. ## Debrief questions - How was it to brainstorm on really bad solutions compared to searching for good ones? - Which transformed idea surprised you by actually being practical? - How can this reverse-thinking approach be used in your regular work? **Finished output:** A shared chart of extreme bad solutions paired with transformed, constructive ideas. ## Remote Set up a shared digital whiteboard with two columns per breakout room. Assign groups of 3 to 5 to breakout rooms for steps 2 and 3, then bring everyone back to the main room for spoken presentations and text chat comments. ## Hybrid Pair in-person subgroups with their own physical charts and assign remote participants to a dedicated digital board. A nominated room scribe reads remote cards aloud, or remote participants present their inverted ideas during the shared report-out. ## Access and participation choices - Participants may contribute by writing sticky notes, speaking aloud in their subgroup, or placing notes silently. - Anyone may choose to observe subgroup idea generation without offering an idea, or pass when invited to share during the report-out. ## If the session gets stuck **Participants generate mediocre or realistic bad ideas instead of extreme ones.** Prompt them to aim for ideas that would guarantee complete failure, high cost, or extreme inconvenience. **Groups struggle to invert a purely destructive idea into something positive.** Ask them to identify the core mechanism of the bad idea and reverse its direction or remove its harm. ## Terms used here - Negative Brainstorming: An ideation technique where participants intentionally generate counterproductive solutions to discover unexpected valid solutions. ## Sources and adaptation Observed in Project of How under the method tag 'bad solutions' and titled 'Negative brainstorming'. Retained the mechanic of generating worst possible solutions and inverting them, along with the source reflection questions. UWT added explicit group sizing, step durations, column setup, a neutral public example, and clear hybrid facilitation guidelines. [Project of How](https://projectofhow.com/method-tag/bad-solutions/) Current run sheet: https://unitedwetransform.com/exercises/bad-solutions-project-of-how/