Provocation (PO)

Origin. de Bono. 'PO' marks an utterance as provocation rather than proposition.

Mechanism. Inserts a deliberately false statement into the reasoning, then moves forward from it rather than judging it. The provocation is a temporary, unstable position from which paths exist that are unreachable from any true position.

Procedure. Form a provocation by escapement ('cars have no wheels'), exaggeration, distortion, or wishful thinking. Then extract movement: isolate a principle, follow the consequence moment-to-moment, examine the difference from the current state, or find the circumstances that would make it valuable.

Applies to. When the solution space has been searched exhaustively from the current position.

Limitations. Movement, not judgment, is the discipline. Groups revert to evaluating the provocation within seconds, at which point the method has become a joke followed by silence.