Card #19 – ”Change Its Name” from the Creative Whack Pack
Available on the iOS App Store and as a physical deck of cards

Different words lead our thinking in different directions and bring in different assumptions.
If we change the words we use to describe a situation, we reframe the way we think about it. For example:
• Is the beach the end of the ocean or the beginning of land?
• Is a twelve-year-old female an old child or a young woman?
• Is the cocoon the end of the caterpillar or the beginning of the butterfly?
• Is water the end of ice or the beginning of vapor (or vice versa)?
You could answer “Yes” to any of these questions. This shows that a thing, idea, or issue can be understood in a variety of different ways depending on how we frame it.
Thus, if an architect looks at an opening between two rooms and thinks door, that’s what she’ll design.
But if she thinks passageway, she may design something much different like a hallway, air curtain, tunnel, or perhaps a courtyard.
— What other words or phrases can you use to describe your issue?
— What is the “opposite” of your concept? What is the “opposite” of that?
— Was there an action you took today that marked the “end” of one era and the “beginning” of a new one?
— How can you redefine your “problem” statement?
— What different places will it lead your (and other people’s) thinking?