Developed by Genrich Altshuller (Creativity as an Exact Science, 1979) and set out by Darrell Mann (Hands-On Systematic Innovation, 2002).
Resolves a requirement that something be two opposite things at once by separating the demands in time, in space, in scale, or by condition.
When to reach for it
When a part, product, or policy must be both rigid and flexible, present and absent, or tight and loose at the same time.
How it runs
- State the contradiction: it must be A and not A.
- Ask whether it can be A at some times only.
- Ask whether different parts can carry different properties.
- Ask whether the whole and its parts can differ.
- Ask whether conditions can switch the property, then design.
Where it sits in SOLVE eX
Go to the source
- Creativity as an Exact Science, English translation 1984, 1979
- Hands-On Systematic Innovation, CREAX Press, 2002