Nobody likes negative people—curmudgeons who can’t seem to do anything but complain. Therefore, the logical advice is to avoid negativity in our lives: Reframe bad things in a positive way, see the silver lining, compare our current situation to the worst-case scenario, and practice gratitude even for the smallest things in life.
These are indeed great steps to take. However, we may have short-changed negativity a bit.
Overwhelming negativity at the first inkling of trouble can indeed be paralyzing. But there is something very useful that negativity can give us, if only we know how to use it.
Why We Can Be So Negative
We humans are so attuned to negativity that this phenomenon has been termed “negativity bias” or “negativity dominance.” This potentially evolved as a survival mechanism—it is better to be overly cautious and miss out on opportunities than overly risky and die at the paws of a predator.
Indeed, research finds that negative events and stimuli affect us more strongly than their positive counterparts. We notice negative changes more quickly than positive changes. We are a lot more bothered if others view us negatively than we feel good when others view us positively.
In my own classroom of business students and executives, I find this consistently: I show a slide full of frowny emojis with one smiley emoji among them, followed by a slide full of smiley emojis with one frowny hiding among them. Invariably, learners find the frowny much more quickly than the smiley. Negative stuff pops out more than positive stuff.
All this amounts to virtually all of us being very good complainers. Can this ever be a good thing?
Complaining, Usefully
Believe it or not, the answer is decidedly yes.
Consider a problem that might be vexing you. As a straightforward example, take the goal of being a successful contributor to Psychology Today. Most people will approach this goal by thinking about things they should be doing to achieve it and trying to prioritize among them. This is not a bad approach, but here is an alternative that can be even better.
Consider the following: What if we take the opposite goal—that is, instead of thinking about how to be a successful contributor, we think about how to be a total failure?
It may sound odd, but stay with me. What does it take to ensure failure? Because negativity comes so naturally to us, most of us can easily come up with features of failed writers:
- Write new articles irregularly and infrequently
- Do not scrutinize your ideas; instead, pick ideas to write about even if they are boring or irrelevant to your audience
- Use trite phrases and an unengaging style
- Do very little research so that your claims are never backed up
- Entertain little to no feedback from your audience
We could go on to list additional items. But the point is that it is much easier for most of us to come up with features of failed contributors than features of successful ones.
What Happens When We Invert the Complaint?
Now, for the magic. Let’s flip each of the items:
- Write new articles regularly and frequently
- Scrutinize your ideas thoroughly; pick only ideas that are interesting and relevant to your audience (this requires getting to know your audience, too!)
- Focus on writing in an engaging manner
- Do your research so that every important claim is backed up
- Seek out feedback from your audience to see what works and what doesn’t; then, focus your efforts on what works to continuously improve your writing
The result is a list of clear steps required for success. But beyond turning the negative into the positive, there are three advantages to this inversion method compared to a straightforward problem-solving approach.
First, for most people, it is easier to start with negatives because doing so uses the negativity bias to our advantage, as opposed to letting it act to our detriment. Second, because it is easier to come up with negatives, once we flip them into positives we tend to have a more comprehensive list than if we had started with positives. Third, the list we end up with is likely to be more creative than we had started with positives.
The Inversion Method in Practice
This isn’t just a method I invented to make a point. It has been useful in various applied fields.
The aviation industry, for instance, routinely practices the inversion method. They rigorously analyze past accidents and complaints and work with regulators to anticipate and hopefully prevent future failures. Similarly, cities plagued by traffic congestion often start by asking what exacerbates gridlock. Industrial engineers ask what would make a factory or machine unsafe. After starting with the negatives, people in these professions invert them into positive actionable steps.
Delegation as a Booster
One particularly effective way of enhancing the inversion method is through delegation. Delegation can significantly enhance the effectiveness of the inversion method by distributing problem-solving efforts across diverse perspectives.
When we assign specific aspects of a problem to different team members, friends, and acquaintances, they can tap into a wider range of expertise and creativity. One group, for instance, might explore worst-case scenarios while another can identify potential solutions.
Delegation not only lightens the cognitive load on specific individuals but also fosters a collaborative environment where innovative ideas can emerge. We don’t have to do it alone; through effective delegation, we can accelerate the transition from identifying problems to inverting them into positive steps to implementing solutions.
A Final Thought
A common response when someone asks you how you are doing is to say, “I can’t complain.” Of course, we in fact can complain—easily. In everyday conversation, it can be a chore to talk to someone who constantly complains. However, in business, our penchant for complaining can paradoxically help us solve vexing problems so long as we use it appropriately.