Worksheet for Broadening Your Perspective

INSTRUCTIONS

Use this worksheet to plan how you can broaden your group's perspective—an important
component of strategic thinking.

1. Think of an area in which you and your team want to generate new ideas. Write it below.
For example, “We want to find ways to expand our pool of customers.”

2. List the assumptions that you and your group currently hold regarding the issue at hand.
For instance, “If we promote our retail store to bargain hunters, then high-end shoppers will go elsewhere.”

3. What questions might you ask to challenge those assumptions?

For example, “Why do we believe this about our customers? What would happen if we offered coupons?

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4. To study your challenge from different angles, what questions might you ask that reverse the situation? Try
changing a negative statement to a positive one.
For example, change "Bargain hunters won't shop at high-end retail stores” to “Bargain-hunters will shop at
high-end retail stores—if those stores feature lower prices."

5. Define what the situation is not like and why.

For example, “Our stores are not like an airline, where different customers pay different rates, depending
on the demand. Our high-end customers would perceive that kind of discounting as indicating lower
quality.”

6. Change the direction or location from which you view the situation.
For example, “Looking at the store floor from above, I see racks of clothing with sale items mixed with full-
price items. What if the discount clothes were in a different area? What if they were in an entirely different
location?

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© 2017 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved. Harvard Business School Publishing is an affiliate of Harvard Business School