I’ve been obsessed this summer with the idea of flips. A flip is the moment when the intent and context of something changes to have the opposite impact.
The idea first started with the new red dice in the game of Monopoly. They call it the speed dice which helps move what could be a many hours game along. The premise is you can roll the dice and it gives you a series of move options. If you roll Mr. Monopoly, you get to move the number spaces rolled on the other two die AND THEN move to the next available property. Once all the properties are purchased, rolling Mr. Monopoly then sends you to the first property NOT owned by you so you have to pay rent.
This rule is actually quite a startling metaphor for many things in our lives. For the entire first part of the game, you want to role Mr. Monopoly to accumulate more properties. Then, somewhere along the game, once all the properties are gone, it’s value completely changes from creation to destruction. You now need to pay on the property you land on that’s not yours.
There are so many analogous situations in life.
- Spend your entire life saving and contributing to a retirement savings plan, but once you hit a certain age or if you have to start taking it out, you get hit with tax bills if you didn’t understand there were penalties for saving so much.
- Start Ups are another great example. Operating models that work when they’re small, will hurt them when they grow. Changing the ways in which work is done and valued is critical.
- ….
There are many other examples of flips. More to come on this topic.
The Objective Co 