A Oblique strategy tackles a problem from a different angle: a new perspective. I can use them to Observe how we are observing which is a good summation of the role of an Ontological coach. In their absence, physical prompts can also perturb me to think differently outside of my normal patterns of thought.
Get Unstuck and Get Going is a book which uses Oblique strategies in the form of 108 cards with a quote and related question. The idea is to randomly choose a number between 1–108 and act on the prompt found in that position. Randomness is the key to using oblique strategies in this manner.
I discovered the term came from cards used by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt during the mid-70’s. They used a set of cards to prompt the creative process.1 Ironically I got to the information from the Michael Bungay Stanier article Getting unstuck (3 prompts). I was looking for the now lost support materials for his book Get Unstuck and Get Going.
Oblique Strategies is an online version of Eno and Schmidt’s card system.