back to the drawing board

alternative back to the old drawing board

1. idiomaticIndicates that one must try a different strategy in order to achieve some goal following the failure of a recent attempt.

   Well, that didn't work at all, so it's back to the drawing board, I guess.

   5 more examples

   For such cases the only thing is to go back to the drawing board and do it better; and it is here that the highest qualities of vision and human leadership are needed.

   1958, The Engineer, volume 205, page 920

   If we head for lay up tomorrow, those plans are right down the toilet and it's back to the drawing board.

   1999, Mark L. Thompson, “Monday, October 28: Lake Michigan, Upbound”, in A Sailor’s Logbook: A Season Aboard Great Lakes Freighters (Great Lakes Books), Detroit, Mich.: Wayne State University Press, →ISBN, page 282

   Poverty is created by institutions, concepts, and policies. We need to go back to the drawing board to redesign these and remove the barriers.

   1999, Muhammad Yunus, “Opinion: Must There be Poverty?”, in Carolyn Dedolph, editor, Rice: Hunger or Hope?: IRRI 1998–1999, Makati City, Philippines: International Rice Research Institute, →ISBN, page 2

   Big business wants the main parties to go back to the drawing board on climate policy after the election to try to come up with an agreed plan for an economically efficient way to reduce Australia's emissions and offer investment certainty.

   2013 August 19, Lenore Taylor, “Go back to the drawing board on climate policy, business tells politicians”, in The Guardian

   “It’s become clear that in the current environment, ATEAC can’t function as we wanted. So we’re ending the council and going back to the drawing board,” a Google spokesperson told the Guardian in a statement on Thursday.

   2019 April 5, Sam Levin, “Google scraps AI ethics council after backlash: ‘Back to the drawing board’”, in The Guardian