Thinking Inside The Box

"You need to think outside of the box" has become the classic metaphor for pushing teams to find creative solutions to any variety of issues, workflows, strategies, or executions. A turn of this phrase is a common marching order from leaders across a variety of industries as a challenge to their staff to deliver the next big idea. Every job applicant brags about their ability to thrive outside of the proverbial box. So, can we to conclude that those who remain in the box are destined to find themselves with the same destiny as the dinosaurs? If extracting ourselves from the box is the great differentiator and now we are all out of the box... um, what really is the great differentiator?

The out of the box concept gained traction from psychologist J. P. Guilford, who, in the 1970s, conducted a study of creativity. The study utilized the now famous nine-dot puzzle that challenges the reader to connect all nine dots using just four straight lines without lifting their pencils. Today many people are familiar with this puzzle and its solution which requires the lines to be drawn literally outside of the box. Are the people who are capable of solving this puzzle some rare breed? Not really, they were still thinking in the box... they simply have a better grasp of the constraints. Out of the box would mean not following the rules and just drawing random shapes. The puzzle is still a box because it had constrains... 4 lines, 9 dots, don't lift the pencil. The best thinkers understand the entire box, all elements, the further most edges, and that all boxes are not necessarily square.

Regardless of where one looks to innovate, there are always a set of constraints... whether its the law, taxes, permits, gravity, or draw only four lines. Limitations need to be respected and are unavoidable. Otherwise, we may as well declare Bonnie and Clyde the greatest out of box thinkers and not Steve Jobs or Elon Musk. So, is your problem, or your company's problem, an inability to think out of the box or a lack of awareness of the entire box and its borders? The next time you think that something cannot be done, study the constraints. Are the constraints true barriers or simply orange cones to work around? As you work around the cones, you are still in the box, but getting closer to the edge.

Now go, and fully explore your box,

Any opinions expressed herein are strictly those of the author.