“Before thinking outside the box, perhaps you might make the box bigger.”
John Brooker
Understanding and widening the boundaries of a situation can help you to create more options and potentially, better solutions…
When I am facilitating workshops, I ask people what they want me to do to make the workshop outstanding. Someone will usually say, “Help us think outside the box”, i.e. facilitate the team to be more creative.
While “thinking outside the box” is a valid request, I like to respond, “Before you think outside the box, how might you make the make the box bigger?” This question usually produces puzzled looks and no wonder, as “think outside the box” derives from the old nine dot puzzle of how to connect all nine dots with a single unbroken line. No matter how big you make that box, you are still going to have to go outside the box to obtain a result.
To avoid confusion, let me explain that in my response, I mix box metaphors. My metaphorical box has six sides. It is a constricted thinking space people create in their mind because they:
- Apply “rules” that may not apply for this new situation, e.g., “HQ pay for training.”
- Make assumptions that may prove unfounded, e.g., “There is no budget for this.”
- Bring their biases and prejudices to the situation, e.g., “That level of staff could not be trusted to do that.”
- Allow their egos to impact upon the situation, e.g., “Only we can do that.”
- Take a narrow perspective on the situation, e.g., “Our cost centre can’t afford this.”
- Unnecessarily shorten their thinking time etc. e.g., “We have to decide now.”
These are not “bad” traits; even the most open-minded leader will let at least one of these issues influence their thinking now and again. If that includes you, be assured that, if you challenge these six issues and push back those metaphorical sides you can widen your thinking about an opportunity and so allow room for more options before you need to “think outside the box”.
Here’s an example of a client and I “enlarging the box” when we recently discussed a proposal for two linked innovation workshops. The client had an issue. He explained he only had the budget for the first workshop but knew the importance of the second workshop if the team were to achieve the outcome.
He assured me he was not negotiating but wanted to find a solution. By doing this he helped remove the ego implied in negotiating and made it a shared issue.
We could have agreed not to run the programme if we accepted the assumption that there was no way to pay for the second workshop, but the client really wanted to do it. We discussed what might happen if we ran the first workshop and see what happened, i.e. we took a wider perspective. It then occurred to the client, who had a better knowledge of the situation, that if we ran a successful first workshop and showed the benefit to the attendees, he could ask them to contribute to the cost of the second workshop, instead of the money coming solely from his budget.
In effect, he mentally changed the “rule” that he must pay for the whole programme. In case other managers would not contribute, we agreed to make the second workshop an option rather than a contractual requirement and we had a solution.
To make your box bigger:
- Challenge every rule that seems to stop you and ask if it is necessary
- Surface every assumption and question whether it is correct
- Ask yourself if your bias or prejudice is influencing your thinking
- Suppress your ego
- Think wider than your own discipline, department, organisation, etc.
- Use all the available time you have to think
That’s easy to say, but not always easy to do. So here are three (but not exhaustive) suggestions:
- Challenge yourself – just ask the question, “Might any of these issues be impacting on how I treat this opportunity?”
- Try the Disney Technique [click here for an article on this], to force yourself to find a different perspective.
- Involve in your thinking:
- At least one other person, but preferably a large number of other people to provide different perspectives
- People from a diverse background
- Experienced and naive people. Naive people, those who are not expert in your field, think from a different perspective. They question your rules, test your assumptions, challenge your prejudices, widen your boundaries and laugh at your ego-driven attitude so you can find a better solution.
In conclusion, consider that “thinking outside the box” can be a difficult concept for those people who have been schooled to think logically. As one said to me, “I am not creative.” If you help such people to “make the box bigger” by asking them to challenge the issues I have described, you provide them with a logical framework to be more creative and give them the encouragement to try other less logical tools and stimuli. Which can only help you to increase the innovative capability of your organisation
PS
I have been explaining here how you can create more options and find better solutions in the context of innovating. However, if you broaden your perspective, you will find these points are just as valid for making decisions.
John Brooker I Yes! And. Think Innovatively.
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About the Author
John Brooker is a former Senior Vice President and innovator in Visa. He is now the MD of Yes! And where he has worked internationally with multicultural teams since 2001. John has developed the Team Impetus Model, based on Solution Focus, to help teams develop strategies to achieve targets and resolve complex challenges. He has also developed his Inn8 Approach to help teams maximise opportunities innovatively. You can listen to clients discuss these approaches at our website, www.yesand.eu
John is an Open University MBA and tutored on the Creativity, Innovation and Change course for 14 years. He is a Board Member of the international Association for Solution Focused Consulting and Training.