Break Through - Think Your Way Out of the Box

If you do not know what the box looks like, how can you think outside of it?  What do you mean, “Think outside
the box”?  Do you want radically new ideas to revolutionize your business?  Really?  Or do you simply want to make
the existing box better?  Are there limits to the scope of the ideas?  

To begin you must define the context and expectations in which you operate.  That is, clarify the scope or
limitations of the vision for your business.  Without that context, you will discard many good ideas as not
relevant.  Many other ideas never even surface because they seem too small or too big.  

In other words, identify the characteristics of your box.  Your box defines the internal constraints and external
factors that influence your ability to innovate.

The six sides of the box include:

  1. Self-defined beliefs: includes your own abilities, limitations, desires, personality and goals.  Beliefs can be
    your biggest obstacle or a huge asset.  Do you ever tell yourself that you cannot do something new? Is there
    a rational reason why not?
  2. Life experiences: includes family values, culture, role models, challenges, successes and failures, and
    balance between work, family, and spirit.  Experiences program you to teach how you succeed and how you
    fail.  If you failed at something in the past, does it necessarily follow that you must fail at a new idea in
    the future?
  3. Education:  includes fields of formal study and the important informal lessons received along the way in
    your career and personal life.  This programming creates the context for you to evaluate and discern
    information.
  4. People around you: includes your family, peers, friends, executive leadership, and advisors, all have a
    great influence.  Ask them what they think about your new great idea or venture.  Some of them want to
    protect you while others want to control you.  Most of the time, they will tell you not to do it.  About whose
    interest are they most concerned?
  5. The company you operate: includes vision and mission, leadership style and management practices, roles
    and responsibilities, culture, and products and services.  Your business provides the context for operating
    in your current situation.  It also limits your ability to pursue new ideas.
  6. The external environment:  includes the industry, competition, customers, products and services, and
    government legislation.  All of these impose constraints and define the context for your vision.

You exist in multiple boxes at the same time.  There is a box for your whole company, and there is a unique box
for each individual in it.  If you are successful, then the characteristics of that company box are very similar for
you and every employee in your company.  In that case, your company’s culture is well aligned with your vision
and values.  Conversely, you may find many boxes with distinctly different characteristics.  There may be one for
each employee, each department, and the corporation overall.  How do you get such a group to collaborate, solve
problems, and generate new ideas that support your vision?  

Make no mistake: these boxes are very real.  They exert a profound influence on everything you and your
employees do.  When thinking about change, each individual’s box serves as a filter on the message you are
delivering.  That filter determines how they act and how they communicate with others.   To learn someone’s
unique perspective, you need to understand their box, or using a familiar expression, “put yourself in the other
person’s shoes”.  Why?  

Empowering people to produce meaningful and creative ideas and solutions requires seeing their perspective
from inside their box.  This perspective enables you to:  

o        avoid underestimating the impact of any change on each of them;
o        learn how best to communicate to get them aligned with your vision quickly;
o        avoid frustration by their apparent inability to “think outside the box”.

Is your goal to improve your existing processes, rather than generating something completely new?  Then
examining the existing box is critical.  If you do not know the characteristics of the existing box, then how do you
measure the advancement of the design of the new box?  

Is your goal to create something completely new?  Then you will not be relying much on existing systems or
processes.  Your purpose in examining the existing box is a little different.  You will be most interested in the
capabilities of the people and the organization to adapt to and lead radical change.  

Each individual’s critical thinking style determines his or her ability to re-shape or step out of the box. These
critical thinking styles are:  a) literal, or adaptive thinkers, and b) conceptual, or innovative thinkers.  

Literal thinkers will want to know the exact size, shape and color of the box.  Then they will want to create a plan
or method to think outside of it.  For them, the process for managing the thinking and focusing the creative
activity is paramount.  Literal thinkers help to validate new concepts against current realities.  

Conceptual thinkers on the other hand will start by ignoring the current state and jump forward to their vision of
the future.  Conceptual thinkers help you stretch far away from the existing box to enable meaningful innovation.

What is your style?  If you are a literal thinker, you may be tempted to discount ideas immediately as hare-
brained ideas.  You need both styles of thinking and you must use them together.  Analyze the framework and
six sides of your own box and your critical thinking style.  Then you will understand the filters that you will be
using to evaluate others’ ideas and perspectives.   

Charles Handy said, “You have to stand outside the box to see how the box can be re-designed.”  What is the
shape of your box?  Is it holding you back from your vision?  Think your way out of it, and break through.


Patrick Smyth is a trusted business advisor and mentor.  He improves business performance through effective
advice on change management, leadership, management, and marketing.  His focus on business outcomes,
growth, strategic planning, objective setting, team building, and communications builds sustainable productivity
and growth. www.innovationhabitude.com
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