It's time to stop thinking out of the box

Think out of the box!

That is probably one of the most overused clichés that always gets uttered by that annoying colleague who appears too excited with just about anything, or that frustrated boss, Jerry who paid two large pizzas for this unproductive brainstorming session.

This phrase is unhelpful at best and accusatory at worst. It sounds like a command for you half-wits to get your act together and materialize a unicorn. However, asking someone to think out of the box is like asking an angry person to calm down. Never in the history of asking someone to calm down has anyone ever calmed down. In a similar manner, asking someone to think outside of the box does not help them think outside of the box.

Origins of the term

What is this box? Why are we supposedly inside it? Why do we need to think out of it?

Turns out, this “box” is one of those clever metaphors used by management consultants and executive coaches back in the 70’s and 80’s. It’s supposed to describe thinking behind solving the nine dots puzzle.

The goal is to draw through all nine dots using only four lines. You can try to answer the puzzle before proceeding. If you want to see the solution, you can find it here.

It’s impossible to solve the problem unless you draw the lines beyond the perceived square made by the dots. You terminate your lines at invisible points outside the box where no dots exist. That’s why its called “outside the box.”

Get it, “outside the box?”

Sigh. 🙄

Unsurprisingly, a study found out that telling the solvers to think out of the box didn’t really help them solve the puzzle faster. You know what did? Telling people they can draw outside the dots.

Unhelpful metaphors

Ever since the 70’s and 80’s when those slick consultants managed to convince us about merits of our thoughts “outside the box,” the phrase has burrowed deeper and deeper into the caverns of corporate-speak. It made its way through the decades and now used by directors, managers and annoying colleagues in areas where creativity is constantly expected or encouraged.

The box was once an analogy for self-imposed restrictions as a result of assumptions and biases. It was meant to be insightful (which I argue wasn’t) but its use and definitions has evolved over time. Now, it can be anything from tangible restrictions like deadlines and budget cuts to arbitrary criteria like novelty or whatever the boss demands the box to be. Good luck thinking your way out of that deadline next week.

Thinking out of the box is obstructive. It doesn’t help us see things differently. Its definition is inconsistent. Rather than aiding the generation of ideas, it has become no more than an irritating expression only meant to make the speaker feel clever (and Jerry continues to wonder why those brainstorming sessions aren’t working).

Throw the box away

We have been taught that logic and creativity are mutually exclusive, controlled by the left and right hemispheres respectively. Turns out, this is just another pervasive myth. So why then shouldn’t we be allowed to methodically approach creativity?

When brainstorming, we are supposed to come up with novel ideas. Creativity, by its nature requires originality. So anything that has been done before is not creative, right? And if so, we can assume that all non-creative things belong to this category called the ‘norm.’

The word ‘norm’ may mean different things, like average or usual. But most of the time, the norm is the standard. It is how things have always been done. By this mindset, we can consider the norm as the antithesis of originality. So instead of mindlessly throwing ideas and see what sticks to the wall during brainstorming sessions, wouldn’t it be better to create a target? Let the norm be your target, then start attacking it.

Indulge me for a bit here. Let’s say you are in the furniture business. What is the norm for furnitures? Company assembles furniture and sells it to the customer. And for the longest time, furniture companies did this and never changed anything. They just couldn’t chair less. In the end, it doesn’t mattress, right? (Sorry for the pun. I couldn’t help it.)

But during the 50’s, a company sought to challenge that age-old norm. Everyone who heard them must have thought they were nuts. They asked themselves: “What if we let the customers assemble the furniture themselves instead?”

That company went on to become IKEA.

Logical creativity

Ironically, we have been artificially constraining ourselves (thinking inside the box, if you will) when it comes to creativity. We assumed we cannot approach it logically and that all creative process has to be a mess. That’s why most brainstorming sessions are just what they are: storms. Everything goes and there’s always that one person who just won’t stop talking. The only thing these sessions ever achieve is waste everyone’s time.

Targeting the norm is just one way to produce creative ideas. There are also other systematic approaches to creativity. Approaching things methodically give us the advantage of a repeatable framework. We need something that we can constantly replicate. Generation of new ideas shouldn’t be like catching lightning in a bottle, or a game of “throw everything you’ve got and see what sticks on the wall.” It should be like mining gold, a series of steps that involve scouting, extraction and refinement (more on that on an upcoming post).

We can definitely produce imaginative ideas without the need to involve boxes. So get rid of that quadrilateral nonsense. Boxes belong to the recycling center and you’re better off without it.